[rgreen4]

It's the only thing I can think of. I do know that if the printer was on the Vista machine and being shared to the XP machine, that the XP machine MUST be password protected and match the Vista Machine. It is part of the security set up on the Vista OS. Vista will not share to another machine that is not password protected and the UserID and PW must match.

Try setting up a Userid and PW on the XP that matches the Vista UserID and PW, log in to that user on the XP machine, see if the printer is still shown as shared, then see if you can install the printer on the Vista machine.

I am scratching my head otherwise. I had two printers attached to an XP desktop when I first set up my network and had no trouble sharing them to Vista, but all my machines have the same main UserID and Password. My printers are currently connected to the router, it's easier.

[lash9420]

OK. So do I need to create three accounts on the Vista machine or just
make the one on Vista match one on the XP? How do you connect them to
the router? Do you need a special type of router?

[rgreen4]

You only need one additional account on the XP machine. You do not need to add accounts to the Vista machine. You are attempting to contact the printer through the XP machine. Adding the account to the XP machine is probably the key, since even though you don't have passwords set up, you do have user accounts that are authorized.

No you don't need a new different router to do that. If you decide to do that, you need a print server. This is a box that attaches to the router either through RJ-45 (ethernet wire) or wirelessly or both. You then attach the printer to this device. In my case, I did it slowly as I added new printers to replace older ones. The only printer I replaced that was still functional was an HP Photosmart when I actually bought an HP AIO to replace a scanner, and use the same space as the Photosmart.

But, we should get the printer to share first. Then you can make the other moves later.

[ronf57]

ok your options are:

1) connect the printer via usb or rj45 (ethernet) directly to your wifi router. install the printer driver software on each pc you want to print with. (actually you will need to do this no matter which way youconnect to the printer)

2) connect the printer via usb, parallel or serial port directly to a pc that is either connected to your wifi router via rj45 (ethernet) or usb or by a wireless interface (nic). in this case install the printer driver software on that pc and during the installation check the box that says install other drivers so others on the network can print from this printer. go into control panel>printers find this printer and right click on its' icon and set it as shared. now goto another pc on your network go into control panel>printers>add printer>browse after a few seconds it should pop-up select it and it should install the drivers for you....emphasis on should. if not put the driver cd in the computer and install the drivers- you will have to browse search to find the printer for it to install like you just did.

3) the printer has a wireless card inside it....some HP photosmarts do have the interface but...... HP Photosmarts ONLY let you use ONE connection type to access them-YOU MUST CHOSE!. what this means....my Photosmart C8180 support connecting via USB, RJ45(ethernet) and Wireless 802.11B/G well that's what the box says. Actually it supports printing from EITHER ONLY USB and not RJ45, NOT WIFI OR via ONLY RJ45-NOTUSB, NOT WIFI , OR via ONLY WIFI-NOT RJ45, NOT USB. So for maximum speed and access I connected using the RJ45 to the WIFI Router and it is accessible to any computer connect either by WIFI (via the WIFI Router) or via ethernet via the RJ45 connections on the Router.

Back to using the WIFI built in to the printer....USE THE SOFTWARE SUPPLIED TO INSTALL IT ON YOUR NETWORK! with ONE BIG CAVEAT---Printer wifi typically WILL NOT SUPPORT WPA2 encryption!!! so if you are using that you may need to step your networks wifi encryption down to plain old WPA or WPA-PSK encryption. this should be fine for almost all wifi networks- unless you are near a college or some area where there are HIGHLY motivated network crackers- thisis really unlikely though...it really isn't worth the trouble to see the junk that comes to you in your email. so as long as you run at least WPA you should be fine.

Once everything is set for you network to talk to the printer, printing with the installed drivers should sail along whether you run XP or Vista or Linux or MAC OSX.

