# [SOLVED] Vista &amp; network printer



## Geekgirl (Jan 1, 2005)

I have 7 machines and I only have 4 up right now, 2 Win98 1 desktop 1 laptop. A XP and a Vista both desktops. 

I have a Win98 machine with a HP 952C printer connected via parallel connection. I have Vista Ultimate and I cant seem to get the printer working properly over the network. I have attached a screenshot of what I am up against. When I click on the instructions to add a new port and follow through with those I get the network path was not found error. I have already added the printer, it sees it over the network. 
Also, the Vista machine will communicate with the Win98, I can open files and see what is shared but cannot use the printer. But I cannot open anything on the Vista machine from the Win98, it sees it but wont let me open anything, it freezes up.

I cannot see my XP machine at all from the Vista or my Win98's. 

On the Win98 desktop I can see all but the XP
On the Vista I can see all but the XP
I cant see nothing on the XP but itself.
On the Win98 laptop I can see all but the XP

So the XP seems to have issues and the Win98 desktop freezing when trying to access the Public folder on Vista and the Vista communicating with the printer

I need alittle help


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Vista & network printer*

I don't know about the Vista access to W98, I haven't had occasion to do that yet. I can tell you that I have had better luck with Vista shared printers by doing the following.

Install the Vista printer drivers like you have a local printer on the Vista machine.

Once the printer is installed go to the printer properties and add a new local port, and the port ID will be the full path to the printer, i.e. \\machine\\printer_name

This got my HP PSC-750 working on my two Vista machines when simply browsing to the printer and installing a network printer would not work.


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## Geekgirl (Jan 1, 2005)

*Re: Vista & network printer*

This was what I was trying to do, if you look at my attachment you can see I was naming the port, this is when I would get the "network path was not found error"

I thought maybe if you looked real close at the windows I had open you might see if I made a mistake in the path or something? :4-dontkno


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Vista & network printer*

I misunderstood! :grin:

I think I do see a mistake. You are using the actual printer name, not the network path to the printer. Find the printer's network name by browsing to the machine with the shared printer. For Instance, if the remote computer's name is BIGMAC and the printer share name is MYPRINTER, the network path would be //BIGMAC/MYPRINTER, not the printer description.


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## Geekgirl (Jan 1, 2005)

*Re: Vista & network printer*

Your a genius, it was a typo. I was putting in HP DeskJet 950C/952C/959C and it was shared as just HP .

It now works :grin:

Thank you John :4-flowers

What could possibly be the issue with the XP not being seen over the network on any machine? Wanna try to help with that one?


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

*Re: Vista & network printer*

Glad we got the one issue. :grin:

As for the XP not being seen, we need more info.

Can you ping the XP machine by IP address from the other machines? If not, it's almost surely a firewall blocking access. If you can ping by IP address, but not by name, it's probably a name resolution issue.

For the failing machine, do this:

*S*tart, *R*un, *CMD* to open a command prompt:

Type the following two commands:

*nbtstat -n*

*ipconfig /all*

Right click in the command window and choose *Select All*, then hit *Enter*.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.


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## Geekgirl (Jan 1, 2005)

*Re: Vista & network printer*

I can ping the Xp machine from the Win98 successfully. I can also ping my Win 98 from my XP successfully but when I am viewing workgroup computers and try to double click the Win98 icon I get \\V1V5A2 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The network path was not found.

When I am in Win98/Workgroup, I cant even see the XP machine

Sorry heres what you asked for;

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Tammy>nbtstat -n

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.9] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
BENCH <00> UNIQUE Registered
BENCH <20> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

C:\Documents and Settings\Tammy>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : BENCH
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adap
ter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.9
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.224
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 198.190.226.3
198.190.226.30

C:\Documents and Settings\Tammy>


*EDIT AGAIN*
Not sure what happened but I can now see and access the XP machine from Win98. And I can access Win98 from XP. My son just booted his machine and I can see it too. So I guess Im up and running at 100%

Thanks John for your help.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

WOW, I'm getting out of here before something breaks! :grin:


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