Windows File & Print sharing
 

I've just spent ages trying to sort out printing on my network.
I have 2 PC's and a Laptop.
PC1 is connected to a printer on LPT1. This PC runs on Win98SE.
All systems connect to the Internet fine thruogh my wired ethernet router.

So, I want to get the laptop (WinXP Pro) to print on the printer located upstairs.
I've looked at the useful guides on here and can ping both machines.
I then went to my PC and found my printer, right clicked it and selected sharing.
Then I went to my Laptop and opened up printers folder, and selected to make a new printer. I followed it through and it found my PC, then my printer.
For some reason it had nothing wirtten in the location bit, but WinXP told me it had all finished OK.

Right, So I go and open up Word and attempt to print out a page, making sure the new printer is selected. It hangs for ages and then the program stops responding. Nothing prints.
I've tried printing with another application, same problem.

So I wonder what is going on there.
Then another thing thats happened is that although I can ping the laptop, when I attempt to access and click on it, it is prompting me for a password. Ive tried my login password for windows and it doesnt seem to be it.
Plus Im logged in as administrator.

I've tried playing around with the firewalls and have added the laptops IP address to zonealarms safe list on the PC and also enabled file and print sharing in Windows Firewall on the laptop.

Anyone know what Im doing wrong.

Thankyou for any help you can give me.


Halcyon.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

If you have a spare ethernet socket buy a print server it will make life so simple.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Ah well yes that would be ideal, but its not an option at the moment unfortunately.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

try printing with the firewall disabled see if that makes a difference

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

ok, on the Win98SE machine, when you boot up, does it ask you for a username and password?
If it does, make sure this is the same as your XP one.
If it doesn't, do a search for *.pwl and reboot.
You should then be asked for a username and password by Win98, put in the same as your XP account.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Few things to check / rule out.

Both PC and Lappy are on the same Workgroup

When you shared the Printer, you allowed everyone access.

Your Lappy has Win XP drivers loaded, not Win 98 ones.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

It used to ask me for a password but I no longer have it booting up this way. It goes straight into Windows.
on the laptop with XP there is a logon however with password. I am logged in as administtrator.
Do I need to have a password ?



They may not be on the same workgroup. I'l have to check that. I'm not too sure how to get them into the same work group, however I know I can access files on my PC from the laptop when I place a folder as shared.
I believe the laptop has the printer drivers for XP for that printer as I've installed them with the CD.

Thanks for all your replies. I'l give it another go tommorow.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Press the Windows key & the Pause/Break key (next to scroll lock and Print Screen keys) simultaneously, then select the Network Identification tab and you can enter the details of the Workgroup in here (at least that's how I remember it... I'm doing this blindly cause I'm not at a Windows box right now ;) ). Although if you can copy files across machines, then I'd suspect you've already done this correctly.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Ok, well I've managed to get both machines on the the same workgroup "shuttle1".
I can share files no problems there.
As for printing, its still not working.
I've got my printer on my Windows 98SE machine connected and set to sharing. The little hand is underneath it.

Then on the laptop, I've done the add printer wizard and found it on the "shuttle1" network under the Win 98 PC.
It says its all done. When I right click the printer and look at properties it says its on a Win95 machine for some reason.
It also doesnt seem to show the printer location.

As before whenever I select to print to that printer from the laptop it stalls and does nothing, then says document has been sent to print, and then the program crashes. The document doesnt print. I've printing from several different programs in XP and making sure that this printer was selcted.

I cant work this one out. Its driving me crazy.

Many thanks for your help so far in this mad mystery.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

You could for now save what you want printing and transfer it across network to pc attatched to printer and print from there.Will do for now ill it not? After all you will have to walk to printer to get docs ;)

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Yeah I guess that's true, I hadnt thought of that.
Thanks.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Are the machines using the actual printer manufacturers drivers or the MS version of them.
Its a long time since I played with 98 but I have a vague recollection that a mate of mine had similar problems with an HP Deskjet that I think we cured by installing the HP drivers.
Worth a try at this stage ;)

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Like Stu038 says, I think I'd have a look at the drivers... if the application you're printing from is crashing, then it would suggest a software problem, as opposed to the laptop not even 'seeing' the printer.

Just out of curiosity, what are you printing from? Also, what happens if you print a test page - does that crash too?

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

Continuing on the driver side of things, when I set mine up iirc the client PCs (both XP Pro and home ) downloaded the driver from the server (Server 2K) rather than using their own.

If your using the MS drivers on your 98 machine and they, MS, just fiddled with the 95 drivers instead of writing new ones from scratch that may be why the XP machine is reporting seeing a Win 95 machine.

Re: Windows File & Print sharing
 

I had exactly the same problem (different Windows versions though) when I shared my printer, printing icon appeared in the task bar and that was it.

I had to go into the Client PC's Printer "Properties/Advanced/Print Processor" printer settings and choose an alternative setting, in my case I changed the Print Processor from BrPrint to WinPrint and in the adjacent window I changed the default to NT EMF 1.008 (not knowing what I was doing) and everything worked perfectly from then on.