I have been unable to resolve why either machine can't ping each other.

these machines are isolated from any other network, all that connect them is a crossover cable. the first machine is a windows server, the second machine has fedora core 2 OS.

I set their IP addresses to 192.168.1.1 , and 192.168.1.2 with netmask of 255.255.255.0. both machines ping loopback 127.0.0.1 and their respective IP's 192.168.1.x. However when pinging each other I get icmp error host unreachable.

I've tried setting a gateway but that didn't work, since they aren't going to other networks I shouldn't need a gateway

I know the ethernet and cable is good because I can boot the linux box into windows and transfer files/ping.

any idea, or of the files I need to look at

are you running a firewall on either box?

so you can go windows to windows? meaning the linux box also has windows? samba?