Losing network printer mapping after network cable disconnected

[eljainc]

Hello,

I have a strange situation that has recently started happening on a
Windows XP SP2 machine. It is a laptop that connects via a crossover
cable to another computer. On this machine, a local USB printer is
installed and is shared. Also, it is mapped to LPT1 via the NET USE

NET USE LPT1 \\LAPTOP\PRINTER

In the last couple of days when the network cable is unplugged from
the machine, then the user tries to send a document to print through
LPT1 the print job fails. Issuing a NET USE again shows LPT1 as
disconnected. This never used to happen. If I do a NET USE LPT1 /d
then NET USE LPT1 \\LAPTOP\PRINTER command, I get a network error 66.

How can this be fixed? There have been no updates to this machine via
Windows Update in recent times.

Thanks
Mike

 

[SC Tom]

Hello,

I have a strange situation that has recently started happening on a
Windows XP SP2 machine. It is a laptop that connects via a crossover
cable to another computer. On this machine, a local USB printer is
installed and is shared. Also, it is mapped to LPT1 via the NET USE

NET USE LPT1 \\LAPTOP\PRINTER

In the last couple of days when the network cable is unplugged from
the machine, then the user tries to send a document to print through
LPT1 the print job fails. Issuing a NET USE again shows LPT1 as
disconnected. This never used to happen. If I do a NET USE LPT1 /d
then NET USE LPT1 \\LAPTOP\PRINTER command, I get a network error 66.

How can this be fixed? There have been no updates to this machine via
Windows Update in recent times.

Thanks
Mike

The next time you're connected to the network, use the following command

NET USE LPT1 \\LAPTOP\PRINTER /P

That will make it a persistent connection, and the printer should still show
but will be offline. Unless I've got your scenario wrong? Is the machine the
printer is connected to via USB the one that's showing the error?

SC Tom