Topic: Printer Sharing Problem

[abell]

PRINTER SHARING PROBLEM

There was an error writing to \\arnold-pc\canon for the printer (canon PIXMA6000D) The network printer is no longer available. Contact your system administrator, or try using a different printer. This printer is connected to the host computer via USB.

With this setting, and choosing to Print Test Page, there is a message:
Printer test page completed!

A test page is now being sent to the printer. Depending on the speed of your printer, it may take a minute or two before the page is printed. The test page briefly demonstrates the printer’s ability to print graphics and text, as well as providing technical information about the printer driver.

On the host computer, in the sharing dialog, the printer is named canon.
The printer is designated as a shared printer.
The port, on the host computer, is listed as a: USB001 (virtual printer port for USB).

On the client computer, I have tried selecting \\arnold-pc\USB001, and get the same error message as with \\arnold-pc\canon.

The printer works properly with the host computer.

The host computer is an hp 6000n running Windows Vista Premium. The client computer is an older model laptop running Windows Millenium.

I have spent many hours trying to resolve this; any help is appreciated.

[BillB]

Quick response - comments, not solution:

Connecting to a Vista share from ME may be problematical. At the least, Vista will not be supporting the Win9x printer drivers (if they are even available).

Here are some off-the-top-of-my-head starting points:

First, delete all instances of the Canon on the ME computer.

If you cannot install the printer from the CD, check Canon's website for a Windows 98/ME SetUp file. Use either of these to install the printer on the ME computer. If the install wizard doesn't find the printer on the network, you can tell it to print to File and change it later.

If that doesn't work, I'll write up more possibly bogus suggestions later.

Bill

[dewey]

I have not used Vista or ME but have heard that Vista has "difficulty" talking to pre-Win2000 computers.

From your errors, it seems that Vista is not recognizing the network connection between it and the ME computer.

Although many of the links here are related to sharing files, perhaps they can give you some ideas on getting the two machines to talk with each other.  Once the network connection is recognized by both computers, it should be a much simpler matter to get the computer to work - installing drivers, etc.

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-networking-sharing/40183-me-vista-network-problem-2.html

http://help.lockergnome.com/windows2/Vista-network-problem-ftopict482765.html

Search your favorite search engine for Vista ME networking printer share and other keywords to find more ideas.

Dewey

[abell]

Thank you both, Bill and Dewey, for your suggestions. I have followed your advice and reinstalled the printer and driver on the client machine with the ME os. This has not changed the situation and I am becoming more convinced that setting up wireless printing between Vista and ME is not in the cards.

When trying to print a test page from the printer properties in ME, the print dialog screen shows that the print job is being completed, but I continue to receive the error message: "There was an error printing to \\ARNOLD-PC\Canon. The network printer is no longer available. Contact your system administrator, or try using a different printer."

The message leads me to believe that for some reason, perhaps incompatability, the client cannot recognize or connect through the network to the printer port on the Vista machine.

Any further ideas are welcomed. Otherwise, I am pretty much reconciled to an incompatability situation that cannot be overcome.

Incidentally, Bill, I can print to file without problems.

Thanks again for your almost instantaneous responses and thoughts!

[dewey]

The FIRST thing to check is whether the ME and Vista machines are talking to each through the network.

If you create a shared folder on the Vista machine, can you access it on the ME?  Now try the reverse, can you access an ME share on the Vista machine?

If you cannot share files then I doubt you can share printers.  Once you get the network working, you should be one step closer to sharing printers.

Dewey