Network Printer Problem

[Fred]

Hi,

I have a WinXP Home Desktop which is connected to an HP printer, a
Laptop (XP Home), and a Win98se PC.

The Desktop is connected to a Netgear Router via network card/cable and
the LT is using a wireless adapter. Both work fine and I have set the
Printer up as a network printer which works fine with the LT over the
network and with desktop connected directly.

I just added the old W98se PC via a network card/cable and I can see it
and access it on both the LT and DT.

The problem is that I cannot get the printer to install as a network
printer on the W98se PC. Going through the install procedure for the
printer when trying to add it as a network printer gives me an error
message that reports "The access code is invalid."

Can anyone help?

Thanks, Fred

 

[Chuck]

Hi,

I have a WinXP Home Desktop which is connected to an HP printer, a
Laptop (XP Home), and a Win98se PC.

The Desktop is connected to a Netgear Router via network card/cable and
the LT is using a wireless adapter. Both work fine and I have set the
Printer up as a network printer which works fine with the LT over the
network and with desktop connected directly.

I just added the old W98se PC via a network card/cable and I can see it
and access it on both the LT and DT.

The problem is that I cannot get the printer to install as a network
printer on the W98se PC. Going through the install procedure for the
printer when trying to add it as a network printer gives me an error
message that reports "The access code is invalid."

Can anyone help?

Thanks, Fred

Fred,

Is the Workstation service started on the Win98 computer?

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Jerry McMullin]

If I remember right, you have to create a network floppy on your XP machine that has to be installed on the earlier windows machines in order for the earlier machines to communicate with the XP network.

--
JerryM (ID)

MURPHY'S COMPUTER LAW
A man who can smile when things go wrong,
has thought of someone he can blame it on.

 

[Fred]

Fred,

Is the Workstation service started on the Win98 computer?

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Chuck,

Don't know but will check. How do I do that? ... and if not, how do I enable
it?

Fred

 

[Fred]

Hi Jerry,

Thanks, but I've already done that and the W98 PC shows on all PC's with no problem, just the problem of setting up a network printer.

Fred

 

[Chuck]

Chuck,

Don't know but will check. How do I do that? ... and if not, how do I enable
it?

Fred

Fred,

The Services mini-app lists all the services, and allows you to start / stop
them. In Windows XP, it's accessible from Control Panel - Administrative Tools.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Fred]

Fred,

The Services mini-app lists all the services, and allows you to start / stop
them. In Windows XP, it's accessible from Control Panel - Administrative Tools.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Hi Chuck,

I knew about WinXP but I thought you were referring to W98 when you said "Is the
Workstation service started on the Win98 computer?"

The Workstation service in XP is on "automatic" and is "started."

Is there a setting for the W98se PC?

Fred

 

[Chuck]

Hi Chuck,

I knew about WinXP but I thought you were referring to W98 when you said "Is the
Workstation service started on the Win98 computer?"

The Workstation service in XP is on "automatic" and is "started."

Is there a setting for the W98se PC?

Fred

Fred,

Windows 98 has a similar setting, with a similar mini-app. I don't have a Win98
computer handy, so I can't tell you exactly what it looks like. This being
Windows, the Win98 and WinXP configurations should be similar, but will have
minor differences.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Fred]

Fred,

Windows 98 has a similar setting, with a similar mini-app. I don't have a Win98
computer handy, so I can't tell you exactly what it looks like. This being
Windows, the Win98 and WinXP configurations should be similar, but will have
minor differences.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Chuck,

WinXP calls Component Services "comexp.msc" and Services "services.msc" and they are
located in the system32 folder.

I will start looking there for similar names.

By the way, since the W98se PC shows up in the Desktop and LT, and file sharing is
working, do you still think the network printer problem is related to the Workstation
service?

Thanks, Fred

 

[Chuck]

Chuck,

WinXP calls Component Services "comexp.msc" and Services "services.msc" and they are
located in the system32 folder.

I will start looking there for similar names.

By the way, since the W98se PC shows up in the Desktop and LT, and file sharing is
working, do you still think the network printer problem is related to the Workstation
service?

Thanks, Fred

Fred,

By "shows up in the Desktop" I believe you mean in Network Neighborhood / My
Network Places on Desktop?

The contents of Network Neighborhood are displayed by the Browser service, which
runs on top of NetBIOS Over TCP/IP (NBT). The Workstation service provides the
client portion of a client / server relationship. They're two separate
components.

Also look for "secpol.msc". If we find that the services are running, you'll
need to look for local security policies causing problems.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Fred]

Fred,

By "shows up in the Desktop" I believe you mean in Network Neighborhood / My
Network Places on Desktop?

The contents of Network Neighborhood are displayed by the Browser service, which
runs on top of NetBIOS Over TCP/IP (NBT). The Workstation service provides the
client portion of a client / server relationship. They're two separate
components.