I run a few Windows variants (XP home and Pro, Vista Home Premium, Server 2003) and Linux and OSX Tiger and I was up an printing from 7 differnet PCS in under a hour. ok 1-1/2 hrs Linux was a little fussy finding the right drivers. but it prints from Ubuntu and Knoppix.

hope that helps

[rgreen4]

You are assume that this printer has built in wired or wireless connections. Of the 23 printers currently shown on the HP website in the Photosmart line, only 5 can be connected either wired or wirelessly, and 3 more can be connected via wired connection only.
Although you do have a point in that I never asked Lash9420 what model of printer he was connecting.
The problem appears to be getting the Vista machine permission on the XP machine. Once we get past that, the printer installation should be good. I think the root of the problem is that there are three UserID's on the XP machine and one on the Vista machine that is different from the three on the XP machine. Thus, when the Vista machine tries to access the shared printer, the XP machine does not recognize the UserID as valid.

[lash9420]

I'm confused. I need to set up another account on XP? Or should I enable the administrator account? Should I password protect it? Or should I just change the name of one account on the XP computer to match the username and password of the Vista computer?

[ronf57]

while I do not doubt Vista being fussy and XP sometimes uncooperative, i have not seen any issues relating to user accounts when accessing a SHARED device.

The user MIGHT NOT or might have access to other networked resources- i.e. hard drives, files, ect but that would have nothing to do with shared resources such as a shared printer IF THE PRINTER IS CONNECTED TO EITHER THE NETWORK DIRECTLY OR ANY XP MACHINE.

If the printer is instead connected to a vista machine all the permissions come into play, as Vista actually wants to control WHO does what similar to what the Server versions have done for years. XP BY DEFAULT is pretty wide open and if you use the wizards the ANYONE permission is set for the resource.

As I said with the exception of introducing some "SERVER" operating system software version into the network on ANY machine, even in a VM, that wants to control the network it should work without getting into fussy permissions and policy editing. But it is a good practice to step through them and make sure they are set right. One last thing, did we verify the computer can reach the network? using net view or arp -a ? I read the neighborhood browse which should have been sufficient.

[lash9420]

ronf7, What is an arp-a?



I changed the one user account on the XP machine to match the username and password on the Vista machine. It still could not find the printer. This is a bit older printer, an HP deskjet 5740, would this matter? This printer I'm pretty sure was made before Vista came out, would this make a difference? Should I go see if I can find the drivers for Vista on the interent before Vista finds the printer?

[rgreen4]

The HP website says the drivers are built into Vista, as many drivers for some older printers are. I have sucessfully connected Vista to an HP LJ4P which is an older printer (circa 1994) so that is not the reason Vista is not 'seeing' the printer.

1. Did you try the manual connection attempt naming the printer in the format XPcomputernameprintersharename? This site word processor won't show the double backslashes so substitute the double backslash for the double .

2. Are you running a firewall on the XP machine?

[lash9420]

1. Yes. I have tried that. Nothing happened. Will retry.


2. Yes, Symantec Antivirus.



EDIT: Went to retry 1, but Vista cannon see XP and I know the computer is not in sleep and a user logged on.

[rgreen4]

Is it Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus or is it Symantec's Norton's Internet Security?

[lash9420]

It is netiher. It is Symantec AntiVirus. I think it is a business edition or something like that.

[rgreen4]

It should not have a firewall then, it should just be an Anti-Virus.

Now XP does have a built in firewall. In the Control Panel go to the Security Center and under Manage Security Settings, click on Windows Firewall. This will open a settings box, and click on exceptions. Among all the items listed, see if you have File and Printer sharing and that the box is checked.

Also, just to be certain, Check you Symantec setting and ensure that is not a firewall. If there is, see if there is a similar exception, or if you can turn that firewall off, at least temporarily.

[lash9420]

I allowed the windows firewall to file and print share, restarted the computer, and Vista could still not connect. Have any other ideas?

[rgreen4]

Did you restart both machines or only the XP?

[ronf57]

ok lash,

i am just talking about ensuring your computers are on the same sub-net of a network.

