Wireless network questions

[Donnyj]

I'm not using any other routers. I do have DSL. I do not understand the DHCP suggestion. I do not see the network at all. Where do I look for it at? Neither system does seem to see it, but each one is using the internet fine. I must be doing something wrong as far as trying to view the network. Norton Firewall is enabled. The firewall with XP is disabled. I'm using the infrastructure mode. I do have some numbers under a MAC address. If that helps? Encryption is diabled. No one lives close to me at all, I don't believe anyone will access this network outside. Should the SSID name be the name of the network? I do not see the SSID name anywhere except on the status screen of the wireless notebook card. Hopefully I answered your questions. Thanks for your reply.

 

[Donnyj]

The printer driver is loaded on the notebook. I can print from the notebook it I hook up a USB cable. The printer I have is a HP Photosmart 7660. Not very old. Within 3 years. It does not have a Ethernet plug on the back. Someone suggested a wireless printer hookup?? I just figured I should be able to access the printer since the home computer is hooked up to it and it stays on. I think my problem lies somewhere with not being able to see the network. I must be doing something wrong.

 

[Volfandt]

If your laptop is setup to access your work network then you will not be able to access your home network. Unfortunately you have to change settings inorder to access differing networks. There aren't many settings you have to change and if you want to alternate between them you need to write down these settings inorder to easily change.

There are many settings but the basics are:

1) Your home network PC's must be assigned to the same workgroup, i.e. same name. An example would be nameing the workgroup "Homegroup"
Your laptop will have the name of your work's workgroup in that setting.
You may be able to change the name your desktop to your "works" workgroup name and be safe as the likelyhood of you carrying it to your workplace is probably slim.

2) In the TCP/IP settings on both computers make sure that the IP's are dynamic (set to obtain an IP) and not static. Your desktop is probably set to dynamic as this is default but your laptop may not be since many business networks use static IP's as a form of security.

3) Turn on file and printer shareing on both PC's. You will also want to turn on C & D drive shareing also. When turning on your HD shareing there will be a step where you can assign a security code, do it as this will give you some measure of protection against most intruders.

4) Sometimes you have to "link" to the other PC's HD that are running older Windows such as 98 inorder to see it. You shouldn't have to with XP.

Since both PC's are able to access to internet then the DHCP server in your router is turned on and working. I doubt the restriction is in the router, it's probably in the settings of your your laptops workgroup.

Good luck
Volfandt

 

[ejtaylor822]

Hi DonnyJ,
If you are getting to the internet from both systems, your PC and notebook, then you are "seeing the network" which means you do not have an IP address nor DHCP conflict. That is what it was sounding like and is very common; especially when multiple routers/gateways are in use. (BTW - DCHP is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol which allows you to dynamically assign IP adresses. You don't have to worry about which IP was assigned to which computer. Not a big deal if you have one or two PCs at home, but when there are 100's in a business it's the greatest thing in the world. Here's a quick overview of DHCP and what it does.)

At this point it really sounds like me you need to add the printer to your laptop as previously described. It needs to be added as a "printer attached to another computer". Can you share a directory from your XP system and map it to your notebook? This will test whether or not the computers can see each other. If they can, then it points back to adding the printer, as a "printer attaced to another computer", to your notebook.

Hope this helps and you can get it going soon. I know how frustrating home networks can be. I am actually a former UNIX guy and networking is not my strong suit. I have set them up at home, friends and family and it's never been a simple "plug and play" - it's always been "plug and pray" as I always tell people. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Believe you are very close and will get this whipped soon.

Eddie

 

[beagdog]

Again, make sure your printer is "shared" on the desktop PC. The "c" drive doesn't need to be shared.

If you'll right mouse click on the "My Computer" icon on your laptop, you should see a "properties" option. If you select properties, you should see an option to see the computer name and network identification. Check those settings on both the PC and the laptop. The workgroup name needs to be the same. Now if your laptop came out of a domain environment, you'll need to change it to a workgroup environment and then make sure the workgroup name is the same as your PC. Depending on who set your laptop up, if you don't have admin rights, you may not be able to do any of this.

If you can't change those settings, you should still be able to "see" the PC from your laptop. If you can see it, you can print from it, its just a little more challenging. On your desktop PC open up a "dos" window by going to the start button, select run and type cmd in the run box. This will open a dos window. Type the following: ipconfig , then press enter. Write that number down-it should be something like 192.168.1.xxx

Now on your laptop, go to the start button and select "search" Make a selection to search for computers-type in the number your wrote down above and press enter. It may take a bit, but if you can see the PC on the network, it will show up as will the printer. From there its as simple a clicking on the printer and it should install it on the laptop.

Good luck.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> If your laptop is setup to access your work network then you will not be able to access your home network. </font>
No offense, but this is not true. I have a laptop from work and I have no problems going into standby at work, coming home, coming out of standby and connecting to my home network. The network IP addresses at work are different than the addresses at home. DHCP handles everything.

 

[Donnyj]

Here is where I'm at now. Both computers had different workgoup names. I changed them to match. Made sure print sharing is on. When I changed the names I got a welcome message saying welcome to xxx network. I'm thinking great. Still can't print. I try to print, I click on Find Printer. It sees the network and my computer name. I double click there and I see the Hp printer. I highlight that and click ok. I then click apply, then print. Error message says there was an error when printing document "mhml:mid://00000006/" to USB001. Do you want to retry or cancel the job? I say no I need a stiff drink /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I assume the problem might be the fact the notebook is trying to use the USB port to print???? I'm getting close. Just need a little bit more to get over the hump. Thanks to everyone so far.

 

[ejtaylor822]

Hey Donny, Congratualtions! Almost home.....

I have not seen the message you described. Typically, once you see the printer, and it's defined to your notebook, you should be good to go as long as it shows available on the client notebook. Just to verify there is nothing wrong with your PC have you tried printing from the PC lately? (Thought I was having problems with my laptop & network one night. Got error messages, created and recreated the printer, checked network connections. Finally went upstairs and tried printing from there only to get an error message there as well. Checked the printer and it was turned off.)

Also, can you see the PC printer in your list of printers on the notebook and does it show "ready"? On the notebook I would set the HP "remote" printer as the default and try printing again once verified from the PC.

 

[Donnyj]

I printed from the PC fine. The notebook shows the printer. It is the default printer and there is a small hand underneath it. I guess that means the printer is shared?? The printer status says ready in green letters. Each time I try to print it gives me an error saying there is an error when printing the document "Test page" to USB001. Does the printer need to be shared on the notebook as well? Well, I tried both ways, unsharing and sharing and stil same error. The error message to me sounds like the notebook is trying to print on the USB port. When I installed the printer drivers the other day I just used an USB cable to print from the notebook. Maybe I should just delete the printer from the notebook and try again?? It should find the drivers for the printer on the desktop pc? Is that correct?

 

[California]

Next step: add another printer to the laptop.

It presently has only an HP defined as connected to the laptop's USB001.

Now you need to install another HP on the laptop, that is defined as that network printer way over there on the other side of the network. (I assume you already defined it as 'shared' in the pc's printer setup).

When installed, the laptop will have a local HP (usable only when you bring the printer across the room and plug it into the laptop's USB port), and a second HP, the one over there on the pc, that you see as a network printer.

'My Printers' will now show two printers, the local HP and the network HP.

For simplicity go to My Printers and set whichever one you want to use today, as default.