Stumped - Windows Printer Sharing problem

[asawadude]

I've been plugging away at this problem for the past 3 hours and it's frustrating the hell out of me. I have a home network with 3 computers hard-wired into a DLink DL624 wireless router and also occasionally we'll connect two laptops wirelessly. All machines are running XP and are attached to the same Windows workgroup for file sharing.

One of the hard-wired computers is used as a print server for printing from the laptops. My wife hasn't been able to print for a couple of days with an error error that said the printer was either not connected or was turned off, but the server and printer are actually up and running. The printer works fine; it's a connectivity issue. The printer status in her laptop said "connecting..." Apparently, her laptop could not find the spooler service is on the server. I fired up my laptop and got the same error as well.

I deleted the printer from her laptop and tried reinstalling it fresh as a network printer. What's unusual is that the computer name of the server shows up in the network browser, so her laptop is seeing it, but the shared printer name does not appear. Laptop will not see the printer. Friggin' weird. I then went to the sever and unshared then reshared the printer with a different name, but there was no change. Printer is still invisible to other computer despite being enabled as shared.

I can ping back and forth between laptops and server. I thought my Zone Alarm firewall appliance might have been the problem since I installed an upgrade recently on the server. I am using the WinXP SP2 firewall on her laptop, McAfee Internet Security Enterprise on my laptop. I combed through the entire ZoneAlarm User Forum and doublechecked all the possible firewall configuration issues (LAN network and spoolsvc.exe must be in trusted zone, etc.), but found nothing that solved the problem.

Not only can't I see the shared printer, I can't see any shared folders on the server for any other networked computer. I see the name of the server when I bring it in through the network places folder, but I can't drill any futher down. There is something blocking it.

Any of you techies have any ideas? I could see myself spending another 5 hours tomorrow night, this time reading through the DLink Forum message threads on shared printer problems and probably getting no where.

I'd much rather be doing my FFL Draft Day research...

Meanwhile the wife is getting really pissed that she can't print from her laptop from wherever she's at in the house.

It's a rather obscure problem, but thanks in advance if someone has a solution.

[broknlgs24]

was this setup working at one point?

[asawadude]

Originally Posted by broknlgs24

was this setup working at one point?

Yup - The server is actually a brand new computer (3 months old). Took me about 3 minutes to set up the printer as shared and it worked fine with jobs sent from the wireless networked laptops until recently, probably coinciding with some type of automatic software upgrade (I'm guessing Zone Alarm).

[rickp]

• Since all your computers are part of the same Workgroup you probably have created the same usernames and passwords on each computer, right? ex. user= janedo pw=x5rulez is on both laptop and server. If not, do it.
• On the "server", right-click printer and click sharing tab. Is sharing turned on?
• On the "server", Start, Run, CMD, <Enter>, type "Net stop spooler" when done, type "Net Start Spooler"
• On the "server",
• On the "laptop", Start, Run, CMD, <Enter>, type "net use \\server\IPC$" (w/o quotes and insert your server name). Are you prompted for user/pass? Any errors?
• On both "laptop" and "server" go to Start, Control Panel, Network Connections, Open the Active network connection (LAN or Wireless) by right-clicking and selecting properties. The first tab is the General tab. In the middle of that window, scroll down and ensure File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is checked.

If you're still having issues.

• Make sure all firewalls are off
• Delete and recreate the printer on your "server" and laptops.
• Make sure you are not exceeding the maximum of 10 connections on your "server". XP limitation.
• Connect wife's laptop to printer and say "Here honey, you can print now" (joking)

Good luck.

[asawadude]

Originally Posted by rickp

Since all your computers are part of the same Workgroup you probably have created the same usernames and passwords on each computer, right? ex. user= janedo pw=x5rulez is on both laptop and server. If not, do it.

ID's and passwords on laptops and server are the same.

Originally Posted by rickp

On the "server", right-click printer and click sharing tab. Is sharing turned on?

It's on. I even disabled it and reenabled it.

Originally Posted by rickp

• On the "server", Start, Run, CMD, <Enter>, type "Net stop spooler" when done, type "Net Start Spooler"
• On the "server",
• On the "laptop", Start, Run, CMD, <Enter>, type "net use \\server\IPC$" (w/o quotes and insert your server name). Are you prompted for user/pass? Any errors?

I'll try these Thursday nite.

Originally Posted by rickp

On both "laptop" and "server" go to Start, Control Panel, Network Connections, Open the Active network connection (LAN or Wireless) by right-clicking and selecting properties. The first tab is the General tab. In the middle of that window, scroll down and ensure File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is checked.

I checked these settings - they were okay.

Originally Posted by rickp

• Make sure all firewalls are off
• Delete and recreate the printer on your "server" and laptops.
• Make sure you are not exceeding the maximum of 10 connections on your "server". XP limitation.

I did all these including turning off all firewalls. No effect. I have 5 computers on my LAN (3 wired/2 wireless), the 2 wireless laptops are sharing the printer with the server.

Originally Posted by rickp

Connect wife's laptop to printer and say "Here honey, you can print now" (joking)

I dug the old Laserjet 5 out of the garage and set it on the kitchen counter. The toner cartridge is still full, but it's also about 7 years old.

Thanks for your help, RIck.

[Thunder22]

is the windows firewall enabled on the server? or on the laptop? (sorry, didn't read the entire thread)

[BMW X5]

just some busy work, try to shut down the printer totally unplug, and turn off all the machines including the server. then turn on the printer and server check to make sure you can print from the server (shouldnt be an issue since its hardwired) then delete the printer all together. reinstall the printer and setup sharing again. can you print to the printer from the other 3 hardwired machines? if so it might be something with the laptops

[broknlgs24]

any luck?

[JonK]

I have a hardwired home network consists of 5 hardwired workstations's and and wireless access point that I use with 3 laptops and two PDA, depite the fact I am the only permanent resident in my household.

At first, I shared the printer connected to one of the NT(XP same difference) it was really not realiable with or without the firewall turned on. I had a same problem you're having. I had to physically reset the printer and the computer that is connected in order to operate properly. What a pain in the A$$! I also couldn't stand the noise for running the workstation just to use the printer.

http://support.dlink.com/products/vi...tid=DI%2D704UP I used the router with a print server. It worked for a while on and off. Good idea but bad execution! Thanks again D-Link. I didn't have time to fart around with this POS.

Dedicated printer server I picked up from Van Nuys California for 55 $ several months ago http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/...=42&ProdID=224 I connected this up with cheap lazer priter Brother HL2040 for my niece. It also didn't perform consistantly. I believe it has something to do with the fact the printer has auto-shut off functions and the print server drivers are not well written to accomodate all the different printers.

Ultimate solution: Brother MFC-8870DW
http://www.brother-usa.com/mfc/mfc_d...MFC8870DW.aspx
Works like a dream. No money, no honey, Asawa.

[asawadude]

I had a day full of work related drama - got home at 4:30am. Didn't have a chance to go through your suggestions. I'll give them a try on Friday night or Saturday. Thanks!