If they are not...they will not "see" each other.

so how do you do that, you may ask... click start>run on XP machine. type CMD or COMMAND in the box asking for program or some such thing, sorry i am typing on the vista machine so I can't chk.

A windows will open witha command prompt looking like C: or something similar.

type NET VIEW with the space in the middle hit enter. you should see a listing of computers on your network segment or sub-net. the networking basics follow:

Networks are very much like streets in a city and the house on the streets are like the computers on the network...they all have ADDRESSES.

A house has a address like the following 1615 Morgan Street, San Francisco, California all the houses on Morgan street have a different Numeric address so the mail man can deliver the mail to the correct house. Well, it is the same with computers on a network each computer has a different address so information/files know where to go to. computer addresses are called IP ADDRESSES. they are in the form of 4 numbers separated by periods e.g. 192.168.0.1

generally, the first 3 must be the same numbers and the 4th must be different for the computers to be on the same network. so....

192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.200 are on the same network but 169.100.20.2 is not. each of these numbers must be a number between 0 and 255 for a network device. so we use ARP -A entered at the command line to find the addresses used on our network. ( type ARP /? to find out more on this command) you will get a listing showing INTERNET ADDRESS and PHYSICAL ADDRESS. the INTERNET ADDRESS is the IP ADDRESS we just spoke of the PHYSICAL ADDRESS is the address coded into the network interface card inide the computer...this is permanent and set by the manufacturer of the interface card it is unique among ALL network interface cards in the world but can only be seen on your LOCAL AREA NETWORK or LAN. So the world uses the IP ADDRESS that can be changed as your computers house address.

sorry i have more on this if you need it, i am sleepy now and will check back. otherwise do a internet search for setting up a network try www.tomshadware.com for some good stuff there.

i will chk back tomorrow, yes i know it's confusing but once you get it it's simple. and you'll be the guru

[lash9420]

rgreen4, I only restarted the XP machine


ronf7, I did what you said and the XP and the Vista machine show up in the command window.

[rgreen4]

Lash - I just don't know why it isn't working. If the Vista machine sees the XP machine and sharing is on, it should work.

Try the following - create a new folder on the XP machine, with the UserID that matches the Vista machine, and set the folder to be shared. Copy a file, any file, into that folder and see if you can access the file from the Vista machine.

[ronf57]

ok let's try some troubeshooting verfiications.

rgreen has taken you almost the entire way to get this going.

we need to verfiy a few things to isolate what is going on.

1) you verfied the xp and vista machine are on the same network. great!

2) can you copy a file from the xp onto or from the vista machine and can you do that the other way. any file. if yes GREAT! sharing is certainly on for file sharing and permissions and access are set right for files.

3) how is the printer connected to the xp machine? or to the network? can you print to it from the local machine? I know that sounds silly but we have to start at the start. go into the printer properties and lets change the printer from a LOCAL printer to a networked printer. then lets change the connection by browsing to the printer on the network and yes it should show as being on your local computer. we want to set it using the networked path for this test. Once this is set try printing a test page to the printer from the local pc. If this works this verfies it is network accessible. we will be using this same path to the printer on the other machine.

4) I do not believe anything anyone says about HP or for that matter any hardware having workable drivers for anything being built into vista....don't trust this to be true. GOTO HP and download the latest drivers for vista for your printer. install them on vista them change the path to the one we used on the xp machine.....now try printing. if it works GREAT! you're done. if not recheck the path to the printer for typos, i like to browse to the shared printer to limit that possibility.

I will bet if everything works on the xp machine the drivers aren't any good. I have a HP fairly new (2 1/2 years old) bluetooth printer that Microsoft says the driver is built into Vista but HP says it will not support under vista, NICE HP.

[rgreen4]

I agree with most of your statements. Once Lash posted the printer number, I check the HP website, and then I made my post based on the following:



I am glad you have come in from a different viewpoint, as frankly I had pretty well exhaused my toolbox.