can't print wirelessly to home network printer

[SilasH]

Tried everything that I know, but can't print wirelessly to home network printer from IBM Thinkpad laptop. Using Belkin wireless router that indicates "Excellent" signal strength all over 3000 sq ft home. Can't print over network from any word processors on the laptop nor from Notepad on the laptop. CAN print all of that from laptop when same printer (Brother HL660) is connected by cable to laptop. Have successfully run Network Wizard on laptop to setup "printer" sharing. Both computers are running Windows XP Pro, SP2. Laptop runs McAfee virus protection; desktop runs PC-Cillin.

The standalone desktop is a Compaq Presario. When run Network Wizard on desktop and try to setup "printer sharing" I get the error message "Printer setting could not be saved. Operation could not be completed."

The Windows Firewall on each computers is set to allow printer sharing. Both printers are set on LPT1. Drivers installed on both computers show "yes" for "Windows 2000 or XP." Clues anybody? Thanks!

 

[MzKitty]

This probably a stupid question, but did you go into the printer properties and set it to be a shared printer? If you did, then when you go My Network Places and you open up the network, you should be able to see the share to the printer. If you can see it, then when you go to add a printer, a network printer, you should see it and be able to set it up.

 

[gadget3302]

Did the printer install at all on the laptop??
If so are they the correct drivers? If all the drivers look okay, I would try un-installing the printer from both computers completely. Let your compaq connect and install the printer with print sharing, then install it on the laptop again. You may also want to try a print server. Very usefull if you do not leave your pc's on all of the time. They are not to expensive.

 

[SilasH]

Thanks both of you for your suggestions. I've been traveling and just getting back to this problem which remains. Yes, I had done all of the things that that both of you mentioned but can still not print wirelessly over my home network. It irks me that I may have to buy a print server when wireless printing should work. THE issue seems to be that when I try to set "share printer" on the printer cabled to the Compaq, I get an error message: "Setting can not be saved. Can not complete this operation." Any other ideas? Anybody? Thanks much!

 

[dodge20]

from your laptop go to start-->run and type
\\computername

This will connect you to the computer with the printer and if it is shared will be added to your list of printers.

Dodge20

 

[SilasH]

Thanks for the suggestion. Tried it. No go. Error response: "Network path not found." I tried all kinds of remedies yesterday. Nothing worked. The laptop can not see the desktop and vice versa. Finally got the desktop to accept the command "Share Printers." Also set share printer on laptop without problem. But can not print over the network. Reviewed and restarted all "Services" on desktop as a precaution. Uninstalled both Ad-Aware and Spybot from desktop in assumption that they might be a/the cause of intererence. Still no go.

From the desktop, when I try to add the laptop to the home network using the Wizard's USB drive method, I get the error that setup failed. I have no clue what to do but surrender. I can connect wirelessly with ease from anywhere in my house--even outside. I now THINK the root of the problem is my initial setup process. I installed a Belkin wireless router. It allows me to connect to my DSL from the laptop but apparently does NOT provide the wireless network that I thought I had achieved. I can connect but can not "network." I have no time and am in no mood to unstall the Belkin and start over--unless somebody will clearly, simply, explain what to do in a "start over."
Anybody follow all of this? Thanks for any help! I try anything at this point.

 

[MzKitty]

Are both computers using the same Belkin router? I have a desktop and 2 wireless laptops and the desktop must be plugged into the same router that the wireless laptops are using in order to let them share my printer. I assume that you have gone into the properties on your "C" drive and set up sharing on all computers, so if you go to neighborhood network, you can see all the computers on your network. On your laptop, go to the cmd prompt and type in ipconfig. This will show your ip address; write it down and go to the other pc. At the cmd prompt type in ping (and the ip address that you wrote down). If your networking is working then you will see a reply from the other PC; if it's not then you will see a timeout message.

Good Luck
Cathy
covcat@riverstonegrp.com

 

[Stex]

I've been having the same problem and this thread lead me to the solution.

from your laptop go to start-->run and type
\\the internal ip of your main computer (192.168.2.*)

Everything happened as dodge 20 then said.

 

[stephen4791]

make sure you have the "server" service started.
mine was disabled, then i made it automatic & started and the same error message for me worked