Printer Sharing Trouble on router based network?

[Jeff H]

Guys,

This falls in the category of things you don't do often enough to be good at it. I have a Linksys 4 port router w/ two Win98SE machines connected to it, sharing cable internet connection, files and printer. Yesterday I built a new second box for downstairs (Soyo 6BA+III, iP350, 256MB PC100 SDRAM, Visiontek GF2 Pro 32MB, IBM 22GXP 13.5G, Linksys NIC). The build (did it on the cheap) went well, w/ no issues.

I hooked this machine up to the router this morning, and after initializing file and printer sharing, the two computers see each other, can share files, and both go to the internet. What I cannot do is get the machine downstairs to use the printer on the main machine upstairs. As I said, I have the printer sharing enabled. What am I missing here? Why will the machine downstairs not talk to the printer upstairs, and vice versa?

A bit more background, and a second question. First off Word would simply say there was no printer available. So, I installed the printer driver (HP 895Cxi) on the downstairs machine (the setup test said oneway communication could be established). Now when I go to print in Word it says the printer is out of paper. Again, what am I missing in getting printer sharing to work via this router?

Update: Here's another clue that may point to the issue. On the previous machine downstairs, as well as the main machine upstairs, when the system boots up I get a screen asking for a password to the Microsoft network. I get no such screen on the new build downstairs. I'm sure I'm missing some setting, I just dont' know where to look.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have,

Jeff

 

[cleverhandle]

Pardon if you did this, but I can't tell... but did you 1) tell the upstairs machine to share it's printer? 2) add the printer to the downstairs machine via Printers --> Add New Printer --> Network Printer?

 

[cleverhandle]

To your edit: If the downstairs machine can see and access files on the upstairs one, then the Microsoft Network Client is not the issue for your printing problems.

 

[leeber303]

First off, it's not a routing issue. The issue is a browsing problem between the two Windows 98 machines. I would recommend blowing away the network settings on the box downstairs and recreate it with the exact same properties as the machine upstairs. It might also be helpful to make the machine with the printer the "master browser" under the properties setting for file and print sharing. The authentication window does't have to come up, or be a concern for that matter - as long as you get an IP address

 

[Jeff H]

Guys, thanks for the replies. I got a very helpful Linksys tech support guy on the phone and he helped me out. As I said, I don't do these types of procedures enough to be proficient at them, and it seems what I needed to do was set the printer up on the downstairs machine as a networked printer. I did that and all works as it should now.