Unable to access shared printer

Ok Paul and all

While I was composing the last message I had a phone cal and took me a while now I see all the other posts.

So you have plenty of help!

I am outta Dodge!

Mike

 

One mor thing to try and if it fails it may give details on why it won't connect.

Printer is ready and shared on the computer it is attached too.

Do this on the other computer:

start-run
type
cmd
at the prompt type

net use lpt3 \\computername\printername

see what happens.

Bye

Mike

 

Your router is only going to show hostnames -- devices that require the router DHCP server issue an IP and other connection information. (But see the UPnP exception below).

This would be true for a true network printer that had its own network interface.

For those printers connected to a workstation by cable, they do not need a hostname-to-IP mapping, and will not appear in the router table.

As well, if the workstation is off, it will obviously not appear in the table either.

However, for XP an IP-addressed network printer is just another port. Once discovered, it leaves a persistent entry in My Computer Places and the Printer and Faxes applet. It can even be "printed" to, although the actual print job is stored in the local workstation spooler sevice as a Job entry and will report a printer status error message. When the printer is enabled, Windows will recognize the change in status and attempt to actually print the Job in its spooler queue.

This user's case is not an IP-addressed printer, but USB. But this changes really nothing to the suggestions made earlier. It does mean that it will not show an entry in your router, powered on or not. One possible exception is if the printer is UPnP capable, UPnP is enabled on the printer, the router is UPnP capable, and UPnP is enabled on the router. In that case you might well see a printer entry in the router table depending on the powered-on state of printer and locally hosting workstation due to SSDP discovery.

 

net use lpt3 \\computername\printername

This command will likely fail. Even if it succeeds, you have not mapped to a logical printer device.
It is syntaticly incorrect.

 

Mike---just wanted to say "thankyou" yet again!! For others here, he helped me this morning with a virus issue and took me through a bunch of steps and it solved it.....I had mentioned that my wireless laptop wouldn't connect to my printer (that is connected to a desktop computer) and he did say he would help me with that too.....but I decided to look around the forums and found this post....These steps worked first try!!!....and I have been trying to do this forever!!! (I got it to work about 1 year ago but it stopped and couldn't get it to work again)

This site is fantastic!!!!
Lisa

 

Well Hello Lisa

I am sorry I forgot that!

I was in a hurry I guess. When I get in a hurry I spel bad an drp leters and have bad sintax and fergit things. See how good I do when I am meller!

I had to get something to eat, go by the post office and another errand and just retuned.

I am so glad you found this and resolved the issue.

But it ain't supposed to work!

Ok!

Visit the BBS more and you can fixum too!

Another failure on my part was to let you know how good a job you did! Which was great!

Bye,
Mike

 

After reading some of those replies that is why I just had to post that there

No problem....I felt like I asked tons of "dumb" questions this morning though...but that is how I am...always second guessing myself!! So I just decided to look around and was surprised to see that exact printer issue I had.

I am sure I will stick around here. I actually find all this stuff really interesting... Although sometimes I wish I actually new what exactly is happening when I am running things/changing things etc....

But thanks again....and I will see you around! I am sure I have more things to fix

Lisa

 

Hey Paul

Hope you did not get put off and give up on us.

I had a bite to eat and did my errands so now I am back to pester you.

ackerberg and surferdude are correct it is easier to set up the network printer than the original printer. There you have to hook up cables put in a cd etc. If it worked all you have to do for the network printer is click it a couple of times the driver is loaded across the network and Wah-La.

But I also believe there is something we all are missing. You have done this before.

To expand on ackerberg's statement about Multi Function printers (which I had mentioned earlier have a few issues).

There are printers that will not allow the advanced functions like scanning etc except locally but they usually will still print. I have found most HP printers to work well.
Lexmarks on the other hand have been a headache sometimes.

I have also had them to show up and even install on a remote computer but not print.

Did you ever say what brand & model this printer is?

But here is a fact. Untill it shows up somehow some way we have no issue on if it will print or not.

Now the lpt3 process I mentioned was only for trouble shooting (someone did not understand that) the sucess of this would have confirmed awareness of this printer. A failure of this would give us an error code which may tell us where to look.

A new approach.

Turn off firewalls temporarilly.

run the following on both computers

Start-run
ipconfig /flushdns
then
ipconfig /registerdns

then
nbtstat -RR

To be sure reboot them.

Now try.

Get back.

Hang with us

and good luck

Mike

 

Mike,
I am confused by your use of the word Network Printer in your post above mine. I think you mean to say "Shared Printer ". Yes?

 

Flushing your DNS cache is completely unrelated to the issue; the printer has no DNS entry in a Workgroup, and as a connected printer would have none in a Domain either.

Re-registering the DNS entry for a workstation is nonsensical, there is no local DNS server to accept the registration.

Similarly, forcing an nbtstat regregistration of the workstation does nothing to help locate a printer.

This is not helping.

 

10-4 ackerberg

Shared printer
not
Network physically attached

Used to talking with users that don't know the difference so I am use to being general.

Thanks for mentioning it I surely don't want more confusion than ther already is.

Thanks ackerberg

Did he call me a dirty name???

was does nonsensical mean????????

did I hear a little birdy say printers do not have dns, why corse not, but on the path to that printer could be a computer that does. Its starnge but some do!

how bout elaerrate on nbtstat so I kan get to lern it.


LOL,

Mike

 

Hi guys,
Just for the record, the printer in question in my original post is an HP all-in-one, model HP PSC 2355 . According to its manual, it does indeed support Windows printer sharing. I'm going to follow the step by step procedure that Mike outlined a few posts ago and try some of the other diagnostic suggestions that have kindly been offered.

However, I am going to quit from this thread now as I am rather alarmed at some of the recent dialog - I seem to have inadvertantly triggered a whole other discussion that I really don't want to be a part of and I feel its best to duck out now.

Thanks again to everyone who has tried to help me and I will post back if I find a solution to this problem
Regards, Paul