Subj : WinXP To : ROBERT FOWLER From : Gerald Miller Date : Mon Sep 12 2005 02:55 am Hello ROBERT, Responding to a post in the WIN95 area: On Sunday September 11 2005 at 18:30, ROBERT FOWLER [1:123/140] wrote to GERALD MILLER, about: Re: WinXP Note: I didn't reply to your previous post regarding "printer is connected to a port (print server) in your router" because (while it was a more desirable way to travel) this message is more applicable to my situation. GM>>> I have a Canon i550 printer on my Windows XP Pro box and it is setup GM>>> to share across the network with a share name of Canoni55. Windows GM>>> 98 SE sees the printer just fine and I can print from that box just GM>>> fine (even when the XPP box is powered off). Windows 2000 Pro is GM>>> constantly telling me that the printer is offline... Could you make GM>>> some suggestions to help me fix the printer problem on the W2K box? AZ>> I'm mystified as to how you can print across the network to a shared AZ>> printer when the computer the printer is physically connected to is AZ>> powered off! GM>> This particular printer has a "remote" power option similar to the GM>> Wake On Lan. I know it works because the XPP box can be powered off GM>> and I can send a "print job" from the W98SE box and the printer GM>> powers up to print out my documents. RF> The "remote" power option has nothing to do with what Alan is asking. RF> He's asking about how the printer is connected to the XPP box. This RF> would be (as you are insinuating) by either a parallel cable or USB RF> cable DIRECTLY to the respective port on the XPP box (doubt). Sorry, I was misunderstanding. The printer is connected to the XPP box by a parallel cable on LPT1. RF> The point is, that the above connection constitutes the path to the RF> printer, and that if the host machine is off, there is no active RF> path to the printer. Nothing in the printer hardware can change RF> that. ;-) The network always requires an active electrical path RF> from source to destination. It would seem that I was incorrect in my presumption of the powering aspect of the printer and you are correct. For example, the XPP box is on (screen saver running), I'm in W98SE and I try to print from W98 -- I get an error message to the effect that the printer is off-line. Go to the XPP, take it out of screen saver, go back to W98, issue the print, printer powers up and runs the print job. GM>> I'm going to remove the Share on the printer, reboot the XPP, GM>> reestablish the Share for the printer and see if that will make any GM>> difference... RF> It shouldn't. For what you are describing to work, your printer is RF> not a locally shared printer in the XPP box, despite how you may RF> choose to configure it there. Icons and "share" hands are simply RF> confusing you. Yes, I'll admit that I'm very confused! RF> IOW, Win98SE has access to this printer because it can reach it RF> directly. There is nothing in the XPP configuration that affects RF> that. RF> By the same token, W2K cannot reach it, because presumably, you have RF> tried to configure it there as a XPP locally shared printer, rather RF> than configuring it with it network address, which W2K can reach. RF> Go into your Win98SE system, printers, and look at the properties RF> for this printer. You should find that it will list the port and RF> address information that you need to import into your W2K RF> configuration. Ah Hah! W98SE reports the printer as: "\\WINXP\Canoni55 on LPT1"... Couldn't find a reference to a network address, but I think that if all three machines can detect one another, then the addresses _should_ be known to all. ? W2K has the printer "sort of" configured (well, it recognizes the printer is on the XPP box), but when I call up the properties, everything is "greyed out" and I can't make any changes. The printer does have a USB port and the Canon instructions say that "the USB connection is considerably faster than the parallel connection, but that the two connectors cannot be used at the same time." (that's understandable!) All three boxes have USB ports, but I think I will run into the same problem -- printer is plugged into a USB port of "down" computer and printer is off-line... I just went on the web and Googled for a USB HUB. I'll have to have a talk to my local Staples sales person... I'll get back at you next week with my results (going out of town to work). Cheers ... Gerald .... Bad weather reports are more often right than good ones. --- GoldED+/DPMI32 v1.1.5-040330 [msg of September 12, 2005] * Origin: Junk: Stuff we throw away. Stuff: Junk we keep. (1:342/512) .