need help sharing printer please

[millhouselives]

Hi,

Trying to help my brother share printer on his small home network.
The equipment is as follows:

One HP Laserjet 1320
One Sony Vaio Laptop with XP home
One Dell desktop with Windows 98SE
One Linksys wireless router Model BEFW11S4

Both computers are hardwired via CAT5 to the router. We are not concerned at this point with wireless. Both computers can connect to the Internet.

What we would like to do is be able to print to the HP Laserjet 1320 from the two computers.

Right now the HPLasejet 1320 printer is connected to the desktop using a parallel cable. The desktop is Win98SE.

When we try and get the laptop to add the printer
by using the add printer option we get as far as the laptop finding the "Microsoft Network" but then when click on that it does not fine printer.

Now from the laptop (XP home) I can ping both the router and the desktop, from the desktop I can ping the router but NOT the laptop.

So the only we we can print to the HP is by using a USB cable from the HP printer to the laptop..it then finds printer and will print. We could live with this solution, but when we do this for some reason the Win98SE desktop then loses its abiltiy to print to the HP printer.

I do have file and print sharing on both computers turned on.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thank You.

 

[wolluf]

First obvious question - you have shared the printer on the 98 machine? And can you see this share browsing my network places on the XP machine?

Both machines are in same workgroup?

The HP printer doesn't have any special instructions for sharing? (9 or 10 years ago we had an epson printer that did - wouldn't expct it now, but...)

 

[millhouselives]

The printer is shared on the Win98 desktop. No we cannot see the printer share browsing my network places on the XP machine. Yes both computers are in same workgroup. Didn't check into "special instructions" for HP but I will.

 

[GrnEyedLdy]

No Network Interface on the printer? (prob not or you would have already solved this issue).

Does the 98 machine have File and Print sharing enabled?

Patty

 

[millhouselives]

thanks GrnEyedLdy..but no network interface on the printer, and yes 98 machine has file and print sharing enabled. Still looking for answers on this one.

 

[wolluf]

Can you see shared drive/folders on the 98 machine from the XP machine? Does the 98 machine actually appear in My network places on the XP machine?

You are using normal functionality for the router - ie, router is only external IP address, acts as DHCP server allocating internal IP addresses (192.168.x.x usually) to other machines?

What happens if you type \\ipaddress\printersharename in a run box on XP machine?

 

[millhouselives]

Thanks wolluf for reply. No cannot see shared folders on the XP computer from the Win98 computer. (and I made sure that the C:\drive on the XP computer was shared!) Not sure if I can remember or not seeing shared drive/folders on the 98 machine from the XP machine. I will check this on my next visit which will be either Monday or Tuesday. The 98 machine does not actually appear in My network places on the XP machine, As far as I know the router is set up with factory defaults except for password. router address is 192.168.1.1 and computers are 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101.

Have not tried typing \\ipaddress\printersharename in a run box on XP machine but will put this on list of things to check when I go back to my brothers.

 

[wolluf]

Think you might need an entry in the lmhosts file on the XP machine (\windows\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts.sam) tying the 98 machine's IP address to its network name (as name doesn't appear to be being resolved automatically). Someone with more networking expertise than me could advise with more certainty! (eg, bcastner).

Or my favourite trick with 98 networking - remove and reinstall it! (when I still used 98 in anger (often!), this cured 99% of all known networking problems)

 

[pcdoc4christ]

One possibility: The built-in firewall in Windows XP may be on. If it is, turning it off, or reconfiguring it to not block specific ports, may do the trick. Check out this link:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q298/8/04.ASP&NoWebContent=1

Hope that helps,
Doc


======================================

"Freely you have received, freely give." --Jesus

pcdoc4christ@yahoo.com

 

[pcdoc4christ]

This link may also help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308127

======================================

"Freely you have received, freely give." --Jesus

pcdoc4christ@yahoo.com

 

[millhouselives]

HI..have not given up on this..I just have not had time to get to my brothers, but will do so this weekend. Then I will let you all know what happens.

 

[millhouselives]

Ok, here are results of my visit..sorry it took a while but my brother’s kids were sick.
I did turn on sharing for the C: drive on the XP coming before I started testing.
For testing only...I turned off both XP firewall and his Norton firewall.
I took all of your suggestions and made a list of them to check while at my brothers.

• Both computers are in the same workgroup!

• No special instructions are needed for sharing the HP printer.

• Both computers have "print and file sharing enabled".

• There is no NIC card in the printer.

• The printer drivers have been deleted and re-installed on both computers.

• The printer icon is in the printer folders on each computer, and is marked as shared and as the default printer.

• I can you see the shared C:\drive and shared folders on the 98 machine from the XP machine.

• I can you see the shared C:\drive and shared folders on the XP machine from the 98 machine. (I know in an earlier post that I said I could not see shared c; \ on xp computer, but after rebooting we could.)

• I can see the XP computer on the Win98 computer in "My Network Places.

• I can see the Win 98 computer on the XP computer in "My Network Places.

• The Linksys router is using default settings. IP address of gateway is 192.168.1.1 The computers are 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.101

• When I typed in \\192.168.1.100\hpprinter in run box on XP machine, I could see the shared drive and printer on the Win98 computer, and when I typed in \\192.168.1.101 in the run box on the 98 computer I could see the shared drives and printer on the XP computer.

• ICF is disabled on both computers.

• The browse master is the XP laptop and browse master service is turned off on the Win 98 computer.

Now at one point, when I was on the XP computer in the printer folder where I could see the shared HP printer on the win 98 computer, I was able to right click on the HP printer shared icon, went to properties and was able to click on “print test page” and it printed out. Right after that I opened notebook, type in just one line and clicked on print. Almost immediately on the lower right hand side of the screen I received an error saying printer can not be found..cannot print, etc. The document was still showing in print q, so I deleted it and then tried the “print test page” and that now would not print either, it too was stuck in q. Tried rebooting and tried again and no luck.

So anyway at this point I am about to give up, but I have one more thing that I am going to try on my next visit. I am going to disconnect the printer from the win98 computer (it is hardwired via parrell cable) and then I am going to connect the printer via a USB cable to the XP laptop. Then I will see if I can print from the Win 98 computer using the shared printer. Most likely will not get to do this until early next week.