Cannot connect to XP printers

[Bill]

I have a friend with a two computer home network. The desktop PC runs
XP Home SP2 and the laptop runs Vista Home. The XP system has two
printer attached and both are shared. The XP system shares two folders
and the Vista system can access the shared folders.

When I try to add the shared printers on the Vista system the printers
are listed in the Windows Printer Installation dialog. However, when I
select a printer and click Next and error dialog opens with the message
"Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied". This happens
for both printers.

The XP system has McAfee Internet Security installed but the McAfee
firewall is disabled. The Windows firewall is enabled. File and Printer
sharing is enabled in the Windows firewall. File and printer sharing is
enabled for the network connection on the XP system.

Why do I get "Access denied" for the printers when there is no problem
sharing folders? Help!

 

[Patrick C]

I was having a similar problem and found the following doing a Google
search, on your laptop do the following;

" I had the same problem. I found a solution. Logically it makes no sense
to me, but it worked so...

Go to Control Panel. Choose printer. Then choose Add Printer.

ChooseAdd a local printer. Click on Create a new port. The default in the
drop down box is Local Port. Do not change that. Click Next.

A dialogue box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the
\\computer name\printer name ie. My computer's name is basement and the
printer name is EpsonSty so I typed in \\basement\epsonsty."
Hope it helps.

 

[Bill]

Thanks. I'll try that.

 

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

the Vista machine does not have access to the \\XPmachine\print$ share

I'll assume McAfee locked down this share


You can confirm this by opening a command prompt on the Vista machine and
typing
dir \\XPmachine\print$

You only need access to this share for the print drivers

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Bill]

Thanks again Alan. I hate McAfee. Every time I find it on someones PC
there are problems and the documentation (and I use the term
documentation loosely) never helps.