Also look for "secpol.msc". If we find that the services are running, you'll
need to look for local security policies causing problems.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Hi Chuck,

I cannot find any of those files by looking myself and using "Find" -

I've asked the question in the W98 NG and hope someone there has a clue where the
"Services" are located.

Fred

 

[Chuck]

Hi Chuck,

I cannot find any of those files by looking myself and using "Find" -

I've asked the question in the W98 NG and hope someone there has a clue where the
"Services" are located.

Fred

Fred,

The W98 NGs are a good start. But there is no traffic there like there is here,
and probably less folks there will know what you're looking for either. So be
patient.

Or try Start - Run - type "services.msc". See what happens.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Fred]

Fred,

The W98 NGs are a good start. But there is no traffic there like there is here,
and probably less folks there will know what you're looking for either. So be
patient.

Or try Start - Run - type "services.msc". See what happens.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Chuck,

Well, here's what I got from Glen Ventura, MS-MVP:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Workstation Service in W98?
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 18:27:58 -0400
From: "glee" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
References: 1 , 2 , 3

There are no "services" in Win98. You will only find Workstation Services on
Windows XP, 2K, Windows Server, or Small Business Server 2003.

 

[Chuck]

Chuck,

Well, here's what I got from Glen Ventura, MS-MVP:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Workstation Service in W98?
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 18:27:58 -0400
From: "glee" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
References: 1 , 2 , 3

There are no "services" in Win98. You will only find Workstation Services on
Windows XP, 2K, Windows Server, or Small Business Server 2003.

Fred,

OK, Browser is not a service in Windows 98, but it can be turned off.
<http://cms.simons-rock.edu/faq_by_subtopic/node138.html>

In some NGs, if you don't phrase your questions spot on, you get a non-helpful
answer. Oh well.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Chuck]

Fred,

OK, Browser is not a service in Windows 98, but it can be turned off.
<http://cms.simons-rock.edu/faq_by_subtopic/node138.html>

In some NGs, if you don't phrase your questions spot on, you get a non-helpful
answer. Oh well.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Nuts. That wasn't even the original question, and certainly not the answer.

Back to the drawing board. Don't go away completely.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Fred]

Nuts. That wasn't even the original question, and certainly not the answer.

Back to the drawing board. Don't go away completely.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.

Chuck,

I got it working!

There is a Microsoft Support document that I found through Google. (Glee posted it
here too).

I did what that TS Doc "Q260737" said to do but it still did NOT work. Basically
they have you remove the printers on both machines, also do some editing in the
registry, and finally clear out a windows system folder. Did all of that and NO
DICE!

Here's the URL for Q260737 if you are interested:

"Access Code" Error Message Printing to Networked Printer:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=260737

The error message was exactly what was happening to my system and network, yet it
did not "fix" it. I was getting frustrated so I decided to install another printer
using USB on the W98se PC just as I have it for my Laptop. I have this on the LT
(and now on the W98se PC) so I can physically connect and print if I have to do
that otherwise I just plan to print via the network.

I did some testing and trial by error stuff and got a few "spool" errors. I then
decided to CHANGE the printer settings TO use the spooler instead of the "print
directly to printer" option. That's what did it - The Win98se PC WILL now print to
the network printer as long as it is set to SPOOL print jobs! Must be a quirk to
W98 as my LT prints to it either way.

Thanks for your ideas and I just wanted to post this info for you and the NG.

Take care, Fred

 

[Chuck]

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 20:16:17 -0400, (e-mail address removed) wrote:

Chuck,

I got it working!

There is a Microsoft Support document that I found through Google. (Glee posted it
here too).

I did what that TS Doc "Q260737" said to do but it still did NOT work. Basically
they have you remove the printers on both machines, also do some editing in the
registry, and finally clear out a windows system folder. Did all of that and NO
DICE!

Here's the URL for Q260737 if you are interested:

"Access Code" Error Message Printing to Networked Printer:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=260737

The error message was exactly what was happening to my system and network, yet it
did not "fix" it. I was getting frustrated so I decided to install another printer
using USB on the W98se PC just as I have it for my Laptop. I have this on the LT
(and now on the W98se PC) so I can physically connect and print if I have to do
that otherwise I just plan to print via the network.

I did some testing and trial by error stuff and got a few "spool" errors. I then
decided to CHANGE the printer settings TO use the spooler instead of the "print
directly to printer" option. That's what did it - The Win98se PC WILL now print to
the network printer as long as it is set to SPOOL print jobs! Must be a quirk to
W98 as my LT prints to it either way.

Thanks for your ideas and I just wanted to post this info for you and the NG.

Take care, Fred

Fred,

Congrats! Glad you found the solution. Thanks for the update.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.