PCA Forums

the printer is installed on one pc, but the other pc cant find/see the shared printer

how can the two computers see each other if the two computers have ip's fron a isp

so that other computer can use the printer

note there is no printer server thing

me

put them on the same switch

Originally posted by DaMaN
put them on the same switch

they are

me

yup...make sure they are on the same physical network...then also in the same workgroup. share the printer on the pc it is connected to, then on the secondary pc do a Start | Run | \\pcname\printer_share

Are these both WinXP computers?

Are you using a router on the network, and is the router providing the IP addresses?

If so all you need to do is make sure that both computers are configured for the same Workgroup.

You also do not want any firewalls enabled (although SP2's firewall will allow printer sharing).

try mapping with the IP address

\\192.168.111.111\printer.

you can get the ip address of the computer with the printer by typing "IPConfig /all" in the dos window.

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Are these both WinXP computers?

Are you using a router on the network, and is the router providing the IP addresses?

If so all you need to do is make sure that both computers are configured for the same Workgroup.

You also do not want any firewalls enabled (although SP2's firewall will allow printer sharing).

xp pro-- yes

router-- no

me

Originally posted by smb
try mapping with the IP address

\\192.168.111.111\printer.

you can get the ip address of the computer with the printer by typing "IPConfig /all" in the dos window.

thanx ill try that in a bit

me

No router? Is either machine sharing internet via ICS? If not then I assume you've specified a static IP for each? Make sure the first 3 numbers of the IP are the same on both systems, both must have the same workgroup name.

Make sure your cables are good (if you made them yourself, just because the NIC light comes on DOES NOT mean it's a good cable). This is a leading cause of problems. Good cables are NOT easy to make - even pros screw them up.

Color code MUST be observed (you can not arbitrarily use whatever colors you want - even if they're consistent on both ends. Cable pairs CANNOT be broken).

If everything is working properly you shoudl be able to ping each computer from the other using the DOS command line ping utility.

There are some bizarre TCP/IP situations that can occur that make file/printer sharing difficult. For simplcity's sake you might just want to use NetBEUI protocal for file sharing. Just don't use this on a network that's not behind a NAT router or ICS with direct access to the internet.

If you install NetBEUI on both computers, file and printer sharing is much simpler.

Instructions on how to install NetBEUI in WinXP here (it's not available by default since MS doesn't want to support it anymore): http://www.winxpcentral.com/windowsxp/netbeui.php

Again, you do not want the LAN to have direct access to the internet if you use NetBeui to avoid security issues (you need to have your local IPs hidden behind a router or ICS).

I think the problem you are having voodoo is a external/internal ip
sounds like you have 2 ips (external that are supplyed by your isp?
What you need to do is either speciy your internal ips staticly or letting a router do it, and then let your cable/dsl modem handle the external ip

this printer share should be a 5 minute deal, its not like your having to do atcp/ip or crown port setup