Help! Networking problem with home network

[oboe]

Hey guys

I'm home this weekend and am trying to set up a shared printer on the home network.   I have the printer (old hp deskjet) connected to the one computer on the network with a parallel port.   I have File and Printer Sharing turned on, on this computer.  This computer is connected to the wireless cable gateway with cat-5, the other computers connect to the network wireless.   The name of my workgroup is WORKGROUP.
Its a mix of XP and VISTA computers.

On the computer with the printer connected to it (can I refer to this as a print server?) I can see the cuurent computer I'm trying to Add a Printer to (wife's Samsung netbook), but on her computer when I try to View Workgroup computers I get the error message

"Workgroup is not accessible.   You might not have permission to use this netwrok resource.  Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.    The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available."

Also, when I try to browse for printers of add a printer using \\servername\printername - it can't see the printer.

What have I missed?  Pulling what's left of my hair out over this, thx

[1701E]

You mention you have File sharing on, on the Printer PC, what about the other one?  It has to be turned on both to access the printer.

[oboe]

Quick way to turn on file sharing?   I'm digging through windows help and trying to follow their instructions, but it only shows how to Share a Folder.   Where is Printer and File sharing found?

Thx

[1701E]

Not sure how it's done on Vista, but XP it's:  My Computer>Network places>Setup a Home or small office network. (Under 'Network Tasks')
From there it's following the steps in the pop-up box.

Hope it helps some.

[oboe]

Been through that step-by-step several times, and at the end it says I need to run the setup on all the computers, and offers me a choice of creating a CD or using the original XP CD, or just finishing.  I always select "finish"; this is a netbook and I have no CD drive, or XP CD or Network.

I am pretty sure the problem is that I cannot see the computer that has the printer attached to it; and it's saying WORKGROUP is not accessible, and that I may not have permission to use this netwrok resource.  I am an administrator on both systems.   Why wouldn't it be accessible, and how can I enable it if it isn't?

Searched for answers and found one that said the workgroup name "WORKGROUP" doesn't always work; so I've changed it.   Tried MSHOME, tried another one that was unique and random.   Get the same error message no matter what workgroup name I choose/

[guncrasher]

I believe you need to install the drivers for the printer in all the computers.  If you dont have the cd. maybe you can d/l from the website.

semp

[1701E]

If both Computers have the File/Printer sharing enabled and you hit "just finish" (Cd isn't needed or any of that).  Then one thing to check is that both have the same protocols installed.
Network places>Network connections>Properties of the internet connection>hit "install">Protocols>Add>TCP/IP and/or IPX.   Those seem to have to be the same version on my network or I get the same errors you get.

Also make sure you have your LAN as primary connection:   Network connections>Advanced (in the toolbar at top)>Advanced settings>move LAN to top.  Assuming it's not.

[oboe]

Done.  No difference.

Also added NWLink IPX/SPX NetBios Compatible Transport Protocol to both computers since that was a surefire fix for somebody in one of the myriad of tech help websites that have questions and answers regarding this error message.

Should mention I use McAfee security, and using it's network map, shows all computers on the network, no matter which computer I look from.  But Windows Network View Workgroup Computers only shows all computers on the computer that has the printer on it.   The wireless laptops I'd like to install printer access on cannot see the hardwired computer, or each other (except in the McAfee network map) but they do have internet access OK.

[OOZ662]

In my experience, PCs not connected by cable to the printer don't need its drivers. The Print Spooler will handle the data transmission and the local computer will feed it through the drivers.

[Kermit de frog]

IF your settings are all correct, please shut them ALL OFF.  Then turn the PC with the printer on first.  Then turn on each other computer 5 minutes after the other.

[eagl]

Once you install the printer, you right-click on it just like any other sharable winXP resource, click the sharing menu option, and then click the radio button for share this printer.

As for the workgroup not being accessable, once you have all of the computers on the same workgroup (and rebooted after changing the settings), you might have to let them just sit for 15-20 minutes.  That's because windows computers on a workgroup can take that long to figure out who is who and which computer is going to be responsible for distributing names.

If you still can't "see" the other computers from the my network places window, you have two things you can try.  Open up a browser window (windows explorer or internet explorer, it doesn't matter) and type on of the following:

(computername is the name of the computer that has the printer)
(computername's ip address is the ip address of the computer with the printer)

file://computername
or
file://computername's ip address

Also, in case you haven't done this already, all of the computers in the workgroup need to be on the same subnet.  So your router is usually something like 192.168.0.1, and your other computers might be 192.168.0.100, 192.168.0.101, etc.  If they're not on the same subnet, they probably won't be able to see each other.

[oboe]

Got it working now for the XP computers - wife and son's XP laptops can see and use the printer installed on the XP printer server.  But XP laptop cannot see or even ping the XP printer server - though it's McAfee network map shows all the computers on the network and their IPs - yep  all IPs in the 192.168.0.xxx range.

XP printer server cannot ping Vista laptop either.   McAfee Security Center Network Manager on the Vista laptop says "This computer is not connected to a network".

In Vista's Network and Sharing Center, under Tasks, when I click "Connect to a Network", it reports "This computer is connected to xxxxxxxx", where xxxxxxx is the name of my network.   The Vista laptop can now see the other computers in the network also.

[eagl]

Got it working now for the XP computers - wife and son's XP laptops can see and use the printer installed on the XP printer server.  But XP laptop cannot see or even ping the XP printer server - though it's McAfee network map shows all the computers on the network and their IPs - yep  all IPs in the 192.168.0.xxx range/

Make sure windows firewall isn't set to block file and print sharing on any of the computers.  If it's turned on, file and print sharing will still work sometimes (because it's a crummy firewall) but it won't work reliably.

[oboe]

Make sure windows firewall isn't set to block file and print sharing on any of the computers.  If it's turned on, file and print sharing will still work sometimes (because it's a crummy firewall) but it won't work reliably.

Checked and verified, thx.

All XP computers on network can ping the Vista machine, Vista machine cannot ping them.

[oboe]

Problem Fixed!

Have done lots of recommended stuff like creating identical, password protected user accounts on both machines, turning off Windows Firewall and running just McAfee's, and loads of other stuff.   Don't think it made any difference.

The thing that worked - I unplugged the cable modem's input line and then shut down all firewalls on the machines.   Then I could ping everywhere OK.   So then I started looking closely at firewall settings.   I found on the XP machine with the printer attached, in the Networks section of McAfee's firewall configuration - the Trusted network that had been set up for the IP range of the network was incorrect and didn't match ANY of the computers IP addresses on the network - it was set for the range 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.255, but needed to be 192.168.0.0-192.168.0.255

Not sure how the all the other XP machines were able to work OK through that, but it choked the Vista machine.   This is not a setting I adjusted or played with ever before either - had to be set automatically somehow.

Thanks to all you guys who took the time to make suggestions to help me out.  Appreciate alot not struggling with this by myself.