Author Topic: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.  (Read 5386 times)

Bobbias

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Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« on: September 18, 2009, 05:32:56 PM »
So, apparently according to my laptop, my mom's computer doesn't exist. My brother's computer, which runs XP is visible, and so is my linux based (SAMBA share) MyBook NAS.... And yet my mom's windows vista running laptop does not show up to my (vista running) laptop.

On top of that, her network window says there's nothing else on the network with her.

What the fuck?

I'm trying to get printer sharing to work, and my mom's computer is apparently deaf dumb and blind when it comes to network sharing. Everything is enabled, it's on the same workgroup, as far as I can tell, it should be visible. On top of that, trying to confirm that the printer itself is shared by searching for all shared stuff on her computer yields nothing, despite the fact that there should be the printer there.

So if anyone has any clue as to why her computer refuses to acknowledge that there are other computers in the house, and that it should be set to share her printer, let me know. This is getting stupid.
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Sneaky

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2009, 08:07:42 PM »
Vista has this thing when you select a wireless network, to set it as Home, Public, or other or whatever. I believe setting it as public masks the PC somehow. Home/Private settings would probably allow for P&S sharing, so double check that.  Also the little checkbox for P&S sharing in the properties of the wireless connection.. or re-do/re-build the workgroup network wizard shit. Firewall programs? etc

I'll post more if I think of anythin else.

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Bobbias

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2009, 02:10:54 AM »
Only firewall other than windows firewall is in the router, and it's not affecting any of this. I'm about 90% sure it's set as home.... I'll check again later, but I think it is.

or re-do/re-build the workgroup network wizard shit.

She had some stuff open and wasn't home, so I wasn't going to reboot the computer and lose it, so I haven't set the workgroup to something else, and back again. But yeah, whatever this problem is, I can't even ping it from my computer. Haven't seen if it could ping my computer yet though.
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Spectere

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2009, 05:39:39 PM »
Vista has this thing when you select a wireless network, to set it as Home, Public, or other or whatever. I believe setting it as public masks the PC somehow. Home/Private settings would probably allow for P&S sharing, so double check that.

Ding ding.

I've seen that happen quite a bit.  If you close out of the selection without choosing anything, it defaults to a public network which effectively blocks off all incoming communication.  Every time I've seen that sort of thing happen, it's because public got selected at some point.

So yeah, if it's still not working, give that a go.
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Bobbias

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2009, 07:18:11 PM »
The computer says the network is a private network.

My mom mentioned that because she has multiple settings for things (she connects to our home network here, and she also uses it at her office, which uses rogers internet) and it came up with something asking her whether it was a "computer on the move" or something.

Of course, she never pays attention to stuff like that, and I don't know whether that was a program asking that, or the networking stuff in windows, or what. I've never heard of anything asking something like that before.

Also, how do you bring that selection back? I randomly get that showing up once in a while (I'll connect to a network and sometimes it'll just connect, and sometimes it'll bring up that prompt and make a new connection that is now <SSID>2 or something [my mom's current network is named "bobbias2" and the SSID of my home network is simply bobbias....])
« Last Edit: September 27, 2009, 07:30:12 PM by Bobbias »
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Sneaky

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2009, 08:16:24 PM »
Control Panel -> netw/sharing center ->

under the network map, it should have the little house icon with your SSID (private/home network). straight across from that, theres a blue "customize" link in which you can change the public/private setting. Also double check the bubble-options below that on the main network screen where you can enable file/printer sharing.

I do think that her switching between networks and whatever settings she ignored/just clicked 'yes' to are fucking this up.  Although, I switch between my private home network and ASU's WiFi when I'm on campus, and I have no difficulty printing anything.
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Spectere

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2009, 08:46:41 PM »
Sheesh, quit stealing my replies, Sneaky.

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Bobbias

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2009, 08:53:59 PM »
I sorta figured it had something to do with her utter disregard for various things like that. Unfortunately, I can't get any more info about when/where that prompt she mentioned popped up.

But yeah, I've got file/printer sharing turned on. One thing that bothers me is that even if there was something blocking the network communication, you'd think that the computer would acknowledge that I had decided to share the printer. When you do a search for shared folders/printers/stuff on the computer, nothing comes up, but the sharing info on the printer itself is set up for sharing.

And the network map section doesn't even show the laptop itself. On mine, it shows my router, my laptop, my desktop in the basement (which my brother uses) and my storage server. And as I said, I can't even ping her computer from mine.

Sheesh, quit stealing my replies, Sneaky.

P.S. Custom title assigned. ;)

Haha, awesome.
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Sneaky

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #8 on: September 28, 2009, 12:31:04 AM »
Shot in the dark  NOTE I AM DRUNK
firstly thank you spec for the title :) ever since I got my new laptop, i've been learning more and more about vista, so it's fresh in my brain :) <3

anyway, the next thing i would try is maybe  un-doing/un "installing" all the networks your moms system has setup, basically starting it with no internet/networks from scratch, then try to build your network on top of that.  The thing that makes this not really a printer software/driver issue is your non-ability to ping your mom's system from yours... so reinstalling printer drivers wouldn't be a step i'd deem necessary at this point. At least we're dwindling it down to some possibilities here, hope we can get this working correctly for your sake (and hers)
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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2009, 03:08:07 AM »
But yeah, I've got file/printer sharing turned on. One thing that bothers me is that even if there was something blocking the network communication, you'd think that the computer would acknowledge that I had decided to share the printer. When you do a search for shared folders/printers/stuff on the computer, nothing comes up, but the sharing info on the printer itself is set up for sharing.

And the network map section doesn't even show the laptop itself. On mine, it shows my router, my laptop, my desktop in the basement (which my brother uses) and my storage server. And as I said, I can't even ping her computer from mine.

If the network is set as private, sharing is disabled on that particular network automatically.  One of the biggest strengths that Vista has as far as security is that.  If you connect an XP machine to the network, all shares are instantly visible to anyone else that's connected to the network.  With Vista, the firewall automatically goes into lockdown mode until you specify otherwise.

When the firewall is disallowing new incoming connections, it's almost as though the computer doesn't exist.  You're not going to be able to ping it at all, nor should you be able to.

Speaking of that, I find it hilarious when *nix and OS X lusers go on about how secure their OS is.  Uh...NO.  As of Leopart, OS X defaults the firewall to off (and it wouldn't surprise me if that persisted to Snow Leopard).  The less said about the Linux firewall, the better.  Seriously, it's insanely powerful, but if you don't know precisely what you're doing it's worthless.  Windows just gets it right in that regard, especially with Vista.  To quote the Mac drones, "it just works," and it's fairly secure and still easy to configure to boot.
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Bobbias

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Re: Printer sharing between vista laptops isn't working.
« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2009, 06:14:37 AM »
IIRC the firewall is actually turned off... Though I could be wrong.

I'm gonna hate if that is exactly what is killing this whole thing.
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