Access denied to printers on XP Home SP2 machine.

[Bill]

A frind of mine just added a Vista Home laptop to his home network. The
other computer is a disktop running XP Home SP2. The LLTD Responder has
been installed on the XP Home SP2 machine.

The Vista laptop shows the XP machine in Networks and Sharing | View
Devices and also in the full map. If I double click the XP machine the
shared printers and folders are displayed. However, when I right click
either of the shared printers and choose Connect I get a "Cannot
connect to the printer. Access Denied" error. I turned the Windows
Firewall on the Vista PC off but I still get the same error.

I connected my XP Pro SP3 laptop to my friend's wireless network and
was able to connect to both shared printers. Actually I quit when I was
prompted to install the drivers but I did not get the Access denied
error.

I then borrowed a Vista Business laptop, took it to my friend's house,
connected to his network, opened Network and Sharing, selected View
Devices, doubled clicked his XP Home machine, right clicked a printer,
clicked on Connect and got the same Access denied message.

Next, I took the borrowed Vista Business computer to my house,
connected to my wireless network and had no problem installing a shared
printer on my XP Pro SP3 machine.

Since the borrowed Vista Business machine will install a shared printer
on an XP Pro SP3 machine on my network but gets the Access Denied
message trying to connect to a shared printer on my friend's XP Home
SP2 machine it appears that the problem is with the XP Home machine but
only with Vista. I can connect to a printer on his XP Home machine with
my XP Pro SP3 laptop.

Help! I am very new to Vista and I have no idea what to do next. Thanks.

 

[Mick Murphy]

Ist thing to do is make sure that ALL computers(XP and Vista) have the same
Workgroup name, and that file and printer sharing is turned on in ths XP
computers.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

Permissions/Share info is there as well.

If using Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro I.S., make sure file and printer
sharing is enabled in THEIR firewall (or LAN allowed, depending on how their
Exceptions are worded in their Firewall)

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and
passwords (passwords can be different) on ALL computers in your Network) If
you have it ON, you will be asked for a username and password when you try to
access a Vista computer from an XP computer, or a Vista computer.

Also, run the XP’s Home or Small Office Network File and Printer Sharing
Wizard to include Vista in your “New†Network, even if you had an XP Network
set up prior to adding a Vista computer to it(redoing the Wizard seems to
work for XP machines!).

In “My Network Placesâ€: “Set up a Home or Small Office Networkâ€
OR under Accessories > Communications > Network Setup Wizard > Allow File
and Printer Sharing.

 

[Bill]

Mick,

With the help of Google I finally found the solution to adding a
network printer when you get the error "Cannot connect to printer.
Access denied." Apparently this is a Vista bug that only happens when
trying to install a network printer that resides on an XP machine and
it only happens with some XP machines. Thanks again for your help.

1.) Verify that File and print sharing is turned on and properly
configured on the XP machine.

2.) Locate and notate the Win XP computer name (i.e. "Desktop") (Found
in System Properties in the Computer Name tab)

3.) Locate and note the printer share name on the XP computer (i.e.
"Printer") (Found under the Sharing tab on the Printer Properties page)

4.) On the Vista machine launch the "Add a Printer" wizard

5.) Choose "Add a local printer"

6.) Select "Create a new port" radio button and choose "Local Port"
from the drop down menu

7.) Press Next

8.) In the "Enter Port Name:" box enter the following: \\Desktop\Printer
where "Desktop" = the computer name from step 2 and "Printer" = the
printer share name from step 3.

9.) Select the Printer driver from the list provided or use the "Have
Disk" button to install the correct Vista driver if it is not in the
built-in list. It is critical that the driver you use is Vista
compatible.

10.) Press next

11.) Give the printer a distinct name and choose whether to set as the
default.

12.) Press Next

13.) Print a test page to verify functionality.

14.) Press Finish