auto exec & net start??

[Ares]

I'm working on an old 98 machine that has the following line running in it's autoexec.bat :

rem - By Windows 98 Network - c:\net start

What exactly is this doing??
I've never tampered around with an auto exec before, and it seems this pc is a little screwy. I need to get it running properly. Anyway, this line was working fine before... i installed something onto the pc that wrote to auto exec, and now the autoexec is messed up. That line above isnt working now and the end result is the pc isn't able to get online.

Need some info on what this line is doing in laymans terms.

[bla!!]

NET START is the command to start a service in windows. Say for example you had the Messenger service stopped. If you go to your command prompt and type NET START messenger.sys it would start the messenger service.

The opposite command is NET STOP

[office politics]

FWIW, the 'rem' statement tells the batch file to ignore this statement. If I remember correctly rem is short for remark.

I think windows has modified the line because you either removed a network connection or modified the windows logon property.

[Ares]

Hmm. Well i did figure out what bla!! was saying after i looked into it more. The thing that i'm really curious about is this:

The computer previously had one line in it's autoexec which was rem - By Windows 98 Network - c:\net start

I installed a program, which wrote to the autoexec. This caused problems, and the program wouldnt work (it was an antivirus program which is obviously not going to work on this OLD unit). So i deleted the program, the line stayed. I haven't been able to get rid of the line.

Once this happened, the pc was unable to get online.

I rewrote the same line again (the rem - windows network - net start) and once i did that i was able to connect.

Somehow i need to clean out this auto exec. Whatever this line is, it is what is allowing the computer to get online via my cable modem.

I don't know much about networking with 98 and how it communicates with ethernet modems/adapters. It's not like later versions of windows (which were built after the ethernet became common place).

I don't know what else to do with this old pc. I managed to get it working again so that it gets online but the autoexec is a mess now. It gives me tons of weird messages when it boots up like TSHOOT: On ERROR PAUSE, and some other things.