need help sharing a printer

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Sorry if this is a repeat of other problems...
I have a desktop running XP Home which is connected to a Netgear wireless
router but it is connected directly via ethernet cable. I also have a
laptop, also with XP home, which has a wireless Gigafast pcmcia network
card. I am trying to share a printer (Samsung laser which is connected via
usb to the desktop).

I see my desktop's computer name on the laptop when browsing for the printer
in the add printer dialog, but it does not show the printer name.

On the desktop, I just right clicked on the printer name and selected
sharing and checked the sharing box and it gave a name for the printer.

Am I missing something? Do I need to run the networking wizard to allow
sharing to occur? I don't have any other sharing enabled for files or
folders. I was a little confused on what option to choose in the wizard. I
tried several. Do I need a network bridge on either or both PCs (desktop
and/or laptop)?

I had a bridge created on the desktop with no problem but it didn't help. I
created a bridge on the laptop, but I would lose my wireless connection if
the wireless card was connected to the bridge. It failed as if a dns error,
if I removed the wireless card from the bridge or deleted the bridge, I
could connect to the internet again.

Thanks
Phil
(please remove NOSPAM from the email address to reply)

 

[allan grossman [mvp]]

Hi, Phil -

I have a Samsung laser printer shared on my WinXP network
so I'm pretty sure this is something simple.

The laptop user accessing the printer needs to have a
user account on the desktop PC that hosts the printer -
after that everything should just work. I've got my
wife's machine, my Linux server and my wireless laptop
all happily printing to this printer so chances are it's
something really simple.

Here's a pretty good readme from Microsoft on putting it
all together and making it go -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/network
ing/homenet/default.asp

If that word-wraps, try this one -

http://tinyurl.com/e9xc

good luck!

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Thanks Alan,

I have the same user name defined on both machines; I assume this is ok?

One thing weird was I had my workgroup name as MSHOME and when I went to My
Network Places on my desktop and clicked on View Workgroup computers, it
said it wasn't allowed to access the workgroup. If I did the same on the
laptop, it showed both computers. So then I changed the workgroup name on
both, the desktop was now able to see both itself and the laptop, but then
the laptop could only see itself.

The thing is I can't even add the printer on the laptop, would the user
account stop it from being seen?


Phil

 

[Phil Tomaskovic]

Well, I am able to setup the printer by hardcoding the IP address of the
desktop in the add printer wizard. Ie, \\192.168.0.2\samsung

Still don't know why I can't access it using my Computer name? The browse
dialog shows the computer name under the workgroup name but won't find the
printer.