Shared Printer Stops working with XP SP2 upgrade

[mk]

We have 2 machines on our network which share printers. Both of these
machines were recently upgraded to SP2. Both of them shared printers
fine prior to SP2. Both of them have F&P sharing enabled. Both have
disabled firewalls.

Here is the problem:
If I restart the computer and other computers on the network, I am
able to print to the computer over the network. (The local computer
can always print as they are not going through the share.) After a
certain period of time, I am not able to print on the shared printer.
When I check my local computer the printer status says unable to
connect. If I try to open the properties, it tells me that the print
spooler service is not running, although it is infact running on both
computers. Upon restarting the spooler service on the client
machines, I am sometimes able to reconnect to the computer sharing the
printer, but not always.

As I said before, this didn't happen prior to SP2. I do have more
than 10 computers that connect to the share, however they do not use
the share. Is this that Microsoft now enforces the connection limit
differently, or is there some issue with the connection itself?

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

It's the connection limitation kicking in. Whether or not they 'use' the
share, they are taking it up.

Your option is either:

Purchase another printer, connect it to another PC and ensure that half the
PCs on the network use printer A as their default and the other half use
printer B....
or
Upgrade the PC with the printer to a Server operating system. The
connection limitation in the Windows 2000 Small Business Server is 49. In
Windows 2003 Small Business Server it's 75. In a full Windows Server,
whether 2000 or 2003 there is no connection limitation.

 

[Guest]

Or, you can buy a Print Server, and that becomes the server for the printer
instead of one of your XP boxes.

 

[Alan Morris\(MSFT\)]

You can verify the number of connected machines on the machine sharing the
printer with the "net sess" command or in Administrative tools, Computer
Management, Shares.

Applications keep a connection open to the sharing machine when someone
prints and leaves the application resident.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.