Canon PIXMA iP4600 & XP problem

[Tegger]

Printer works fine from the computer it's attached to. Other computers can
print to this printer over the network. No problems.

However... just /one/ XP Home computer can't use this printer. On that
/one/ machine, you can see the printer if you specifically search for the
host computer in My Network Places, but you can't connect to the printer.
When you try, you get the error dialog: "The operation could not be
completed. Either the printer name...".

If you try to use Start>Settings>Printers and Faxes>Add Printer, the
printer never shows up at all.

Trying to install the printer using the Canon software doesn't work either,
also on account of the printer refusing to show itself.

New XP installation. All Windows Updates applied. Firewall off. Network
access otherwise just fine.

So why doesn't this machine see the printer when nobody else has any
trouble?

 

[Andrew E.]

Download a utility from microsoft called "Print migrator",open it on the
host pc with canon,R.click migrator,create a shortcut,move the short cut
to the problem pc.

 

[Tegger]

Download a utility from microsoft called "Print migrator",open it on
the
host pc with canon,R.click migrator,create a shortcut,move the short
cut to the problem pc.

Didn't work, but your suggestion did lead to a fix, so thanks for that.

The printers I "migrated" were taken off a laptop that travels a lot and
has lots of printers installed. The ONE and ONLY printer that did NOT
"migrate" was the Canon iP4600 in question!

There are two other Canons in the printer list on the laptop. When the
laptop is not connected to the network that has those printers, they report
"Not Ready" in the list. When those same printers are listed in the
affected computer, those printers are reported as "Ready". Evidently the
print circuit isn't seeing printers properly.

What Print Migrator did manage to tell me was that the laptop was seeing
the iP4600 as a Local Port with the URL: \\<host>\CanoniP4. This turned out
to be the critical piece of information, and I hadn't thought to look it up
before.

Here's how I solved this problem on the affected machine:
1) Went to Start>Settings>Printers and Faxes>Add a Printer.
2) I chose "Local Printer". When the machine failed to find the printer
locally, it let me choose manually.
3) Then I created a new "Local" port, with the URL \\<host>\CanoniP4.
4) Computer wanted an INF file to continue. I didn't have that.
5) I left the Add a Printer dialog up as-is, then went to Canon.com.
6) I downloaded the driver-install EXE from Canon. When the EXE is run, it
starts an install automatically.
7) The EXE also failed to find a local printer. At that point it gave a
list of ports on the computer. One of them was the new port I just created:
\\<host>\CanoniP4.
8) I chose that port, and the install completed.
9) Finally, I dismissed the "Add a Printer" dialog, and rebooted to make
sure the fix "took".

All is well now and I learned something today. This answer has also been
posted to the alt.comp.os.windows-xp, just to complete the circle.