XP & Vista Printer Sharing

Desktop 1 is XP
Desktop 2 is Vista Home
They were sharing a printer but now Vista is not seeing the printer. When I
try to "add a printer" on Vista I get the following message: windows cannot
connect to the printer. Make sure that you typed the name correctly and that
the printer is connected to the network.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Please do not be too technical because I
am a beancounter and have very little IT knowledge.
Thanks for responding.

LStepp;1049553 Wrote:
> Desktop 1 is XP
> Desktop 2 is Vista Home
> They were sharing a printer but now Vista is not seeing the printer.
> When I
> try to "add a printer" on Vista I get the following message: windows
> cannot
> connect to the printer. Make sure that you typed the name correctly and
> that
> the printer is connected to the network.
> Any help is greatly appreciated. Please do not be too technical
> because I
> am a beancounter and have very little IT knowledge.
> Thanks for responding.

I take it this is at home set up as a Workgroup? Your post implies the
printer is on the XP machine. On the XP machine go into Network
Neighborhood and see if it shows any shared printer. If not, go into
Control Panel=>Printers and right click on the printer and share it.
The other thing to check is that both PCs use the same name for the
Workgroup. XP used MSHOME as the default workgroup name. For reasons
only known in Redmond, Vista changed this to WORKGROUP. Pick one or the
other and make them both the same. If you need to change the workgroup
name google for instructions. Step by step instructions are on many
forums on the web.

edit: the other best bet is look for a forum for the printer in
question. I'm sure this mixed networking situation comes up with nearly
every printer brand. Somebody on the forum for the specific printer may
know exactly how to get yours set up again.


--
MilesAhead

"I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."
- Groucho Marx

Stayed up most of the night and tried everything imaginable. What finally
worked was attaching the printer to the Vista computer as Desktop1 and
changed the XP computer to Desktop2 and it worked on the first attempt.



"MilesAhead" wrote:

>
> LStepp;1049553 Wrote:
> > Desktop 1 is XP
> > Desktop 2 is Vista Home
> > They were sharing a printer but now Vista is not seeing the printer.
> > When I
> > try to "add a printer" on Vista I get the following message: windows
> > cannot
> > connect to the printer. Make sure that you typed the name correctly and
> > that
> > the printer is connected to the network.
> > Any help is greatly appreciated. Please do not be too technical
> > because I
> > am a beancounter and have very little IT knowledge.
> > Thanks for responding.
>
> I take it this is at home set up as a Workgroup? Your post implies the
> printer is on the XP machine. On the XP machine go into Network
> Neighborhood and see if it shows any shared printer. If not, go into
> Control Panel=>Printers and right click on the printer and share it.
> The other thing to check is that both PCs use the same name for the
> Workgroup. XP used MSHOME as the default workgroup name. For reasons
> only known in Redmond, Vista changed this to WORKGROUP. Pick one or the
> other and make them both the same. If you need to change the workgroup
> name google for instructions. Step by step instructions are on many
> forums on the web.
>
> edit: the other best bet is look for a forum for the printer in
> question. I'm sure this mixed networking situation comes up with nearly
> every printer brand. Somebody on the forum for the specific printer may
> know exactly how to get yours set up again.
>
>
> --
> MilesAhead
>
> "I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."
> - Groucho Marx
>

Check your firewall setting to allow for File and Print Sharing.


"LStepp" <LStepp@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FF6BED18-378A-4705-8533-2916784C5ADA@microsoft.com...
> Desktop 1 is XP
> Desktop 2 is Vista Home
> They were sharing a printer but now Vista is not seeing the printer. When
> I
> try to "add a printer" on Vista I get the following message: windows
> cannot
> connect to the printer. Make sure that you typed the name correctly and
> that
> the printer is connected to the network.
> Any help is greatly appreciated. Please do not be too technical because I
> am a beancounter and have very little IT knowledge.
> Thanks for responding.