not auto connecting to drive share

Situation - I have 2 machines using 2000 and xp home. Main machine is the w2k using cable modem. Have setup wireless so machine 2 with xp can connect to the web anytime and anyplace in the home. Have installed a wireless pci card in machine 1 w2k to allow machine 2 to use machine 1's printer. On machine 1 and 2 have installed netbeui. Have setup a drive map to machine 1 from machine 2 with reconnect checked. Can get the printer to function from machine 2 with a minor problem.

Problem - when I reboot machine 2 I need to walk the network neighborhood tree to machine 1 then when I click on machine 1 from explorer it prompts me to log into machine 1 again to make the printer function.

Have shares setup on machine one for the root drive and also the printer.

Printer is setup on machine 2 to use machine 1's printer but not able to do so until I relog into machine 1 by walking the tree.

Not sure what I have missed to make this an auto function at boot up. Wireless is working because it does allow me to log into the other machine.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

need assistance

need some assistance on my problem. could someone please review and comment.

Thank you.

 

I'm really not sure exactly what is causing the behavior. I'd be tempted to blame the wireless stuff - but only because I know nothing about it at all.

A suggestion that may cure the problem without your ever finding the cause.

If all it takes for the network printer to function is your connecting to the PC, use a small batch file.

Assuming you are trying to get PC2 to make a connection to PC1 and that PC1 has a share named Share, open a text editor, enter the following, and save the file as connect.bat then place a shortcut to connect.bat in the All Users startup folder:

net use p: \\PC1\Share

If you have passwords and such, they can be included. Just open a command window and key in net use /? to see the available syntax.

 

Newt

Thats not a bad idea. Why didnt I think of that. Used to do that a lot with old legacy program from the DOS day and novell. Thanks.

The wireless stuff I gotta admit is the slickest thing I've seen in a long time. Except for this problem it was a snap and no cables to worry about.

Thanks again.

 

Hope it works for you.

 

Newt

Have used net use quite a lot before but never with a usb printer connection. Will it work be pointing to usbprn01 which is the way the port is described.

 

Not really sure. I was suggesting a net use connecton just to sorta wake things up.

I know you can do the net use lpt1 \\somepc\sharedprinter for DOS printing to a usb printer. The network connection in this case doesn't really care what USB port on the host holds the printer.

Another neat trick (but nothing to do with your issue) is from an NT box (NT4/2K/XP) if you have a USB printer and need to print from an old DOS app but can't make it happen

net use lpt1 \\mypc\my-shared-usb-printer and you will be good to go.

The PC doesn't seem to notice the printer is local and it does understand how to do the job over a network, so .....