N
Neil C
I recently ran into a puzzling and eventually infuriating issue with Windows
XP peer to peer networking. It took a fair amount of research to resolve, (5
hours of troubleshooting and google) so here it is in a nutshell. I post
this by way of linking the XP error message to the easy steps required to
fix it for me as I have not found them in close proximity before now. This
is of course only 1 resolution to 1 of many potential causes, but I sure
wish I had tried this first.
SUMMARY:
Problem: Despite file sharing working perfectly in a Windows XP peer to peer
environment, shared printers could not be connected to over the network.
Error Dialog: 'Windows cannot connect to the printer. Either the printer
name is incorrect, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the
Sharer' shown on client PC
Resolution: Turn off Simple File Sharing on the PC sharing the printers
(Well it worked for me!)
DETAIL:
I run a Windows XP Pro network at home in Peer to Peer mode i.e. no domain
controller. Fast user switching is enabled on all machines. The network is a
mix of wireless and wired hardware all in the 10.1.1.x/255.255.255.0 subnet
behind a DSL router. The workgroup name on all of them is set to the same
value.
For months everything worked fine. I had file shares on every machine (let's
call them Sharer, PC_Two, PC_Three & PC_Four) and 2 USB printers shared on
Sharer. I could read and write files and print just fine. All running XP Pro
SP2.
Then I discovered that PC_Two, PC_Three and PC_Four could no longer print to
Sharer's shared printers. Thinking it was just some weird glitch I restarted
them all - no joy. So I tried deleting the network printer on PC_Two and
reinstalling it. I could run the add printer wizard just fine, and PC_Two
could see the shared printer as \\Sharer\Printername (I typed \\Sharer\ and
the list dropped down fine). But when I selected the required printer and
hit Next I got this error:
'Windows cannot connect to the printer. Either the printer name is
incorrect, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the Sharer'
So I tested the file sharing and that worked perfectly. PC_Two could happily
read and write to shares on Sharer, but COULD NOT connect to the shared
printer.
So I racked my brains and thought about what I had changed on Sharer
recently. The answer was a lot (Apache, PHP, IMAP mail Sharer installed for
starters, none of which I suspected as a cause), and using System Restore
was truly an ugly option. I had also recently run the Home Networking Wizard
on Sharer (don't ask why, I had a feeble minded moment). I think the latter
probably did for me. Stupid is as stupid does, I guess.
I tried lot of stuff, including a clean uninstall of ZoneAlarm and disabling
the Windows firewall on Sharer, plus shutting the fiirewalls down on the
other PC's. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling File & Print Services on
Sharer and frankly a whole load of wacky stuff I should not have tried (why
did I think installing Unix Print Services would help?). Enabling NetBIOS
over TCP/IP on all machines and forcing Sharer to be the browse master also
did not work. Tired and frustrated I wrote it off for the night after 4
hours of increasingly desperate activity. I did not try IPX/SPX as suggested
in some posts.
A bit more research today threw up many other ideas - here are some of the
links that I found useful:
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/al...read/thread/d7cc5be1cce79964/5518f1dfe88e1b51
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/al...read/thread/d7cc5be1cce79964/5518f1dfe88e1b51
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/mi...read/thread/ef23e4773cc6003b/74eade1a0b227409
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/mi...read/thread/6fa4b0043b88eafc/e2a45d2592d53321
After reading the above I suspected that permissions must have gone awry, I
decided Simple File Sharing had to be OFF so I could figure it out. So I
turned it off on Sharer, granted Everyone permission to - Print - Manage
Printers - Manage Documents - and tried again from PC_Two. Bingo! I then
turned off NetBIOS over TCP/IP on all machines (due to possible internet
security issues) and connected from PC_Three and again it worked.
So the permissions were the problem somewhere down the line and turning off
Simple File Sharing allowed it to be resolved. I intend to leave it off
anyway as I like the granularity of security provided.
Finally THANKS to Chuck in this ng and Wesley Vogel et al in others for
providing the info required to solve the issue. The usenet works because
people like you all take the time to make it work.
Cheers and hope this helps somebody go through less pain than I did for the
sake of unticking a few checkboxes.
