Closer on the Disappearing shared printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Daniel Kaplan
  • Start date Start date
D

Daniel Kaplan

Ok, so it goes like this, which is part repeat, but I am a step closer.

Home network has a 2000 machine, and an XP. There is a printer hooked up to
the 2000, and it is set as shared. The 2000 has only two users, both are
admin level. And the XP only has one user, which matches the second user on
the 2000 (name and password).

So what happened is that the shared printer would always be there, but not
always work. Many times, I would have to delete the printer (from the XP)
and re-add it.

Well today I sort of figured it out. I sent a document to print, from the
XP, and up came the error that the document could not print. So what I did,
on a hunch, was: from the XP, I connected to the hard drive on the 2000
(which required entering my username and password) and voila, at the moment,
my document started to print!

So while I now have the solution to never having to Delete and Reinstall the
printer, is there some solution to say..ALWAYS log in to printer? Would
just make things easier is all.

Thanks

Daniel
 
I have reviewed all your threads... What a long story!

In my opinion, the issue is very weird, when you have same username and
password on both system, you should not be prompted to type anything else!
So, I think there may be something corruption on the win2000 system, and you
should format the reinstall the system.



Or, if there is just a home network, you can safely enable guest account on
Win 2000 and add it into Administrators group; remove all passwords on both
computers.



HPP
 
I have reviewed all your threads... What a long story!

In my opinion, the issue is very weird, when you have same username and
password on both system, you should not be prompted to type anything else!
So, I think there may be something corruption on the win2000 system, and
you should format the reinstall the system.
Click to expand...
not going to do that, because i just did that 1 month ago. that 2000
machine is a brand new FRESH install. used windows updates, etc. etc.
 
In Win 2000, right click the printer and select Properties, click Security,
click Everyone, make sure all permissions are allowed and none is denied.

restart both computer to see whether the issue reoccur

if the issue occurs again, in XP, use the following command:

net use \\Win2000IPAddress\IPC$ PASSWORD /USER:USERNAME

Then the issue should disappear, you can save the command as a BAT file, and
run the file before you want to print next time.

HPP
 
HPP said:
In Win 2000, right click the printer and select Properties, click
Security, click Everyone, make sure all permissions are allowed and none
is denied.

restart both computer to see whether the issue reoccur

if the issue occurs again, in XP, use the following command:

net use \\Win2000IPAddress\IPC$ PASSWORD /USER:USERNAME

Then the issue should disappear, you can save the command as a BAT file,
and run the file before you want to print next time.
Click to expand...
the rights were set this way to begin with.

as for the command you gave me, am sure that works, but it sounds so
hokey....surely there must be a way to tell Win XP to log on to that machine
if it's available? no?
 
I am not sure, but have you click "Remember my password" checkbox?

Cannot Use Network Printer If Your Password Is Not Saved
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312055


SYMPTOMS
If you do not have direct access to a printer, but you do have a user
account and password that does have access, you may be unable to print to
the same network printer the next time you log on to the computer, and you
may receive one of the following error messages:
? Access is denied.
? The RPC server is unavailable.
? Could not start print job

If you check the status of the network printer in the Printers folder, it
may appear as:
Access denied, unable to connect
CAUSE
This problem can occur if you did not check the Remember my password check
box when you initially provided your credentials to connect to the printer.
The spooler will not prompt you to provide alternate credentials again. When
authentication fails with the credentials you used to log on, an error is
generated.
RESOLUTION
To work around this problem, click to select the Remember my password check
box when you initially connect to the printer so the credential manager will
save the proper user name and password to connect to the resource. If you
have already set up the printer, delete the printer, and then reconnect to
it to receive the prompt again.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products
that are listed at the beginning of this article.
MORE INFORMATION
It is important to understand that this problem is not necessarily a
security risk because the user must still provide their user name and
password in which they saved the credentials to access the printer. If you
save administrator credentials under a local user account on a publically
accessible computer that has a blank password, this is a considerable
security risk. However, if you save a "Print Operator" password under a
standard domain account that also belongs to you, this may potentially not
be an additional security risk.

However, the best solution is to give the user that is logged on direct
access to the shared printer, log on as a user that has access to the shared
printer or in the case of a Remote Access connection, having the credentials
used to log on to the Remote Access session be the same as credentials that
will be used for resources on the remote network.


HPP
 
HPP said:
I am not sure, but have you click "Remember my password" checkbox?
Click to expand...
i am sure it was, but deleted the printer, and just re-added it to make sure
it was checked, and it was!

so i re-added the printer, printed test page, then rebooted, and went to the
printer and it now says:

"access denied unable to connect" under status...

so i ran: net use \\Win2000IPAddress\IPC$ PASSWORD /USER:USERNAME

and bam, the status changed to ready

any other ideas? i mean running a batch file isn't such a problem, but it;s
a pain, as well as sometimes i forget, then get all agravated as i have to
remembre what went wrong
 
So,why not format and reinstall the XP system?

I think somethink wrong in the XP so it cannot store the credential which
should be stored normally...

It is very difficult to find the root cause and may be time cusuming,and
some system files may be damaged which cannot be repaired, so I think it is
better to reinstall the system.

HPP
 
HPP said:
So,why not format and reinstall the XP system?
Click to expand...

why not? because this isn't the old days of DOS, where you easily back up
ALL your stuff and do what you have to. this is the age of windows, with
registries, and the rest, etc. etc. you are talking a full days commitment.

just can't afford that right now is all.

thanks for the advice.
 
I know. But troubleshooting may need more time and may be unhelpful.

There is also a driver issue in Windows 2000, see:

HOW TO: Use Network Printing in Windows 2000 When You Do Not Have the
Correct Printer Driver
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321838

So, why not plug the printer to the XP box and share it from XP for Win
2000?



HPP
 
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