Windows XP (Home) Mac OS X Tiger Printer Share

We have a basic printer sharing network via a Linksys router between a Windows XP (Home) and Mac running OS-X Tiger. I recently installed several updates, as did my wife (Mac) and we lost our network. My machine prints to our HP 1160, hers can "see" my computer, but cannot open files or get to the printer. I have turned on all permissions and made Zone Alarm friendly to all known printer issues. Ideas please.

 

Is the Printer actually plugged into the Router or is it SHARED though the XP machine ?

I had a HP 5550 plugged into the XP pro machine and I WAS Sharing it. More than half of the time the darn thing would not print from one of the other two 98SE machines.

And if I forgot and shut this machine down the printer was not available anyway. ( AND I HAVE done that. And got reminded ( some times not politely) that I messed up)

So I just picked up and HP 5850, pluggged it into the Router which makes it an actual Network ( not shared ) printer and BINGO !! everybody can use it at anytime. Of course it does need to be powered at all times, so I just plugged it into the Surge Protector that feeds the Modem, Router and 4 port switch.

And you already have needed item ( the Router ) to make it work.

BillyBob

 

BillyBob,

Thanks for the reply, but . .

The HP LaserJet 1160 does not have an ethernet connection, so I have to run it through the Dell (XP-Home) and my wife's Mac picks(ed) it up from therre. Before recent patches from MS and my wife's reinstallation of her OS (Tiger 10.4.2) we had a perfectly running printer share set up running. As I previously stated, I have allow throgh the network and printer properties all the permissions that I can find. I have also made the printer functions fully accessible through Zone Alarm Pro. She can "see" my machine, but cannot access the file, or the printer. I am at a loss for additional steps that may open my machine further or what steps she may need to take on her end (I know diddly about Macs, but she is a certified tech and she is also at a loss).

 

A disclaimer here - I know zero, zip, nada, nothing about any MAC OS.

The usual cause for a situation where one PC can 'see' an XP system but not have access to anything is related to how the XP PC knows what access to grant.

The simplest way is to enable the guest account on XP and have the user on the other PC log on to their system. This works in a pure Microsoft environment and I'm guessing XP would require the same from a MAC OS it could work with. Guest is usually enabled by default on XP-home and disabled by default on XP-pro.

Log on to your XP box in safe mode as administrator and take a look at your user accounts. Make sure Guest is not disabled.

If the issue isn't this simple, there are some testing things you can to do pin down the source of the problem but no need for those until you need them.