Printing problems from shared XP printer to a Vista PC

[Guest]

I have a Home Workgroup consisting of a Dell Vista Home Premium PC and a Sony
Vaio XP Pro PC which has 2 shared printers attached to it.

I have mapped my Dell Vista Home Premium PC to my XP Pro shared HP Laserjet
1300 & HP PSC 2400 by using the UNC and not the Printer Wizard (It didn't
work at all). At that point the XP machine sharing the printers shows up in
the Network folder. I then installed the appropriate printer drivers on my
Vista PC. At that point, I was able to print test pages to both printers.
However, when I rebooted the Vista PC, I am now unable to print any more. I
either get an "RPC server unavailable" error or the document just sits in the
print queue till I cancel the print job and then it is gone. The printers
still show up in the Printer folders, but I can't print to them any more.
Also, the XP Pro PC no longer shows up in the Network folder. I have
followed all the procedures on Vista's website pertaining to Sharing Files &
Printers between XP & Vista machines to no avail.

Can someone help me out.

Thanks.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Are all the PCs still in the same workgroup? Can they still share files
from one to the other?

 

[Guest]

Yes all the PC's are in the same workgroup. And yes, I have file sharing set
up on both the XP and the Vista PC. However, I cannot see the shared folders
between the 2 PC's for some strange reason.

Regards,

 

[Malke]

Yes all the PC's are in the same workgroup. And yes, I have file sharing set
up on both the XP and the Vista PC. However, I cannot see the shared folders
between the 2 PC's for some strange reason.

If you can't see the shared folders, your LAN networking isn't set up
correctly. You need to have your network sharing working correctly
before you can print to a shared printer. Here is cut/paste networking
help; not everything might be applicable to you but I include it all to
be thorough:

This link will take you through Vista networking very well:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally
caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall; or 2) inadvertently running two
firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party
firewall; and/or 3) not having identical user accounts and passwords on
all Workgroup machines; 4) trying to create shares where the operating
system does not permit it.

Here are some general networking tips for home/small networks:

1. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network
(LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing
File/Printer Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network
Setup Wizard on XP will take care of this for those machines.The only
"gotcha" is that this will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you
aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus with
"Internet Worm Protection" (like Norton 2006/07) which acts as a
firewall, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually
configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct
subnet. Do not run more than one firewall.

2. With earlier Microsoft operating systems, the name of the Workgroup
didn't matter. Apparently it does with Vista, so put all computers in
the same Workgroup. This is done from the System applet in Control
Panel, Computer Name tab.

3. Create identical user accounts and passwords on all machines. If you
wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular
user's account) for convenience, you can do this. The instructions at
this link work for both XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

4. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

a. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.

b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled.

Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means
that anyone without a user account on the target system can use its
resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if it matters
in your situation.

I think it is a good idea to create the identical user
accounts/passwords in any case when Vista machines are involved and it
isn't an onerous task with home/small networks.

5. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share
folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the
Shared Documents folder. See the first link above for details about
Vista sharing.


Malke

 

[Guest]

I did go through all the steps you suggested previously, and double checked
again just now. I am able to see the Vista PC on my XP PC using My Network
Places. However, I am not able to see the XP PC on the Vista PC in Network.
And when I try to browse to the XP PC using the URL, I get the following
error: "A device attached to the system is not functioning."

What am I missing?

 

[Malke]

I did go through all the steps you suggested previously, and double checked
again just now. I am able to see the Vista PC on my XP PC using My Network
Places. However, I am not able to see the XP PC on the Vista PC in Network.
And when I try to browse to the XP PC using the URL, I get the following
error: "A device attached to the system is not functioning."

That error usually means a problem with the TCP/IP stack, but with Vista
I just don't know. Double-check your firewall status on the XP machine
just to make sure you aren't inadvertently running two of them - XP SP2
Windows Firewall and one connected with your antivirus perhaps.

Also, please post back with the results of ipconfig /all on both machines.

XP:
Start>Run>Cmd [enter]
ipconfig /all [enter]

Vista:
Orb>Search box type>cmd [enter]
Right-click on the link to cmd that appears and run as administrator
Then do the same command as above.


Malke

 

[bills150]

I did go through all the steps you suggested previously, and double checked
again just now. I am able to see the Vista PC on my XP PC using My Network
Places. However, I am not able to see the XP PC on the Vista PC in Network.
And when I try to browse to the XP PC using the URL, I get the following
error: "A device attached to the system is not functioning."

That error usually means a problem with the TCP/IP stack, but with Vista
I just don't know. Double-check your firewall status on the XP machine
just to make sure you aren't inadvertently running two of them - XP SP2
Windows Firewall and one connected with your antivirus perhaps.

Also, please post back with the results of ipconfig /all on both machines.

XP:
Start>Run>Cmd [enter]
ipconfig /all [enter]

Vista:
Orb>Search box type>cmd [enter]
Right-click on the link to cmd that appears and run as administrator
Then do the same command as above.

Malke

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the same issue. Windows Vista Ultimate ina workgroup
environment and a Windows Media Center XP machine. XP machine has the
shared printer. Works great for other XPmachine on network. I am
logged into my Vista machine with same account as other XP machine. I
am still unable to connect to the XP's printer. I am gettin a access
denied message. Did we find a resolution to the Vista vs XP printing
issue? I have searched the web until my eyes are ready to pop out and
thank fully I found this thread. Can someone please help!

Bill