Print Server networking problem with XP

[barrpeople]

I have networked 10 PC's with a mix of Win98, ME, NT and XP operating systems and in general this works fine, all PC's seeing each other and sharing files etc.

I then introduced a D-Link 301P+ print server to enable me to share an ink jet printer between the networked PC's.

The problem is that the Win 98, Win ME, and Win NT machines all see the print server on the network but the XP machines refuse to recognise its existence. Pinging from an XP machine returns no lost data but does not acknowledge the server exists. Is this another XP problem or am I doing something silly here?

I have tried installing the print server on the XP machines as a "local" printer on a TCP/IP port which is what XP advises me to do. However, the print server installs easily as a "network printer" under Win 98,ME and NT. How is that for non-compatibility.

I have had a look to see if the XP machines are firewalled but they appear not. All the networked machines can talk to the internet through a switch and ISDN router - each PC has IP addressing and DNS addressing set up and all this works fine.

So I have a real dilemma here. Could it be Microsoft putting limitations on home networking so that we are forced into buying their expensive server software?

Any help here would be appreciated.

Regards

Dave Barr - School IT Co-ordinator

 

[scholar24]

Dve- found the forum I would just keep trying different configurations, are all the correct protocols installed, have you e-mailed microsoft? I'm sure there is a solution. I'll let you know if I find anything.

Tom Caldwell
NexusSoft Consulting

 

[barrpeople]

Hi Tom and whoever might read this.

I have now resolved the cause of this problem. It seems that the XP machines required the print server to have an IP address that falls within the default router IP address configuration provided by my ISP. I was just using the default print server IP address where this address was way different to the ISP default that I had as set for TCP/IP.

My confusion on this was that Windows 98, ME and NT could handled the printer server default and different TCP/IP default ISP addresses that I had set up but XP couldn't hack it!

I changed the print server IP address so that the first second and third address triplets matched the ISP default of the router and changed the fourth triplet to the next available workstation IP address. Pinging this new server address provided instant recognition and the test page printed OK..now we're smoking.

I then had to change IP addresses on all the Win98,ME and NT machines so that the XP machines could join the fun.

This still begs a serious question, why XP cannot behave like 98, ME and NT when configuring a simple home network? I believe that XP is not as good as its predecessor products although MS want us to believe otherwise.

Regards

Dave Barr

 

[Deke99]

If you are using XP Home edition then give up. the Home edition just does not network properly and I believe is limited to a peer-to-peer network. I ran into the same problem and it was the Home edition. In fact I have about the same setup as you do except no XP at all.
If using XP Pro then I dont have the info you need sorry The Dekeman