Sharing an OfficeJet G55 from a Win2K desktop...

L

ladasky

Hi, folks,

I have an HP OfficeJet G55 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. It is
connected to the main computer in my house, which runs Win2K Pro. I've
had both the printer and the desktop PC for about four years, with no
problems. Of course, now that I actually need help, my technical
support has expired, for both the OS and the printer.

My wife just acquired an OS X Macintosh PowerBook, from which she would
like to print. Also, I'm borrowing a WinXP laptop that I rather like.
All of the various computers in the house are communicating happily
through our wireless router to the DSL modem. But they don't know
anything about each other.

I have been reading the Windows docs, various web pages, and Usenet
articles for several hours now, trying different things, to no avail.
So far, I've done the following:

1) I started the File and Printer Sharing service on the desktop PC to
which the printer is attached.
2) I activated sharing for the OfficeJet from the Printers control
panel, and gave it the public name "OFFICEJET".
3) I made sure that both my desktop and WinXP laptop belong to a single
workgroup which I have named "HOME".

That's where I get stuck. If I try to browse for network printers
using the Add Printer Wizard from the WinXP laptop, it doesn't seem to
find anything. The "shared printers" page displays a "Microsoft
Windows Network" and a "HOME" icon, but no printers. If I manually try
to supply the "OFFICEJET" name, I receive an error message saying that
the system cannot connect to the printer.

This web page...

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-1910.html

....suggested that I might need to have the printer driver on my client
PC at least partially installed before I go browsing the network for
the hardware. So, I tried this on the WinXP machine. I can't get
beyond the installation! The driver download is here...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?dlc=en&lc=en&product=57742&lang=en&cc=us&os=228#

On the "connection type" page, I am asked whether I will connect to the
printer directly, or through a network. I choose the latter. I click
"Next" -- and the same screen comes up! The only way to go forward is
if I say that I want to connect to the printer directly -- which,
obviously, I can't do.

I figured that getting two Windows machines to speak to each other
would be easier than passing information between the Win2K machine and
the Mac, and allow me to diagnose problems more readily. But I may be
wrong! If it's any easier to accomplish the Mac interface, that's the
more important one.

Thanks for any advice!

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C

Cari \(MS-MVP\)

With the Windows XP PC, you'll need to ensure it's in the same Workgroup as
the Win 2000 PC.. and that it's username and pw is added to the 2000 PC.
Vice versa if you want the Win 2K PC to see files and folders on the XP PC.

The Mac... erm.... sorry I have no clue. Any other Mac users around? Does
the HP website actually have drivers for this printer for a Mac?
 

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