Windows 2000 Printer Sharing

[rodneyws]

Is it possible to share a printer on a Windows 2000 Professional PC to be accessed by another Windows 2000 Professional client?

Before reading any further I need to sress that a Windows domain or domain controller is NOT involved in this scenario in any way... just 2 client PCs running Win2k Professional.

When I share a printer and connect to it, the appropriate drivers (I've duplicated this with several makes/models of printers) are copied over and a connection to the printer is established. At this point the client PC can print successfully to the shared printer. However, when the client PC reboots, connectivity to the printer is lost and a message is displayed "Access Denied, Unable to Connect"

Any thoughts or sugguestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jimp56]

quick answer: yes you can
it should be persistent after the reboot. have you set the permissions on the shared printer the same as you would a shared folder?

 

[rodneyws]

Yes, to the best of my abilities. Because a domain is not present, shouldn't the "everyone" group be adequate? Something is definitely amiss.

 

[wolluf]

Do the user accounts on the client machine exist on the printer host machine? (ie, same username & password) - if not, making it so may sort the problem. Do users on the client machine get prompted for username/password when it does work?

 

[rodneyws]

Sadly, both PCs in question login as "user" (an account with administrative rights) and a blank password. The users on the client machine will be able to print (without error or password prompt) until the client PC reboots. At that point they will receive the messsage "access denied - unable to connect

 

[wolluf]

You could try enabling the guest account on the machine hosting the printer (this makes its shares available to 'everyone', but its considered a security risk if the machine is on the internet).

 

[rodneyws]

I believe I will try that. Thanks!