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View Full Version : 4 brand new dells browsing/sharing problem


mecroneo
05-19-05, 20:01
okay, here I go,
Just recently I started working on a small project for a relative involving four brand new (original configuration) dell pcs. Everything seemed to be working just fine until I try to share a printer. Everything goes as planned on the computer that is sharing the printer. And then I jump over to the next computer and try to browse the network to look for the printer and I get an error message saying that I do not have the necessary privilages to do so. Next I share everything that I can possibly think of (hard drives, cd-roms, floppy drives, etc.) to see if the problem was just the printer. Of course, I cannot see anything on any of the three computers that are not sharing the printer (I do have file and printer sharing enabled on all four PCs) I do have SP2 installed on all four PCs, tried to disable the windows firewall... that didn't work.

-None of the three can see their own shared files or drives in My Network Places
-None of the three can ping the pc with the printer
-All can ping the router/switch (Linksys with wireless b/g)
-Do not have an available internet connection
-The PC with the printer can ping the others

Please tell me, what did I forget?

If I left anything important out please let me know(in a nice way) ;-)

dedub
05-20-05, 21:11
As silly as it may sound. Go through the Network wizard on all four computers!!!!
After that, Create a common username and password on all 4 computers.
If you do not, then you will not be able to just print when you want. What I mean is if you go to my network places and browse workgroups computers and then click on a shared folder on another computer, it will ask you for a username and password login. Until you log on to that computer you cannot access the resources. That is what your asking the computer to do when you send a print job to the computer with the printer on it. Only thing is the Job will fail inevitably and it will not tell your why. Now you know. By putting a common user name and password *should* alleviate the issue. This is a common problem while setting up peer to peer networks with XP. Kind of quirky.
(Im assuming XP due to the fact that you said they are brand new)
I can elaborate more if needed