Cannot Share Printer Across Wireless (yes, I used SEARCH function.lol)

S

Scroatdog

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 17, 2003
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Alright, I have tried everything I can think of. Of course, my FIRST course of action was to use the SEARCH function here, and to Google about 50 different ways of saying I cannot share a printer over a wireless connection.

Setup: living room desktop hard-wired into LINKSYS WRT-54G. Bedroom (fiance') desktop with Linksys WMP-54G PCI wireless card. The network has worked flawlessly as far as Internet connectivity. Took all precautions on setting up the wireless router, and I'm using WPA encryption, and allowing only two connections to the network, placing my IP and the other computer's IP in the router's settings....

I ran, and ran, and re-ran the Window Xp Home network setup wizard, but I can't get these computers to talk. The printer in question is an HP Photosmart 1115. For a while, I couldn't even change its properties to "shared", but then realized that when I set this computer up long ago, it was not going to be a part of a network..... so I had to go into Services and start up "Server", because it was disabled.

Anyhow, can anyone help me turn on the lighbulb over my head and end this frustration for me??????

Thanks in advance
 
Also forgot to add a couple of things....

Both computers using XP SP2. Both computers running Norton Internet Security (in addition to harware firewall in Linksys)
 
Just real quick because I am going to assume that you thought of this.

You say that the computers don't see each other at all but they get Internet access w/o problem. You also mentioned that you have Norton Internet Security (software firewall) in addition to the router.

Have you trusted the IP's to each other? In other words, have you told the software firewall to allow all communication from a particular IP (in this case, the other computer)? If you haven't, there's your problem right there, but I can't tell you how to do it. If you have, feel free to ignore this.

You should be able to ping the other machine from a command prompt (ping <ip>). If it comes back as unresponsive, you've probably got the firewall setup to block incoming requests. Also make sure that file and print sharing is enabled on the network cards in use.

You mentioned that you played with services (such as server). Now's a good time to go back through and make sure that everything that you changed originally that might relate to what you are doing is returned to default settings.
 
Is the file and print sharing exception turned on in the SP2 firewall?
Turn on the logging feature and try to connect, and see what it says. It may be working pretty much fine, but the SP2 firewall may be dropping it.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I went into Norton and trusted each assigned IP address to each other. They are still not talking or seeing each other, though. I also have Windows' firewall disabled since Norton takes over those duties....

Maybe there's something in the router setup that I have overlooked????

Oh, on my living room desktop (hard-wired) whe I click "View workgroup computers" it locks up completely. On the other computer, it shows only itself................
 
On the Admin page for the wrt54g, go into Wireless->Advanced Wireless Settings and make sure AP isolation is set to off. If it's on, wireless clients won't be able to communicate with anything else on the network.
 
JBark said:
On the Admin page for the wrt54g, go into Wireless->Advanced Wireless Settings and make sure AP isolation is set to off. If it's on, wireless clients won't be able to communicate with anything else on the network.
Click to expand...


No dice. It was already off. I really don't know what else to do at this point.
 
Machines can ping each other?? If not, something is still blocking them.

Both machines on the same workgroup? If not, make sure that they both are on the same... just pick a name. Both machines on same subnet mask? Should be, but double-check anyway.

Double-checked all services? Triple-check.

If you attach the laptop to the network via cable, do you still have the same problems? Probably, but still worth looking at.

I don't know. Assuming all settings are correct, it still sounds like a firewall thing to me. I just don't know anything about NIS to be able to help at all there. Make SURE that Windows firewall is disabled.
 
In one of your prior posts you state :

"Oh, on my living room desktop (hard-wired) whe I click "View workgroup computers" it locks up completely. On the other computer, it shows only itself................"

I would concentrate on this machine (living room). When I have had this happen in the past it has been the root of my issues. Normally for me this meant the network set-ups for this machine were Buggered big time.

As it is the hard wired machine, I would remove the NIC if possible otherwise disable it and unplug the cable. Remove all the network setting and items "make it clean". and then put the NIC back in and build it back up piece by piece. Print or write the settings down from the other machine and make sure you use those as the template for the rebuild. IP in same range , same subnet etc..

I know you say it is working for the internet, but to be honest in my experience this has been the only way I have 100% of the time gotten rid of these kinds of issues.

Good Luck
 
arkamw said:
Machines can ping each other?? If not, something is still blocking them.

Both machines on the same workgroup? If not, make sure that they both are on the same... just pick a name. Both machines on same subnet mask? Should be, but double-check anyway.

Double-checked all services? Triple-check.

If you attach the laptop to the network via cable, do you still have the same problems? Probably, but still worth looking at.

I don't know. Assuming all settings are correct, it still sounds like a firewall thing to me. I just don't know anything about NIS to be able to help at all there. Make SURE that Windows firewall is disabled.
Click to expand...

Ok, well, the Windows firewall was ON, on both computers. I thought I had disabled it long ago, since I had NIS running. So that's out of the way now. The hard-wired computer can now see the bedroom(wireless) computer in Network Neighborhood now. But the bedroom comp can't see the living room comp, which is bad because that's the computer with the printer on it I'm trying to network to. I pinged each machine respective to one another, and no problems there.

I must be getting closer....
 
File and print sharing activated on wired machine?

Double-check that the resources that you want to share are shared on the wireless machine. In this case, you might want to share a drive (and the printer too). On the wireless machine, double-click on My Computer, tools > Map Network drive > then use \\<name or wired computer>\<driveletter> (example: \\scroatdog\d) and see if it will connect that way.
 
