Networking a printer

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Guest

I have a wireless network with two PC's. The first, which is running Windows
XP Professional, is connected to an HP1100 Deskjet by wire. I want to
connect the other PC, which is running Windows XP Home. I have followed
Jerry Honeycutt's instructions although I have also supplied a printer share
name. All seems to go well until it comes to the second computer, which
can't seem to find the printer. I go to Control Panel, click Printers and
Other Hardware, click Add a Printer, and then arrive at the panel titled
"Specify a Printer." If I simply hit browse, I get "Microsoft Windows
Network" in the panel but no printers. Another options are "connect to this
printer" and an example of the specification is \\server\printer. I have
tried this substituting the printer share name for "printer" =
\\server\sharename, and also simply\\sharename, but no luck. A third option
is giving the URL for the printer but I can't figure it out.
I don't think I have firewall problems since both computers have XP
firewalls that are set to allow networking. What to do?
Thanks.
 
Dear Cari, Thanks for trying to help. I've adjusted the setting under
"computer name" so both now have the same workgroup name. This doesn't seem
to have changed anything. Computer #2 still doesn't find the printer on
computer #1 and although I've tried various settings for
\\computer\sharename so far no luck. If you have any other ideas, please let
me know.

Again thanks. Alan
 
Do the two PCs actually 'see' each other? Did you reboot each, after
resettng the Workgroup names?
 
Dear Cari, The two computers now see each other and have been rebooted
several times, but when I try to select a printer for computer #2 it sees
computer #1 but not the printer attached to computer #1. So far, all
attempts to get it to recognize the printer have been futile. For the life
of me, I can't determine what element is missing.

Any help you can offer will be very much appreciated.
 
It is not required that workgroup names match to share files or printers.
This just groups them for network browsing purposes.

XP Pro in a workgroup setting normally uses simple file sharing and, if so,
the guest account must be enabled. To make sure, run this command on the
Pro machine net user guest /active:yes
If (for some reason) you do not use simple file sharing, you must create a
user on the Pro machine exactly matching the user name and password of the
home machine user.
(Simple file sharing is turned on or off on a Pro machine in Control Panel /
Folder Options / View Tab / (last item in list) )

If the above doesn't resolve the situation, open a command prompt on the XP
HOME PC. Type
net use \\server\printer What result or error code is reported?
 
Dear GTS, thanks for your suggestion. I checked it out and filing sharing is
enabled. I did some other checking and finally got the printer working.
Seems that I didn't tweak my firewall as much as I should have.

Best, Alan
 
Did you remember to share the printer? In the Control Panel, doubleclick
Printers & Faxes, right click the printer and select Properties..... under
the Sharing tab, remember to set it to be shared.
 
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