Win98/95 peer to peer works fine except printer share

[santino]

I got 2 PCs on Win 95 and I on Win98 networked in the office and 2 Win98 PCs networked at home. TCP/IP, IPX and NetBEUI are all installed, primary Windows logon is Client for Microsoft Networks and file and printer sharing is enabled.

Now, I have the same proble on both networks : my problem is that even though all computers are visible in the network neighborhood and file sharing works, I can print using the printer connected on PC #1 through PC # 2.

Any thoughts?

[This message has been edited by santino (edited 03-22-99).]

[TCrom]

Do you have the little hand under the printer on both PC's? If not, then both are probably not sharing that printer.

[santino]

Yup, the printer (an Epson Stylus Color II) is shared. It's getting really frustrating because in order to print a file, I need to transfer it to the PC that the printer is connected to.

[TCarff]

Have you set up the printer on the other machine. Go to printers and select "add new printer" then select "networked printer" and then select the printer you have shared. It should install the drivers for it from the computer that the printer is connected too. That's all I had to do and printing works great.

[santino]

Did that too. All the computers have the printer installed as a network printer and as the active printer.
I'm pretty sure I did everything I was supposed to, I don't understand what's wrong.

[Eccentric]

How do you refer to the printer? When you try to print to it, is the path to the printer like so:

//<computer name>/<printer>

Check it like this. Since you have NetBEUI installed, go into Network Neighborhood on the machine you can't print from. Click on the other computer in there. If you see the printer then it's shared properly. If not then you have it set up as a network printer on both machines, which is NOT correct. If you see it, write down the path in the location bar at the top of the window, then try and print something and look at the default printer. If it's not that path then that's your problem. Good luck!

[santino]

Yup, I see the printer through Network Neighborhood from another PC. I installed
the printer as a local printer on the machine that it is physically connected to. I'm
ready to give up and continue to resort to transferring the file that needs to be printed
to the PC that is physically connected to the printer.
BTW, thanks for all the help. Keep the ideas comming

[TCrom]

Another thought. Is the printer set as the default printer in the 'software'on the system that doesn't print? Could be that the printer is shared by both computers but that it is not set in the software. Just another thought.......

[Watson]

I had the same problem about a year ago with my Stylus Pro. I broke up the network(not literally) before I had a chance to try this information from The Epson website. Good luck!
http://www.epson.com/support/instans/network.html

[rktech]

Try capturing a new printer port on the machine not connected to the printer. Go to printer/select the printer/then properties/details /then capture printer port. Go to lpt2 and copy the shared path, then at the port select lpt2 and make sure the driver is in the lower box. This should work if the printer driver supports windows(sharing).

[santino]

You know, I never thought about the driver being the possible culprit! How do I find out if the driver is network compatible? I suppose I surf through Epson's site and check. I'll also give the printer port capture a shot. Thanks rktech (and everyone else) for the advice. I'll let you know what happens.

[Caper]

I'm having almost all the same problems, except it's with a Canon BJC-610 connected to a W2K machine, and I'm trying to print from a W98 SE machine. All the protocols and sharing seem to be in order (little hands and pipes underneath), but I get this message when I try to print:

'Unable to access print server for network printer \\computername\canonbub'

I've been here for W2K drivers for this printer, but I don't see any.

http://128.11.41.160/goto.shtml?/techsupport/downloads/index.html

Funny things is, though, is that the driver is available from within W2K when you install the printer..

What if I put the printer onthe W98 machine with its W95/98 drivers? Would the W2k machine then be able to print as it does now (hooked up directly to the W2k box)?

[This message has been edited by Caper (edited 11-16-2000).]

[Tonemo]

This is the same problem i have! (in the previous post) Except it's WIN98SE and 98 first edition and i'm connected to a router. Everything looks correct but nothing prints. Mine is a Lexmark 3200. I'll try the capture solution

[Caper]

Well, I tried switching the printer to the other machine, but no go. But the setup of the networked printer on W2K was slick; I was able to browse for the printer now connected to the W98 machine, and all seemed well until I tried to print from Word (while on the W2K machine now). I went to File | Print, got the dialog box which designates the printer as its appropriate \\sharename\printer names, and it identifies the printer by its correct and model, but it says:

"Windows cannot print due to a problem with the current printer setup."

I don't get it. The printer is set up as the default printer on each machine under Printers, and it's set up as shared on the host (W98). The test page prints fine no matter which machine it's hooked up to. I've tried capturing different printer ports, too..

[Caper]

It's got to be the driver in my case. I rebooted, tried agin, and then got a brief reaction out of the printer, but it only printed the top-half of the first line, then quit printing the job altogether.

[Tonemo]

Well I don't know if you guys had the same problem but I got mine to work! All I did differently was to remove the printer from the no-printer pc, do 'add printer' again, as a network printer, of course, but this time i chose the option to overwrite the drivers (from the printer pc) instead of keeping the ones i already had installed (because i previously had the printer attached here locally). Then I also did the 'capture printer port' option and selected lpt1 (what does that do anyway?) So in my case, the printer is ONLY a network printer on the no-printer pc and ONLY a local printer on the printer pc. Now it prints! Does that make sense? http://discussions.hardwarecentral.com/biggrin.gif