Hello All, I have a wireless network using two machines that run Windows XP Pro and Windows XP home. There is no problem getting the client machine, the one running Home Edition to have an Internet connection. I would like to be able to send documents to the host machines printer. Here is the problem: When I run the network setup Wizard on the XP Pro machine it invariably wants to use the 1394 connection to be the one that is shared. The other two options are the Marvell ethernet controllers only one of which is in use. When I am prompted to make a network disk I only have five options to store the data created by the wizard. The first is the floppy drive, and the next four are memory card slots on a card reader. The program doesn't show me either one of my two optical drives so I can't make a CD. The problem is the client machine has no such card reader or a floppy drive!When I run the network setup Wizard on the Home machine, and try to save the network settings it tells me that there is no optical drive installed when in fact it does have a CD burner!At one point I was able to share the printer, but unfortunately I made the mistake of deleting the printer from the client machine, which in turn removed it from the host machine. Now no matter what I do I can't get this sharing to operate again.I have also tried turning off the "online armor" firewall on both machines to no avail. At one point looking under the firewall configurations I was able to see the host machine appear on the client, and vice versa. Now I can't do anything, I don't even know that if I was able to make a network disk that it would solve the problem.I am at a loss as to what to do next if anyone has any ideas I would be most appreciative. Please try and keep your directions relatively simple as it's obvious I am having no luck doing what I am doing.Thanks in advance for any help!Tinsby1 person needs an answerI do too

See if this helps: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx -B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

HiMaybe this can Help, http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/xpnetwork/thread/22a01487-ec34-443d-ab91-067275773ddd Jack-MVP Windows Networking. WWW.EZLAN.NET

Thanks, Jack and Ben, I am sorry to report that neither solution worked for me. It would be wonderful if the Honeycutt article was as simple as he describes.There are many inconsistencies in what he indicates will happen or should happen, plus decriptions of the icons like " PRINTERS AND OTHER HARDWARE" don't exist on either of my machines.Using the browse for a printer on the client machine it can't find the shared printer on the host at all. In fact the host machine doesn't show up in the firewall settings nor does the client machine appear in the host's firewall. They each did at one time but they don't now. Don't ask me why.Regards and thanks for trying to help me. J Tinsby

Can you ping either machine from the other? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814155 -B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

Ben, I can ping the host from the client but not from the host to the client. That fails immediately and times out.I sure wish I could see a blinking cursor on this new format, I am never sure where or if I can type! Thanks, J T

I suspect firewall issues. Do you have the "online armor" firewalls disabled? -B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

Ben, Yes I have tried that to no avail the Windows firewall is off on both machines. As I mentioned before I DID have this working with OA turned on and working. Somehow it got messed up and I can't seem to get it back again. J T

Well, there are so many variables it's sort of hard to say. Leave OA off for the time being. Confirm that Microsoft File and Printer Sharing is enabled on the computer that has the printer connected to it.Do you have Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed on both machines? -B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

Ben,Thanks for taking the time to help me with this niggling problem. Yes both machines are running SP3 with all the updates and patches. I can diconnect from the 'net and leave OA off to do any testing. I realize it's all but impossble to troubleshoot a machine or machines you can't see in person. File and printer sharing is ON in the host machine, the printer icon has a hand under it. Both machines are a member of the same workgroup but have different names of course.Odd that I can ping one way but not the other eh? Tinsby

Odd that I can ping one way but not the other eh?A bit, yes. That's why I wonder if it might be a firewall issue. When you did the ping were you pinging by computer name or by IP address? -B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

Hi Ben,I pinged using the IP address of the machine. Plus I did a "net share" command that showed the printer being shared on the host machine.I do wonder why I see duplicate folders with the same names as sub folders under the host machine in Windows Explorer. If there was a way to do it I'd send you a screen shot to show you what I mean.Thank you very much, J T

Net Share from the client machine showed the printer being shared on the host machine?If you go to your Control Panel | Printers applet and the Add a Printer wizard, are you not able to add a Network Printer? Specify the\\hostname\printername and see if it finds it. -B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

Ben,No I should have been more clear. Using the net share command on the host shows the printer but it really doesn't show the printer as being shared, it shows it, yes, but looking at it again it merely says the printer is there. It does however show SHAREDDOCS as C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\DOCUMENTS but that's all it shows being shared.On the client machine the 'net share' command shows the printer connected to that machine only not the host.Sorry for the confusion, my mistake. If I try to run the Network Setup Wizard on the host it always fails to complete and gives an error. When going thorugh the steps in the Wizard, XP chooses what it thinks you want to share. In this case it shows my 2 Ethernet connections and a 1394. I only use the first ehternet to connect to the 'net. So I choose that one. Then the next step it offers me only 2 choices, they are the second Ethernet and the 1394. No matter if I choose one or the other,or both, it fails. Firstly because the second Ethernet connection is disabled and the 1394 doesn't go anywhere anyway, I'm not using FireWire to connect to the other machine.Then when I look at the network connections, all three of them say FIREWALLED and the Windows Firewall is ON, so I have to disable that again because I am using Online Armor.Seems to be a vicious circle I can't get out of. The last thing I want to do is lose the internet connection to the client machine.Thank you again,J T

Forget the Network Setup Wizard. :-) It's clearly not working for you. Let's try and do it manually.If you go to your Control Panel | Printers applet and the Add a Printer wizard, are you not able to add a Network Printer? Specify the\\hostname\printername and see if it finds it.-B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

Hi Ben,No I can't add a printer using that method because each time I do I get an error message saying "cannot connect to this printer, you either typed the name of the printer incorrectly or the printer has lost its connection to the server." That's not an exact quote but I think you understand the gist of it. I should also have mentioned that on the host machine in the start menu I have a "my network places" when I click on the icon all it does is open a window that shows the shared documents the same ones that appear when I use the net share command. If there was something I could delete to start fresh I would gladly do that, but I certainly don't want to end up reformatting the hard drive on the host machine. It would be great to share the printer but the need isn't that great and I would go to such a length. I don't know how I ever had it working before but I clearly can't get back to that state now. Thanks again,Tinsby

What if you do the same thing but substitute the IP address for the machine name? i.e.\\192.168.x.x\printername (whatever the IP address is for the Host machine) -B- http://www.officeforlawyers.com | http://www.onenote-tips.com Author: The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook

Hi Ben!! Congratulations you cracked it! Using the IP address instead of the host name made it work! I don't see the client machine listed in the host's Windows Explorer but thats OK it's not a priority at least the printer works from the client machine now.But if I can share a printer why can't I share files ? Not to worry I'm happy to have gotten this far.I like the new format of the MS groups but I do miss the NNTP. I also wish when I was typing to you I got a cursor so I can see where the type will appear. Is there a setting I am missing somehow?Thanks again! J Tinsby