Strange printer sharing problem with W2K

[Grand_Poobah]

I have W2K running on an old P3 and it is used to handle a new USB Canon
D300 printer. I have made it shared and can access it from three of my
five computers (all running WinXP). The two computers that cannot
access the printer are laptops. On BOTH of them, the user must first
"log in" to the W2K computer (using the "My Network Places" panel) by
double-clicking the icon for my W2K machine. Once they enter their
username/password, then they have to go through the process of
installing the attached printer - again and again and again. Every time
they boot up.

I have added a BAT file to both laptop's startup folder, containing this:

net use \\192.168.1.100 mypassword /user:myuser

and it completes correctly every time but it does NOT affect the printer
access.

As I said, the XP desktops do not have this problem. They can print
each and every time they boot up, right away - without having to re-connect.

The laptops do this if they are connected wireless OR if wired. One
running WinXPHome and one running WinXPPro.

Any clues as to why this is happening?

GP

 

[Grand_Poobah]

Also posted in Windows2000.general