Networking & wireless forum: Plz Help - Printer Sharing on XP/Vista Network

I had the same problem and here's what I did to fix it:

Go to Control Panel. Choose printer. Then choose Add Printer.

Choose Add a local printer. Click on Create a new port. The default in the drop down box is Local Port. Do not change that. Click Next.

A dialogue box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \\computer name\printer name ie. My computer's name is basement and the printer name is EpsonSty so I typed in \\basement\epsonsty

Yahoo! It worked. Go figure! I guess Microsoft thinks printers on a intranet are local.

I hope this helps, I scoured many forums b4 finding this fix. Microsoft's support docs and HP's tech support were no help.

I got my problem solved with ur suggestion
thank you Mr.kaufmanmoore

I tried everything else, checked out numerous support options - THIS option works! Thanks loads.

Yes!!!! my wife thinks I'm brillant!! I was going to buy a wireless print server to get my vista laptop to work with the printer on my networked xp machines.......thanks for saving me 100 bucks!!

I don't know what I'd do without people like you and other's help on the internet. Thanks for the simple, clear advise - worked like a charm.

Message/Post 2 Thumbs Up - Worked perfectly. (Only if I had discovered this about four hours ago...)

Desktop Computer - XP
HP Printer (HP5550) connected directly to Desktop Computer
Toshiba Laptop - Vista
Router - DLink Wireless WBR2310
Desktop connected to Router via Cable.
Laptop connected to Router via Wireless.

After hours of researching, like so many others I found this...5 minutes later it works...I'm e mailing it off to the networking tech support group for my printer as they just told me it couldn't be done.

Great stuff, many thanks - if only Vista was properly thought out!

Kaufman,

I'd like to nominate you for the Helpful Guru of the Year. I had been trying for quite some time to get my laptop with Vista to print to a network printer that is served by an XP machine. Your solution worked and it is a great and not obvious solution.

After many many hours of tinkering around trying to get Printers Shared from my XP computers to my new Vista Laptop I finally got it to work for one of my printers (HP842C).
My network:
Computer1: Desktop XP Pro SP2 3 Printers attached
Computer2: Desktop XP Pro SP2 1 Printer attached (HP842C)
Computer3: Desktop XP Pro SP2 Wireless LAN card
Computer4: Toshiba Laptop with VISTA home premium.
I am using a Netgear wireless router with Computer1 and Computer2 directly connected using LAN cables. All computers can see each other and I can move files around and see all shared printers. I have also turned off Password protected sharing on the VISTA LapTop making it easier to gain access from my XP computers. All XP computers have no problem using the shared printers, BUT of course there has been no end of problems getting the VISTA laptop to print. I had originally tried to set up the printer using the Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer (which resulted in no printing and/or error messages when loading or when trying to print or just no printing - everything looked like it was working including spooling and sending the data across to the shared printer resource but just no printing). The same thing happened when I tried to load the shared printer by going to Network clicking on the shared computer and then clicking on the shared printer and then clicking on connect (the most logical way to connect to a printer).

What I found was for my HP842C VISTA was loading the wrong driver. It loaded a HP840C driver. So I deleted the printer on my VISTA Laptop and tried installing as a local printer.

Following the instructions I set up a local printer: \\Computer2\HP842C (Note: Case sensitive) and made sure I selected up the HP DeskJet 840C/841C/842C/843C Printer Driver. This worked! MANY THANKS TO THIS FORUM!

Next problem I am tackling is to connect up my VISTA Laptop to my Samsung ML-2510 printer shared from Computer2. I have tried using the proposed method but I get the following error during installation: Operation could not be completed (error 0X000006be). I also tried connecting the printer directly to my laptop and and installing the Drivers and then moving the Printer back to the XP and connecting by \\Computer2\ML2510 but I then get a Print Spooler error when I try and print to the ML-2510. I have now uninstalled the Samsung Print drivers and will start again. Of course these is the VISTA print driver that came with the printer. I have also tried using the ML2510 driver that comes with VISTA and it does not work either. Has anyone been successful in installing this shared printer in Vista?

Other Printers I need to get connected: Epson PHOTO R200 and Epson CX6600

Yup that's the post I got the information from. It works for my HP842C but I have not been able to apply it to my ML-2510 as I keep getting the errors sited in my original post. So I am looking for someone that has successfully loaded a ML-2510 shared from an XP computer on a Vista computer.

Worked as described, at least until the Vista system was rebooted, the the printer was reported as offline. Leaving the local port in place, deleting the printer and re-installing it, reconnecting it to the local port restored the printer, at least until the Vista system was re-booted. Looks like a HP deskjet 5100 series printer driver issue on the Vista system.

Anybody run into this before?

Your request is buried in an old discussion and ... "Note: If you're asking for technical help, please be sure to include all your system info, including operating system, model number, and any other specifics related to the problem." should be taken as advice so the first reply isn't a request for more info.

replying to:
re:Plz Help - Printer Sharing on XP/Vista Network
by kaufmanmoore - 2/15/07 8:36 PM
In reply to: Plz Help - Printer Sharing on XP/Vista Network by Cab_0001

I had the same problem and here's what I did to fix it:

Go to Control Panel. Choose printer. Then choose Add Printer.

Choose Add a local printer. Click on Create a new port. The default in the drop down box is Local Port. Do not change that. Click Next.

A dialogue box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \\computer name\printer name ie. My computer's name is basement and the printer name is EpsonSty so I typed in \\basement\epsonsty

Yahoo! It worked. Go figure! I guess Microsoft thinks printers on a intranet are local.

I hope this helps, I scoured many forums b4 finding this fix. Microsoft's support docs and HP's tech support were no help.

kaufmanmoore which computer do I do this to I have a windows XP machine where my printer is on and this machine is hardwired via ethernet to my wifi router and a vista machine that connects to the internet via a wifi card and what i would like to do is be able to print from my vista machine to my printer connected to my XP machine is there any way i can do this? Do I need to install my printer drivers on the vista machine, any help is appreciated thanks

I experienced the same problem; the only way it worked for me was to connect the printer direct ot the Vista computer and use it on the other XP computers as a shared over local network printer.I know it's not the best or smart solution and probably sometimes it can't be applied, but I was tired to follow a lot of solutions which took time and gave no results.