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tom_bomb
November 28th, 2004, 01:14 PM
Hi everyone

I know you probably get these questions the whole time, but i had a look through and couldnt find this specific problem....

We have a simple network in our house: 4 pc's, one acts as a dedicated 'server' and is connected to broadband, the other 3 run as clients off this one. all of them running xp.

The network works fine up until now as we have only used it as a internet sharing network up until this stage, so xp basically did all the work setting that up fine.

However, we recently purchased a HP Laserjet 2100 printer, and tried to connect it to the server PC, set it up as sharing etc...and it simply didnt work. It showed up in the drop down list of printers when you click 'add printer', 'network printer' and 'browse for printers', but whenever you click on it it waits for a bit and comes up with an error message saying its name doesnt exist, or invalid printer name (sorry i forgot now the exact message).

Im not sure how this is possible as it automatically detected the printer on the drop down list?!!

anyway, i decided to try connecting the printer to a client pc, and it worked fine, and was able to print from any computer. This would be fine, but its not very convenient setting it up like this as it means having that client pc on whenever you want to print something, as opposed to just having the 'server' pc for printer and internet.

seems a little weird to me, and implied that the server pc isnt set up right, but i cannot see any reason why now, it shows all the other pc's on the 'show workgorup computers' screen, and it was all set up to share etc!

help! :dizzy: all advice gratefully recieved.:blush:

otherwise ill hve to buy a network card for my printer (which i cannot seem to find on the net) and another hub as we only have a 4 port hub...costly!

Murray S.
November 28th, 2004, 02:20 PM
Howdy and welcome to CTH:

Did you install the drivers and program for the printer on each of the client systems??

Murray

Snurfen
November 28th, 2004, 03:00 PM
Murray is spot on here.

The first thing you need to do is ensure the printer is "shared" on it's host machine. Go the printers page, right click on the printer and select the sharing option. It should open on the Sharing tab. Simply click Share printer and give it a sensible name.

The way to add the printer to each pc is put the driver cd in that pc's drive.

When the add printer wizard gets to the first set of options, select "network printer or printer attached to another machine" (or something similar, it's the bottom of the two options).

On the "specify a printer " page, select "connect to this printer" and in the dialogue box enetr "\\whatever_the_main_pc_is_called\whatever_you_call ed_the_printer_in _sharing_option".

When it asks for the printer type, click "have disk" and point to the cd drive.

Job done.

Good luck!