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Getting a Vista laptop to recognize a printer connected to an XP desktop

J

Josh7289

Senior member
Hi all,

I'm working on someone else's home network. Here's what they have:

Desktop PC running Windows XP SP3
Laptop PC running Windows Vista SP1
Printer connected directly to the desktop PC

What they want is to be able to print documents from the laptop on the desktop PC's printer over their home network.

However, I'm having a hell of a time getting the two computers to recognize each other. I ran the Windows XP Network Setup Wizard a few times with the correct options that I want (however, I did not run the XP setup on the Vista machine using an XP CD). I installed this hotfix on the XP SP3 machine. I made sure both are running Windows Firewall and that File and Printer Sharing are excluded from the firewall. I set up the printer on the XP machine for sharing. (not necessarily in this order)

After installing that hotfix, I got the Vista laptop to see the XP desktop in the full network map, but I can't click on the XP desktop to access it or anything, and it doesn't show up in the Vista machine's Network folder, either. On the XP machine, I simply can't see the Vista laptop anywhere.

I'm looking at this article right now:

http://technet.microsoft.com/e.../library/cc749119.aspx

And I've basically already done everything there.

Is this hopeless? Is there some common setting that I'm missing or something?

EDIT just a few moments after making this post: They're both on the same workgroup, MSHOME, as well.

EDIT again, just moments after: The Vista machine's network connection is set to "Private", as well.
 
Does the printer have a Network card or a WiFi card ? ? If it does that is the easiest way to get this to work either thru the WiFi on the Router or add a Switch where the desktop pc is and connect one switch output to the computer and the other to the printer. Then just install the printer drivers on each computer you want to be able to use the printer from.
 
No it doesn't. It's really old, so the only convenient way they could print from the laptop is through the desktop over the home network.
 
Then I suggest you look at this web site:

http://www.ezlan.net/

There are too many variables to pinpoint the exact cause without being at the machines in question.
And you could also buy a WiFi print server to connect to the printer which would allow it to be used thru
the routers wireless connection.

See link for examples: http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...gory_slc.asp?CatId=371
Of course it depends on what the printer interface is, but I hope it has a USB interface
 
I'm running the same setup as you, funnily enough i did this the other day.. As long as the laptop and the desktop are on the same network it should work..

First make sure the printer is shared from the desktop, right click and select sharing..

Second go to control panel > printers from the laptop, then click add printer, i believe you should click a local printer, then from there click browse and find your desktop, click that and a list of printers should come up, add the correct one and you should be set..

Hope that helped!

Edit: I just saw that you said the XP machine doesn't appear in the laptops network connections.. I have this problem every now and again and a reboot of the XP machine seems to fix it.. But if its a consistent problem i'm not sure what to suggest..
 
OK, that was strange... But it works now. It may have been a problem with overbearing anti-virus software, as the laptop was running Norton and the desktop was running McAfee. I totally removed Norton on the laptop and replaced it with AntiVir, and I disabled the firewall on McAfee on the desktop, and it all seems to work now.

I don't know if the anti-virus stuff was causing my problems, because I was tinkering with a lot of different network settings besides the anti-virus programs, but to anyone in a similar situation, don't forget to check what kinds of firewalls computers may be running besides the Windows default one.

Anyway, works well now, so that's good.

Thanks for the help, all.
 
I would bet it was McAfee firewall.

even the Norton firewall can be a pita. I've fought with those trying to setup simple workgroup-networks for sharing files. I had to completely disable the Norton firewall just for the file-sharing to work.
 
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