Vista SP1 fails to network printer

[TM]

I have one XP, two Vista and one Mac computer on my home network. The Mac's a
piece of cake but my kids' two Vistas are a nightmare for networking the
family printer, which is on my XP computer.

With suitable long evenings of tweaking permissions and pleading, their
computers eventually see the printer, but refuse to "Add Printer" as they
should. Firewalls are off, sharing enabled, permissions tweaked anew and
newsgroups read, plus hours spent rebooting and praying. But, every time I
try to add a shared printer on the XP computer, it sees the printer, then
tells me I cannot add it unless I install the driver. I click on "Install
Driver" and it hangs. Heaven forbid that it would even have the courtesy to
say, no, I refuse to install any driver for your stinking printer. It just
won't, and it won't apologise or explain.

So why don't I just download the driver and install it manually? Easy. Then,
in my administrator account on my daughter's Vista computer, it sees it and -
after installing SP1 - it finally says it's installed and it's the default
printer. That only took six months!

But wait. In my daughter's own account, the printer still doesn't exist and
it won't install!

I click again on "Install Driver" (which of course is already installed,
according to the same computer on my own account) and it refuses to do such
an impossible thing. How could I be so naive as to expect that? It just hangs
again. Another customer for Ubuntu.

When we first bought these two Vistas, we were stunned to find how
dysfunctional the networking was with XP, with layers of complexity and
permissions making it impossible for Microsoft to work with Microsoft. There
were other wacky problems such as popups telling me that certain "startup
programs" in my administrator account are "blocked" and I, the administrator,
don't have permission to unblock them, whatever the heck that means. Then
there's the new phantom non-existent computer which appears on our "network
computers" list - with the name of my son's computer plus the letters, "-OC."
I can't delete it, can't figure out who or what it is. It's a Vista
poltergeist.

But all I wanted was for my daughter to print her homework before I die.
Newsgroups told me to lie to Vista by claiming it was a "Local" USB printer
plugged into the Vista, not a "network" printer on the XP computer, which of
course it is. Great - although not a confidence-builder. Then, I was supposed
to configure the address manually, assuming I could figure it out the way
Vista wanted it (although it knew the address because it could see the
network printer - just couldn't install it. This wacky workaround worked,
after another evening of frustration.

Then, we waited for SP1, confident that Microsoft could not possibly fail to
fix a blunder so glaring that the newsgroups buzzed for months with other
victims clamouring for a solution.

We were all wrong. I've been on the internet since before it was invented
and am familiar with computers. I somehow set up networks in Windows 2000 and
Windows XP without going grey. But it's impossible for my daughter to print
her damn homework on my printer, now that we've "upgraded" her to this Vista
thing. Pitiful, isn't it? No wonder my son is installing Ubuntu...

And, yes, we use Windows Live One Care and we know it has trouble working
with Windows Vista. In fact, we're completely unsurprised by this absurdity.

But any guidance will be gratefully received.

TM

 

[Mick Murphy]

We have to assume that you have XP's file and printer sharing turned on.

We also have to assume that you found and installed a Vista compatible
Driver for the XP Printer to be installed on vista; not an XP Printer driver
installed on Vista!

In the Vista account, go to Network and Sharing>Add Network Device>Browse
for the XP's Printer< install it.

AND, turn ON printer Sharing in Vista's Network and Sharing.

 

[Mick Murphy]

And this is the simple way to Network vista and XP!

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

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

Permissions/Share info is there as well.

If using Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro I.S., make sure file and printer
sharing is enabled in THEIR firewall.

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(they can be different) 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 “Set up a Home or small Office Network Wizard†to include
Vista in your Network.

 

[TM]

Mick -

Thanks for the speedy reply. Yes, I have the XP machine's file and printer
sharing turned on and, yes .

As to the Vista driver, yes, I installed it on the Vista machine manually
because, when I click "Install Driver," it does nothing and hangs. When I
install the correct driver manually anyway, the computer thinks we're talking
about a printer attached to the computer, which is wrong - so it hasn't
installed a network printer which is on a different computer. It has merely
installed an attached printer which does not exist.

But never mind - by doing all that, I still managed to get my son's Vista
computer printing on my XP computer. But not my daughter's Vista computer: it
sees the printer as the default printer in my administrator account, but it
will not actually print to it or read the ink levels. It pretends to have
installed it as the default printer, but it hasn't. And, in her own acccount,
it still won't install the printer, even when I switch it to an administrator
account. I click again on "Install Driver," and nothing happens - even though
the correct Vista driver is already installed.

Now to the question of what driver. Your second message suggests that you
want me to install a Vista printer driver on my XP machine. Are you sure
about this? Why won't that sabotage my XP machine?

Note again: I've turned off the firewall in Live One Care on all three
computers. I've got the same workgroup name. I've shared the printer. I've
installed the drivers. I've got the same settings for network discovery, etc.
Windows Vista simply refuses to work as advertised, and SP1 is installed.

Any other thoughts?

Thankyou.

TM

 

[Mick Murphy]

When you are in Vista's Network And sharing?> Add Network Device> and you
want to add a printer.
Avoid that add a priner which is shared by users in vista.
Browse for the XP Printer on the Network

I forget the exact words(a while since i added one); but it sounds like you
are adding a local printer to Vista for all its user accounts to use, not
adding a Network Printer for the its user accounts to use