Basics on sharing an HP printer across a network between XP and w2k

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dale
  • Start date Start date
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Dale

I have an HP Deskjet 960c connected via USB to desktop running XP Home
edition. I want to print to it from another desktop on my network
running windows 2000 professional.
1) On the XP machine I go to the Printers and faxes page and
right-click on the 960c and then on sharing.
2) I choose "Share this printer" and give it a name.
3) I go to the windows 2000 machine and choose "Add Printer"
4) I choose network printer and browse to the shared printer. I click
Next>

I get a message saying the server on which the HP 960c printer resides
does not have the correct driver. Click OK to install the driver on
the local machine

5) I click OK and it asks me to enter the path to the driver....

uh, er, what? Who knows where the heck the CD is so I go to HP.com and
download the drivers for the HP960c, which it appears the same driver
for the XP and w2k. This gives me an executable. I fire that up and
the ensuing wizard tells me to connect the printer, which it is, then
says "is it on the parallel port or the USB port cause I can't find
it." So I give up on that route and go back to step 5 and navigate to
the newely created directory tree containing some *.inf files. I get
the message Windows cannot find the drivers.

6) I go back to the sharing dialog on the XP machine and click
"additional drivers..." and there's the dreaded "enter path to driver"
message. Back to hp.com and nothing I try satisfies its hunger.

I long for the good old days of postscript printers and UNIX
networks...

Can anyone guide me in the right direction?

Thanks,
 
Dale said:
I have an HP Deskjet 960c connected via USB to desktop running XP Home
edition. I want to print to it from another desktop on my network
running windows 2000 professional.
1) On the XP machine I go to the Printers and faxes page and
right-click on the 960c and then on sharing.
2) I choose "Share this printer" and give it a name.
3) I go to the windows 2000 machine and choose "Add Printer"
4) I choose network printer and browse to the shared printer. I click
Next>

I get a message saying the server on which the HP 960c printer resides
does not have the correct driver. Click OK to install the driver on
the local machine

5) I click OK and it asks me to enter the path to the driver....

uh, er, what? Who knows where the heck the CD is so I go to HP.com and
download the drivers for the HP960c, which it appears the same driver
for the XP and w2k. This gives me an executable. I fire that up and
the ensuing wizard tells me to connect the printer, which it is, then
says "is it on the parallel port or the USB port cause I can't find
it." So I give up on that route and go back to step 5 and navigate to
the newely created directory tree containing some *.inf files. I get
the message Windows cannot find the drivers.

6) I go back to the sharing dialog on the XP machine and click
"additional drivers..." and there's the dreaded "enter path to driver"
message. Back to hp.com and nothing I try satisfies its hunger.

I long for the good old days of postscript printers and UNIX
networks...

Can anyone guide me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

If you long for the good old days of Unix and postscript printers
then perhaps you should use Unix and postscript printers. They
will probably be a lot more expensive, but so what?

You need to distinguish between "Installation Program" (i.e. an
executable file) and "Driver" (a set of files for a hardware device).
The prompt you saw asked for the location of the drivers, yet you
ran the Installation program. A more appropriate response would
be to enter the location where you placed the driver files. If you
download and execute the file 960-enu-2kinfu.exe then you will
get a folder "2kxpinf" in your current location. Deep inside are
the driver files. This is the location you must specify.
 
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