Vista and XP- printer sharing

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Baffling problem:

Two machines: Vista Home premium, XP Home.

Both computers show up on Verizon's Webtel 327w network address.

On XP machine the local (connected to XP machine) USB printer works only
from XP machine and can not print from Vista machine even after using
network setup wizard both ways-- from Vista to XP, and XP to Vista.

Can ping from XP to Vista, but not from Vista to XP, even with firewall on
XP turned off.

On XP can see shared folders.

Start> Network -- Shows two computers: Bob Slimline and STEPH.

On Vista again, nothing can be accessed from XP Machine. Though the XP
machine is seen it can not be accessed by double clicking on it. Says
computer name may be spelled incorrectly though it is not, or says there may
be a network problem which there seems to be.

All appropriate authorizations seems to be made correctly on both machines.

On Vista machine: its USB printer works from both Vista machine AND XP
Machine.

Could drivers be the cause?, though I am manually installing same printer
driver on Vista machine that is being used on the XP Machine during the add
a printer process, though the driver I add is different than the driver that
MS supplies internally for the printer if I connect the printer directly to
my Vista machine. (this because the manufacturer supplied driver causes
problems., so I use an older driver).

Printing did work however a few days ago, admittedly I recently added a new
wireless adapter to the XP machine as its internal adapter kept losing the
signal. This should have no effect.

Am unsure what else has changed.

Spent too many hours doing and redoing, so I must ask: please advise in
detail.

Robert

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

one more note:
Vista machine is hard wired via Ethernet, and XP machine is a wireless
laptop.

 

[Mick Murphy]

If you have printer hooked to XP, and you want Vista to access it and use it,
you need to have that printer's Vista compatible Driver software installed on
Vista.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

How to give Permissions are there, too.

If you are running Norton, Trend Micro, McAfee, etc’s Firewall, check its
settings to make sure it allows file and printer sharing..

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and
passwords on ALL computers in your Network) If you have it ON, you will be
asked for a username and password when you try to access a Vista computer
from an XP computer.

Also, run the XP’s Home Network File and Printer sharing Wizard.

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Please recall Vista machine can not access anything on XP Machine and XP
Machine can see ALL relevant items: folders and printers on Vista Machine.

XP Machine can print to Vista's printer.

All settings seem correct in both, which I am sure one thing is set
incorrectly, and the special Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder
is installed on XP Machine.

Yet Vista can not see XP Machine, printer or folders. How to start from
scratch?

Robert

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Humbly must admit the problem was me, not as in Microsoft ME but me as in
Robert.

I had been using the wrong printer name in setting up the local port.


Problem resolved, Vista once again vindicated. yeah Vista.

Robert