I had a similar set up with 98SE and a JetDirect 170x which said HP but think it was made by 3Com as it matches my OfficeConnect products. I had 3 PCs on the home network but I had to use all static IP addressing and not set my router to distribute addresses. Occasionally my printer HP LJ1000 would go to sleep and I would have to turn it off and back on. Otherwise, it worked well. HP does have updated JetAdmin software for printer discovery and configuration. I am guessing you are using 3.42.