Well, I've had enough of this hassle for one evening, although its an ongoing problem with no viewable solution it seems.
My father and I have our computers both hooked up to my 4 port router, along with a few other computers. Four in total, two Windows XP, two Windows 98. The 98 machines can of course see each other perfectly. Many people may hate Win98, but its still my favorite OS. The XP machines have horrible problems with the network and viewing the other computers. They can pretty much all see my old 233 running windows 98, but the two XP machines have a hell of a time seeing each other half the time, and as for my dad's win98 machine, it seems to matter more on the alignment of the planets than anything else.
Anyway, my father has the only printer in the house. Of course, adding a network printer on my 233 was a pieve of cake and worked flawlessly the first time. I still have yet to successfully print to it from either of my winXP computers. It seems to install okay, until I restart and/or try to print, at which point it informs me that it is simply completely unable to even see the printer. The printer, a Lexmark Z31, works from my dad's computer and from my 233, but not from Windows XP. I tried using the latest drivers, but I think that screwed WinXP up even more. Now it says "Unable to find printer on system" when I boot up. Well no sh|t sherlock!
Basically, this is what I'm looking for: why is WinXP so irritable when it comes to networking? Even just refreshing the view in Network Neighborhood seems to take agonizingly long. Not to mention the fact that it's shakier than a drunk greyhound, and I cant even install network printers correctly (which admittedly is probably more of a PEBKAC error, but still, why did they have to change it so damn much?) If anyone can provide some insight as to how to improve our network status and how to install a network printer, I would be momentarily grateful. thanks!
My father and I have our computers both hooked up to my 4 port router, along with a few other computers. Four in total, two Windows XP, two Windows 98. The 98 machines can of course see each other perfectly. Many people may hate Win98, but its still my favorite OS. The XP machines have horrible problems with the network and viewing the other computers. They can pretty much all see my old 233 running windows 98, but the two XP machines have a hell of a time seeing each other half the time, and as for my dad's win98 machine, it seems to matter more on the alignment of the planets than anything else.
Anyway, my father has the only printer in the house. Of course, adding a network printer on my 233 was a pieve of cake and worked flawlessly the first time. I still have yet to successfully print to it from either of my winXP computers. It seems to install okay, until I restart and/or try to print, at which point it informs me that it is simply completely unable to even see the printer. The printer, a Lexmark Z31, works from my dad's computer and from my 233, but not from Windows XP. I tried using the latest drivers, but I think that screwed WinXP up even more. Now it says "Unable to find printer on system" when I boot up. Well no sh|t sherlock!
Basically, this is what I'm looking for: why is WinXP so irritable when it comes to networking? Even just refreshing the view in Network Neighborhood seems to take agonizingly long. Not to mention the fact that it's shakier than a drunk greyhound, and I cant even install network printers correctly (which admittedly is probably more of a PEBKAC error, but still, why did they have to change it so damn much?) If anyone can provide some insight as to how to improve our network status and how to install a network printer, I would be momentarily grateful. thanks!