Neil C
XP peer to peer networking. It took a fair amount of research to resolve, (5
hours of troubleshooting and google) so here it is in a nutshell. I post
this by way of linking the XP error message to the easy steps required to
fix it for me as I have not found them in close proximity before now. This
is of course only 1 resolution to 1 of many potential causes, but I sure
wish I had tried this first.
SUMMARY:
Problem: Despite file sharing working perfectly in a Windows XP peer to peer
environment, shared printers could not be connected to over the network.
Error Dialog: 'Windows cannot connect to the printer. Either the printer
name is incorrect, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the
Sharer' shown on client PC
Resolution: Turn off Simple File Sharing on the PC sharing the printers
(Well it worked for me!)
DETAIL:
I run a Windows XP Pro network at home in Peer to Peer mode i.e. no domain
controller. Fast user switching is enabled on all machines. The network is a
mix of wireless and wired hardware all in the 10.1.1.x/255.255.255.0 subnet
behind a DSL router. The workgroup name on all of them is set to the same
value.
For months everything worked fine. I had file shares on every machine (let's
call them Sharer, PC_Two, PC_Three & PC_Four) and 2 USB printers shared on
Sharer. I could read and write files and print just fine. All running XP Pro
SP2.
Then I discovered that PC_Two, PC_Three and PC_Four could no longer print to
Sharer's shared printers. Thinking it was just some weird glitch I restarted
them all - no joy. So I tried deleting the network printer on PC_Two and
reinstalling it. I could run the add printer wizard just fine, and PC_Two
could see the shared printer as \\Sharer\Printername (I typed \\Sharer\ and
the list dropped down fine). But when I selected the required printer and
hit Next I got this error:
'Windows cannot connect to the printer. Either the printer name is
incorrect, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the Sharer'
So I tested the file sharing and that worked perfectly. PC_Two could happily
read and write to shares on Sharer, but COULD NOT connect to the shared
printer.
So I racked my brains and thought about what I had changed on Sharer
recently. The answer was a lot (Apache, PHP, IMAP mail Sharer installed for
starters, none of which I suspected as a cause), and using System Restore
was truly an ugly option. I had also recently run the Home Networking Wizard
on Sharer (don't ask why, I had a feeble minded moment). I think the latter
probably did for me. Stupid is as stupid does, I guess.
I tried lot of stuff, including a clean uninstall of ZoneAlarm and disabling
the Windows firewall on Sharer, plus shutting the fiirewalls down on the
other PC's. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling File & Print Services on
Sharer and frankly a whole load of wacky stuff I should not have tried (why
did I think installing Unix Print Services would help?). Enabling NetBIOS
over TCP/IP on all machines and forcing Sharer to be the browse master also
did not work. Tired and frustrated I wrote it off for the night after 4
hours of increasingly desperate activity. I did not try IPX/SPX as suggested
in some posts.
A bit more research today threw up many other ideas - here are some of the
links that I found useful:
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/al...read/thread/d7cc5be1cce79964/5518f1dfe88e1b51
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/al...read/thread/d7cc5be1cce79964/5518f1dfe88e1b51
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/mi...read/thread/ef23e4773cc6003b/74eade1a0b227409
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/mi...read/thread/6fa4b0043b88eafc/e2a45d2592d53321
After reading the above I suspected that permissions must have gone awry, I
decided Simple File Sharing had to be OFF so I could figure it out. So I
turned it off on Sharer, granted Everyone permission to - Print - Manage
Printers - Manage Documents - and tried again from PC_Two. Bingo! I then
turned off NetBIOS over TCP/IP on all machines (due to possible internet
security issues) and connected from PC_Three and again it worked.
So the permissions were the problem somewhere down the line and turning off
Simple File Sharing allowed it to be resolved. I intend to leave it off
anyway as I like the granularity of security provided.
Finally THANKS to Chuck in this ng and Wesley Vogel et al in others for
providing the info required to solve the issue. The usenet works because
people like you all take the time to make it work.
Cheers and hope this helps somebody go through less pain than I did for the
sake of unticking a few checkboxes.
Neil C