Sharing printers 1

[Nelviticus]

This is pretty obscure so I'm guessing I won't find a definitive answer, but it's worth a shot ...

My printer is connected to my main PC and is shared out to two laptops. The main PC ran XP Pro until last weekend and the two laptops are running XP Pro and XP Home (all 32-bit). I've now upgraded my main PC to 64-bit Windows 7 and the the two XP-32 machines can no longer use the printer.

It works fine on the Win7-64 host machine and I've properly configured it for sharing - with both laptops being able to see it - but the problem is that on the Windows 7 box it won't let me install alternative-architecture drivers. The dialog box appears letting me choose an IA64 and/or an x86 driver but when I select one - even the latest Vista-32 one - it tells me it's not a recognised driver.

Both laptops have 32-bit XP drivers already installed for that printer so I'm a bit stumped! Any ideas?

Thanks

Nelviticus

 

[linney]

Besides being able to see the Printer, are your XP machines able to access Shared Folders on the 64-bit machine and network between the machines?

I would have thought that as long as the XP's have the Printer driver installed that there would be no need to install any other driver on the 64-bit machine other than the required 64-bit driver? Have you got the latest 64-bit driver and all patches for your Printer from the manufacturer?

You are probably aware that Networking and Sharing are a little bit different in XP compared with Vista or Windows 7.

File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

 

[BadBigBen]

("Stand alone" Network printers can be done slightly similarly BTW).

assume the computers are call XPMACHINE and W7MACHINE.

1) Ensure Printer on XP machine is shared - assume it's called SHAREDPRINTER.

2) On the Network Browsing on your W7 machine ensure you can "See" the Printer share.

Now on the W7 machine do the following (doesn't matter if it's X-86 or x-64).

3) Control Panel==> add LOCAL (Yes LOCAL) printer. I know it's on a Network but hold your horses -- what we are actually doing is "Poodlefaking" the W7 machine into thinking it's running the printer.

4) Create NEW port==>Local port

5) Portname is \\XPMACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

6) Now W7 will load a driver and you'll be able to print on the XP machine.

Simple

(For a "Network stand alone printer") at 4) chose TCPIP port
and at 5) enter the IP address.


If the printer is on the W7 machine and you want to print on the XP machine then do the same instructions on the XP machine --
port name in this case will be \\W7MACHINE\SHAREDPRINTER

Source: Networking from Printer attached to Win XP PC to Win 7


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Nelviticus]

Thanks for the replies. All PCs are in the same workgroup (rather than the default WORKGROUP one) and I've enabled advanced sharing (as opposed to the default 'specific user rights' version).

I think Ben's solution might work - I'll try it out when I get home.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Nelviticus]

Adding a local port as per Ben's post sorted it out in the end, although not after a lot of faffing about trying to get a driver installed. I first connected the printer to the laptop locally and installed the latest driver, but when I unplugged it and tried to access it shared from the main PC it said it couldn't find a driver. In the end it let me browse to the unzipped folder I'd installed the driver from and it was happy to use that - despite it being the same driver that I'd just installed!

Crazy, but it's working now. Thanks.

Nelviticus

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad to have helped there Nelviticus... and thank you for clearing it up a tad, on how you finally solved the dilemma...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"