printer sharing and security?

What operating system is running on the desktop?? if it is anything less than windows XP you will NOT be able to share printers.. I've been their, tried that, and then had to upgrade the ME system to winXP pro. There is a MS KB concerning this.

If you have winxp pro on both machines, just do a right clik on the printer on the desktop machine, click sharing and security, say just enable, and the printer is shared,, just the printer.

Then go to your notebook and do a 'add printer' -->network printer search your workgroup for the printer, click on that printer, and finiish,,, I use shared printers in alot of the networks I set up, just sharing the printer and also if you have any documents you want to share, just slide them into the 'shared documents' folder and you can also share them on the network.

It's easy, try it,

Bob Smith Robert Smith Consulting

Not true. I have shared XP-connected printers to W9x and to W2K, and I have shared W2K-connected printers to XP, and I have shared W9x-connected printers to XP and to W2K. There are problems with some specific printers in this kind of cross-platform printer sharing, but it is not a general problem: some printers work completely, some partly work (e.g. printing works but status feedback does not), and (maybe) some won't work at all; with one printer, I got it to work cross-platform only by loading a driver for a different printer.

There is certainly an opportunity for M$ to create and enforce an architecture for printer sharing (and for scanners and CD/DVD burners). Unfortunately, good architecture at M$ seems to be restricted to the NT kernel.

Since the problems seem to be caused by the drivers which are supplied by the manufacturer of the printers, the underlying Windows mechanisms for F&P sharing are OK. In fact, my home LAN currently has a mixture of W98, W2K, XP HE, XP MCE, and XP PRO; and all PCs share folders (and a couple of printers) with all other PCs.

If your concerned about the security of using a printer on a machine that's sharing the printer with other machines on the LAN, the get yourself a standalone printer server and connect it to a LAN port on the router and plug the printer into that. That way, it's not attached to a machine. All machines wired or wireless will be able to print to the print sever that's attached to the router. Print servers are cheap now of days.

Or if you don't want to do that and you have a NT based O/S that has the printer attached in a networking situation, then the link talks about the security setup for that situation for the NT based O/S.

Duane :)

The printer in question is parallel port - can you plug that into a print server?

Thanks.

Louise

Yes, the plug on the print server itself will have a centronics parallel plug that will plug in to the printer. The print server will have a RJ45 port where you take a cable the uses the RJ45 plug type and connect it to the print server and the other end into a LAN port on the router.

You should configure the print server to use a static IP on the router instead of a DHCP IP from the router so that it never change. Then you set up your computers for the printer that is a Network Printer and point to the IP address of the print server. It's a piece of cake.

The link is just an example of what's out there. I purchased a Cables To Go one for $59 at the time that was not wireless and plugged it into the wireless router RJ45 LAN port and was printing like a champ from wire or wireless machines.

Long

Short

The only thing is that the utilities they show ink level at the computer screen for ink levels will not work, but there is some visual alert on the printer itself that can be used.

Duane :)

Both are running XP

I have the printer plugged into my desktop and the desktop has a wired connection to the router. My portable is wireless to the router.

On my desktop I went to the printer and to the sharing tab and checked off share this printer. It then got a name: HPLaserJ.

I then went to my Thinkpad and searched for a network printer. The only thing it came up with was Microsoft Windows Network. It did not find HPLaserJ.

I think I'm missing some step - any thoughts?

TIA

Louise

What I said was true,,, the question was using the NOTEBOOK with WIN XP and if the desktop has win2k or winME or below you will be able to install the printer but Microsoft decided for safety and security that the DESKTOP machine can NOT print.

I've been through this with about 10 customers that purchased new notebooks with winxp and tried to network the desktop printer.

All the networking works with the exception of sharing the printer.

This is ONLY true if you are trying to use a NOTEBOOK with winXP installed. Sharing network printers within a network on DESKTOPS works great, but it was microsoft's decision to NOT let a NOTEBOOK share the printer..

Don't ask me why,

here's the KB article about the problem

Bob

robert Smith Robert Smith Consulting

Hi Louise,

have you got both your firewalls on? Are you running any NORTON programs (norton internet security) , they make the networking of computers and printers a pain in the ass,,, First try to turn off your firewalls and see if you can see the printer, If you do see the printer, then you will have to work backward to see what is 'hiding the printer'

Bob

Robert Smith Consulting

You will need to have a login on the thinkpad which has permission to browse shares on the desktop. This IS NOT the default and I can't for the life of me remember how you enable it.

I get round it by insisting on synchronised usernames and passwords. In office environments, the problem doesn't exist because everyone uses a domain login. Mark McIntyre

Synchronise the passwords.

This relates to a problem with similar effects but a totally different cause - in the article it specifically talks about cached domain credentials, you won't encounter those in a home network (unless you're running W2K3 AS or something....) Mark McIntyre

Uh, the KB article you ref'd only applies to domains, and I suspect that the OP has a workgroup instead of a domain. If, indeed, the OP has a workgroup, then the restriction to which you referred does not apply.

So, OP -- if you have a workgroup and not a domain, then you should AFAIK be able to make printer sharing work. To go through the numbers:

1. Disable all firewalls while you chase the sharing problem; re-enable later.
2. Make sure you have F&P sharing enabled.
3. Make sure both PCs are in the same workgroup and the same subnet.
4. Share the P on the desktop.
5. On the laptop, click on Start, then Settings, then Printers, then AddPrinter to get the AddPrinterWizard running; then click on Next, then select NetworkPrinter and click on Next, then select Browse and click on Next. That should present a list of shared printers (if desktop and laptop are in the same workgroup and in the same network subnet).

I realize that they were talking about a domain. However, I had a chance to have a good friend of mine that works for microsoft in the SF Bay Area take the information that I have listed and the error message that we were getting from the printer, which was the same one that the KB article was showing to MS Network support and they said that the same problem was evident in a workgroup.

This problem started after SP2 was introduced. They have no real fix for the problem up to this point, but he was told that they were working on it.

I had my own home network with one Win98SE machine with an Epson USB printer configured that was working without any problems printing from a Toshiba laptop with XP. When I upgraded the notebook to SP2 the printing support vanished with the Win98SEmachine, but worked properly with alll (3) other XP machines with printers attached or networked). I could print from the desktop XP machines through the Win98SE machine, but couldn't print from the toshiba notebook.

go figure, but the problem does exist.

Bob

Robert Smith Consulting

If there's no pattern, then it should be hard to crack.

A good way to generate secure yet easy to use passphrases for WPA is with "diceware words". See "Security in pre-shared key mode" at