Thanks dbMark, for the comments, my printer is a HP Laserjet 1200 series PCL, i tried turning it off and on but that did not help it. The error was the same. This problem is unique to my computer , other people on the network can connect to the printer without any trouble, i used to connect to this printer before using my computer, but at one a time i had to reinstall my OS which windows XP professional, since then , i havent been successful in connecting to this printer again. I cant tell whether the JetDirect is an external box or not, since i have no clue what the JetDirect is!! I have tried connect to the printer using the IP address and the shared printer name but that does not help either. I have tried to connect to the printer through the add printer wizard and also the CD that came with the printer but has not worked either. I get the mesaage everytime i try installing or connecting to this printer. I have no other printer drivers intsalled in my computer. If you figure it please let me know. Thanks