Networking a new printer

[marlene]

My PC is networked to Mr. Excitement's PC (I don't remember the particulars -- we have NICs in each PC, and a wired/wireless router so we can share the cable modem connection).

He can access my printer (HP LJ), but we can't remember how we did that. And I want to be able to access his new printer (a Lexmark X1100 series inkjet).

We've got sharing turned on for his printer, but I don't know what to do to make it show up on my machine. He's running Win2K, and I'm running XP.

mxh

[Franca]

My husband and I share our HP LaserJets this way, so ... doing this from pure memory ... I think you have to go to Printers and Faxes and select Add Printer on your system. This should bring up the wizard which will walk you through finding the printer connected to his computer and adding it to the printers available to you. Let me know if this is not enough info or if you have any difficulties!

[marlene]

I tried the Add Printer routine, and I do see Mr. E's printer listed, but when I click on it, I get "Error: Access is denied."

I clicked on "Next" anyway, and up popped a window labeled, "Connect to [name of Mr. E's computer] with spaces for User name and password. When I click on the arrow to the right of the user name box, I see the web address of a publisher's web site I must have had to access once, that required a password. I can't imagine what it (the address) is still doing in that user name box.

Anyway, I don't know what MY user name or password are. I tried a couple of logical guess, but a window pops up with the error message "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation could not be completed."

Does that mean that if I weren't so feebleminded, and could remember my user name and password, I could make this work?

mxh

[Franca]

That all sounds quite bizarre; I wish I could beam over. Have you checked the sharing settings on Mr. E's computer? Is a password required for you to access his system? I don't think it has anything to do with the printer - it sounds as though it has to do with you being able to access his computer, so you need to check the permissions and stuff over there. Are you able to grab files, etc. off any part of his system?

[Michael Rowley]

Marlene:

I don't know anything about networking, but having used Windows 2000 and XP I should think that you have to have 'administrator''s rights before you can connect to anything. Win 2000 was even fussier about that than Win XP.

[marlene]

I figured it out. I was overthinking. <g>

I did need a user name to access Mr. E's computer, but no password. Entering all my possible passwords must have confused the hell out of Windows. <g>

It's all working now.

mxh

[marlene]

Michael,

I've got my rights, as they say, <g> but I was trying to enter a password (didn't remember having one, but tried several likely suspects). And there is no password. I was able to sail right in without one.

And I didn't even think to try getting in without a password -- it was Mr. E's idea.

mxh

[Franca]

Oh, good. Nothing seems to make Windows more confused than entering a password when one isn't needed. ;-)

[Steve Rindsberg]

Do you log onto your system using a password? That seems to solve a number of problems when you're accessing shared resources from a Win2k box. The trick is to use the same user name and pwd on your system as is set up for you on the Win2k box doing the sharing.

[Steve Rindsberg]

>>I don't know anything about networking, but having used Windows 2000 and XP I should think that you have to have 'administrator''s rights before you can connect to anything. Win 2000 was even fussier about that than Win XP.>>

No, but you'd need to be set up with a user name on the system you're trying to access and be a member of whatever group's got permission to access the shared resource in question.