No dice. Tried that too. I checked and the file and print sharing is activated on the wired comp. It's weird that I can access the "Shared Docs" on the wireless computer no problem. When I open "My Network Places" on the wired comp, I see SharedDocs on both the wired and the wireless comp. On the wireless, I only see its own shared docs.

Also weird, when I click "View WorkGroup Computers" on the wired comp, only the wireless comp shows up. Same on the wireless...... it only shows itself as being part of the workgroup. I double-checked and the workgroup name is the same for both computers. I just don't understand it. They can both ping each other, Windows firewall is off......... but for some reason the wired comp can see the wireless, but the wireless only sees itself.
 
You problem seem so familiar, and I know that I have seen the solution somewhere.. but can't place it.

Just to recap:

- You have two machines and a router. One (desktop, A) is tied to the router via a cable. The other (laptop, B) has a wireless connection to the router.

- The router is set to full DHCP assignments for both machines. The subnet is set by the router and is the same for both machines.

- Both machines can use the internet without problem.

- Both machines are now set to the same workgroup identity and do not have identical machinenames (i.e. both are not called BOB).

- Both machines can ping each other, so the machines are talking to each other.

- Firewalls have been set to trust the other's IP's in both "browse" mode (i.e. browse another computer) and "server" mode (i.e. will acknowledge requests from another machine to browse local resources). The Windows firewall has been disabled.

- Machine A can see Machine B through Network Neighborhood, but not vice-versa. You have shared resources on both machines (i.e. shared at least a drive on machine B, and a drive and the printer on machine A). So, theoretically, machine A should be able to double-click Network Neighborhood > Workgroup > machine B > Drive letter. This will not work in reverse.

OK. If all of that is correct, you might try to disable NIS altogether on A and see what happens. Not uninstall, just disable.

Also, see if you can ping <computername> from both machines. Not being able to would point towards a DNS problem. Read further.

You might look at the network settings on B. Take a look at control panel > Network options > wireless connection (right-click) > properties > scroll to internet protocol (double-click) > everything on both tabs set to auto > first tab, advanced button > WINS button > Enable LMHOSTS checkbox, make sure Default is set for NetBIOS setting. It's possible, though not likely, this might have become FUBAR'd. You can uncheck it, apply the changes (reboot), and then recheck it to reapply the changes.

Do a search for the LMHOSTS file (make sure you can see hidden files), if it exists, you might look at that to see if there are settings there that would prevent you from talking to another machine.

Did you look at those services? You might run services.msc and go through the list. Put anything that might remotely relate to this (Computer browser, server, print spooler) on automatic. Do this for both machines and reboot.

Have you done any other tweaks to XP that you remember? Anything relating to networking, etc? Those you'll have to remember on your own.

More information available from Microsoft here.

If that doesn't get it, hell, I'm out of ideas.
 
arkamw said:
You problem seem so familiar, and I know that I have seen the solution somewhere.. but can't place it.

Just to recap:

- You have two machines and a router. One (desktop, A) is tied to the router via a cable. The other (laptop, B) has a wireless connection to the router.

- The router is set to full DHCP assignments for both machines. The subnet is set by the router and is the same for both machines.

- Both machines can use the internet without problem.

- Both machines are now set to the same workgroup identity and do not have identical machinenames (i.e. both are not called BOB).

- Both machines can ping each other, so the machines are talking to each other.

- Firewalls have been set to trust the other's IP's in both "browse" mode (i.e. browse another computer) and "server" mode (i.e. will acknowledge requests from another machine to browse local resources). The Windows firewall has been disabled.

- Machine A can see Machine B through Network Neighborhood, but not vice-versa. You have shared resources on both machines (i.e. shared at least a drive on machine B, and a drive and the printer on machine A). So, theoretically, machine A should be able to double-click Network Neighborhood > Workgroup > machine B > Drive letter. This will not work in reverse.

OK. If all of that is correct, you might try to disable NIS altogether on A and see what happens. Not uninstall, just disable.

Also, see if you can ping <computername> from both machines. Not being able to would point towards a DNS problem. Read further.

You might look at the network settings on B. Take a look at control panel > Network options > wireless connection (right-click) > properties > scroll to internet protocol (double-click) > everything on both tabs set to auto > first tab, advanced button > WINS button > Enable LMHOSTS checkbox, make sure Default is set for NetBIOS setting. It's possible, though not likely, this might have become FUBAR'd. You can uncheck it, apply the changes (reboot), and then recheck it to reapply the changes.

Do a search for the LMHOSTS file (make sure you can see hidden files), if it exists, you might look at that to see if there are settings there that would prevent you from talking to another machine.

Did you look at those services? You might run services.msc and go through the list. Put anything that might remotely relate to this (Computer browser, server, print spooler) on automatic. Do this for both machines and reboot.

Have you done any other tweaks to XP that you remember? Anything relating to networking, etc? Those you'll have to remember on your own.

More information available from Microsoft here.

If that doesn't get it, hell, I'm out of ideas.
Click to expand...


EUREKA !!!!!!!!!! The 'server' service on computer A was in manual, and wasn't started. I started it, and bickety-bam!!! I'm in business!!

Thanks very much.

Got NIS back on both computers allowing access via ip address. My network SHOULD be locked up tighter than a tick's ass.... but we'll see.

Relief... :cool: :cool:
 
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