Sharing a printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter gstick
  • Start date Start date
G

gstick

My H-P printer is plugged into the new computer using Windows XP. I followed
the network process as carefully as I could but I am still unable to share
files and to use the printer on the old computer.

What is the best source of instructions? Has anyone entered and overcome a
glitch or two?

Any help will be appreciated.
 
gstick said:
My H-P printer is plugged into the new computer using Windows XP. I
followed the network process as carefully as I could but I am still unable
to share files and to use the printer on the old computer.

What is the best source of instructions? Has anyone entered and overcome
a glitch or two?

Any help will be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be
applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may look
daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions below
systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting up your
sharing.

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by
1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party
firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall
component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure
the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254.
Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party
security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its
firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS;
CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS,
EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly to the
Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do
this:

XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple
File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.

F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a
file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected locally
to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go to the
printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the correct
operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The printer
should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not, install the
drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances, certain
printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside of this
response.

Malke
 
First of all, use net share command in the local computer connecting to the
print to make sure you have the printer shared. Then in the remote computer
(old computer in your case) run net view \\printerpcipaddress to check if
you can see it. This how to may help too.
How to share a printer
Click "Share this printer" and enter a short name in the box. ... You
should now be able to print. Post your questions, comments, feedbacks and
suggestions ...
www.howtonetworking.com/Networking/sharing12.htm


--
Bob Lin, Microsoft-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
 
Bob Lin (MS-MVP) said:
First of all, use net share command in the local computer connecting to the
print to make sure you have the printer shared. Then in the remote computer
(old computer in your case) run net view \\printerpcipaddress to check if
you can see it. This how to may help too.
How to share a printer
Click "Share this printer" and enter a short name in the box. ... You
should now be able to print. Post your questions, comments, feedbacks and
suggestions ...
www.howtonetworking.com/Networking/sharing12.htm


--
Bob Lin, Microsoft-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
Click to expand...
 
Malke said:
Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be
applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may look
daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions below
systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting up your
sharing.

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by
1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party
firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall
component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure
the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254.
Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party
security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its
firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS;
CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS,
EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly to the
Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do
this:

XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple
File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.

F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a
file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected locally
to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go to the
printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the correct
operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The printer
should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not, install the
drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances, certain
printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside of this
response.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

For Malke
Click to expand...
You mention an IP Range. It seems that I have a single IP for both
computers. I not sure that I understand the "Range" part.
 
gstick said:
You mention an IP Range. It seems that I have a single IP for both
computers. I not sure that I understand the "Range" part.
Click to expand...

Malke assumed that you have a local network that you are using to share
an Internet connection and that you wanted to use that network to share
files and a printer.

So, the first question is -- how are you computers connected to each
other and to the Internet?

On the assumption that you in fact do have a router that connects to the
Internet and that your computers then connect to the router (either
wired or wireless), then if you think that you have one IP for multiple
computers then you probably are using a website tool such as
http://whatismyip.com/ That shows the your public IP address -- the one
that the rest of the world sees. All communications from the Internet
go to that IP address, which is your router.

The router then -- surprise -- routes the traffic to each of your
computers. In order to know which of your computers gets which Internet
communication, your router assigns unique *local* IP addresses to each
of your computers. Typically, the router will choose addresses to
assign in a range, which you can set on the router. Usually, this
information is displayed on the router's status page. Read your router
manual.

If you want to know what IP address the router has assigned to a given
computer, open a Command Prompt window (Start>Run type cmd [click OK])
and type

ipconfig/all [press Enter]

When you are done with the Command Prompt window, type Exit [press
Enter] to close it.

If you don't have a router, please answer the question above.
 
gstick wrote:

You mention an IP Range. It seems that I have a single IP for both
computers. I not sure that I understand the "Range" part.
Click to expand...

It's for the firewall configuration if you have a third-party firewall. It's to
let the third-party firewall know that computers on the Local Area Network
are allowed to share files. The range refers to the Local Area Network
subnet; i.e., 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. This is just an example and you may
not even have to do it. If you are using Windows Firewall, you won't. And
some third-party firewalls are smart enough to know what the Local Area
Network covers without having to specify a range of allowed IP addresses.

Malke
 
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