how to set up printer sharing

telecomops101

Help!!!! I am trying to setup printer sharing on my home network. Here are the details.
I have a belkin router that is currently networking my two computers. One computer is running XP (this is where the epson printer is connected to), and 2000 on the other computer. Both are connected to the internet through the Belkin router. I t enabled the printer to be shared, gave it a name;EPSON and I set my workgroup name on that computer to HOME NETWORK. On the 2000 computer I went to add a printer with the wixard, browsed for the network. I entered \\HOME NETWORK\EPSON, but it was unable to locate the printer. Please Help!!!!

Slowhand

Is it XP Home or XP Pro? Not that it should make a difference with workgroups, but still good info to have. In any case, you may want to check and see if Print and File Sharing is enabled on the XP firewall. By default, it's turned off, so you may have to configure the firewall or run the network setup wizard on the XP machine again. Also, it might be a good idea to have a one-word workgroup name, instead of the two seperate words.

telecomops101

its XP home. I just noticed the firewall in my belkin router was enabled, so I disabled it. How do I check the firewall file and print sharing settings in XP. I did notice the firewall was disabled. Thanks

Slowhand

If the firewall is disabled then you should have no issue. One thing you also might need to do is to go into the properties on the printer and share it.

bighornsheep

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx

telecomops101

Should I enable my XP firewall. I noticed the tab that has file and print sharing listed for me to check off to enable. Should i do this? I have Norton and the firewall was set on this also. Which one or more firewalls should I have set. I did set my printer for sharing. It asked me to name it and I named it EPSON. Should thios be fine. How should the naming convention be on my 2000 computer whan I go to search for the printer???\\ \. My workgroup is now named JANETWORK and the printer name is EPSON. The computer name is HOME. How should I fill in the blanks. Thanks for all your help

emmajoyce

just a suggestion. Try working backwards. Disable anything that can possibly be causing the problem. ie-disable all firewalls and security suites. try to get the printer to show up. After you get it to show up, then enable one thing at a time. Checking each time to make sure you can connect with printer. do this until all security has been re-enabled. good luck. I have read other posts of other forums, where printers will not show up in winxp home when trying to network. no one ever posted a solution however. again good luck. Please post if you get a solution

Slowhand

The Norton firewall could definitely be the problem. You'll have to consult Symantec's website on how to disable the firewall or how to allow traffic between the specific computers.

telecomops101

Finally got it to work. Thanks for all the advice. I used a bit from everyone and was able to get it to work. Here is what I did:

On the XP computer: shut off norton firewall and enabled XP firewall with file and printer sharing. (a bit overkill with two on, only need one anyway). went to printers and faxes, clicked printer, clicked share this printer, from sharing tab clicked share this printer and set name as EPSON1. went to additional drivers and made sure Win2000 was checked off. went to system properties, computer name and set the workgroup as JANETWORK and computer name as JHOME.

On the 2000 computer: went to system properties and set the workgroup as JANETWORK and computer name as AHOME. restarted both computers. I installed the printer drivers and when the printer page popped up the icon for the Epson computer was automatically their. sent a test print from 2000 computer to XP computer and was sucessfull.

I took it a step further and went to the XP computer (this is a newer computer that has all my technical info on) and shared all the folders that I needed. went to the 2000 computer and enetered in the run box: \\JHOME\technical study guides, and the folders popped up on my 2000 computer.

this was an acheivment for me because in the past I was never a computer expert, my expertiese is in telecommunications networking, so this was big for me. I recently passed my A+ and am looking forward to increasing my computer knowledge and making some spare cash on the side doing some computer work.

Thanks again for everything, and I hope I can be of assistance to someone in the future.