Add a network printer

[BK]

Our home desktop system is running XP, my laptop is running XP, and our
daughter's laptop is running Vista. I have been able to "add a printer"
to my laptop, but have been unsuccessful adding the same printer to my
daughter's Vista laptop. Is there something I need to do to make the Vista
machine accept the home network printer?

 

[SG]

Hi BK,

How are you trying to add the printer? Control Panel, add Printer, add a
Network Printer?

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

 

[BK]

Yes. Neither the XP machine nor the Vista machine can find the printer, so
I have been typing it in \\computername\printername which worked perfectly
on the XP laptop but not on the Vista laptop.

 

[SG]

Hi,

Is the printer you are trying to connect to Shared?

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

 

[BK]

Yes, the printer is shared. That's why it works on the XP laptop. My
question has to do with the problem I am having getting the shared printer
connection onto the Vista machine. Is there something necessary for me to
do on the Vista machine?

 

[SG]

See if this will help you......
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

--
All the best,
SG

Is your computer system ready for Vista?
https://winqual.microsoft.com/hcl/
Want to keep up with the latest news from MS?
http://news.google.com/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=us&topic=t
Just type in Microsoft

 

[Gordon]

Our home desktop system is running XP, my laptop is running XP, and our
daughter's laptop is running Vista. I have been able to "add a printer"
to my laptop, but have been unsuccessful adding the same printer to my
daughter's Vista laptop. Is there something I need to do to make the
Vista machine accept the home network printer?

How is this printer a "network" printer? Is it connected to a print server
or is it directly connected to one of the machines on your network?

 

[Not Me]

many people don't differentiate between a network printer and a printer
shared on a network.
I have both setup on my LAN, shared printers connected to PCs, network
printers that have their own IP address and printers controlled by the
server.
Making Vista find and use shared printers on a mixed Vista//XP/W2K/NT LAN
can be a pain.
Making it different doesn't automatically make it better!

 

[Gordon]

many people don't differentiate between a network printer and a printer
shared on a network.

Well they should because there well may be a different procedure to set up a
printer connected to a print server as opposed to one that is connected
directly to a machine. I have a printer connected to a print server, and
when I set that up on a new machine I have to create a new port first, which
does NOT have to be done when the printer is shared. So I think my question
was relevant as the OP didn't tell us how this "network" printer is
connected.

 

[Patrick C]

I found the following on a Google search of the problem. It worked for me:

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

 

[BK]

Directly connected to the desktop machine which is running on XP.

 

[BK]

You're right, it doesn't make sense to add a local printer, but I'll give it
a try.