OK. I think we're getting somewhere.
First, have you shared a folder on the Windows XP computer and been able to
successfully connect to that share and access files there from the Windows
2000 computer? If that doesn't work, it's usually futile to fuss about
using a shared printer until it does work.
With XP Home, unlike Windows 2000, there is a simplified security scheme for
sharing things. Generally, any user on another computer has permission to
print on any printer on the XP Home computer.
It is not possible to network SOME models of HP DeskJets (and some printer
models form other vendors) because the printer driver requires continuous
two way communication with the printer, which is not possible with network
printing. If you state what model of HP DeskJet you actually have, I can
probably determine if yours is one of those nasty models or not.
In any case, with MOST HP DeskJets (and some models from other vendors) it
is impossible to install the printer as what Windows 2000 and XP call
"Network Printers". Instead, you have to use the technique described at
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/NetPrinterNoPP.htm.
In your case, since you already have a "printer" for your physical print
device installed on your Windows 2000 computer, you might try doing the
following (on the Windows 2000 computer), which is a slight variation on the
instructions at the above page:
1. Open the Printers folder (Start, Settings, right click Printers, select
Explore)
2. click File, Server Properties
3. select the Ports tab
4. click the Add Port... button
5. select Local Port and click New Port...
6. key the UNC name of the printer shared from the Windows XP computer. A
UNC name has this format:
\\computername\sharename
Note that sharename is not necessarily the same as the Printer Name - on
the XP computer, this is the name in the Share name: text box on the
printer's Properties, Sharing tab.
7. click OK
8. click Close
9. click Close (to close the Print Server Properties dialog box)
10. right click on the printer that you originally installed on the Windows
2000 computer before you had the XP computer - this printer is most likely
on a parallel or USB port; select Properties
11. select the Ports tab
12.click the port you just added (it will have the name you keyed at step
6). This will simultaneously remove the check mark from the "old" port and
add a check mark to this port
13. click Apply; the printer's name (as it is known on the Windows 2000
computer) will appear beside this new port.
Let me know if all this helps or not.
