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I have tried everything I know. Please Help!

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An office I went to has mostly xp pro sp 3 computers and one server running server 2000. All pcs are on the same domain. The problem I am having is with printers. When I install a printer on a computer on the network and share it, other computers can connect to it and I think everything is fine. A couple hours later or overnight goes by and the next day the computers don't have access to the printer share. What can I do? I have tried everything I could think of with rights, file and printer sharing, etc. Please help!

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Your issue right off the bat is that you are sharing printers off the computers and not the server. Network the printers, create printer shares on the server for them, connect the coputers to those printer shares. If you want to not deal with the server setup, network the printers and connect the computers to them using direct IP printing. XP is not made for file/printer sharing with more than a few users on the network.

hang-the-9 said:
Your issue right off the bat is that you are sharing printers off the computers and not the server. Network the printers, create printer shares on the server for them, connect the coputers to those printer shares. If you want to not deal with the server setup, network the printers and connect the computers to them using direct IP printing. XP is not made for file/printer sharing with more than a few users on the network.


Would you mind elaborating a bit? Some of the printers do not have rj45 connectors. As you can see I am a little clueless in this arena. Thanks for your input.
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acarmichael2000 said:
Would you mind elaborating a bit? Some of the printers do not have rj45 connectors. As you can see I am a little clueless in this arena. Thanks for your input.


If they don't have network conections I suggest getting an external print server. You can get some cheap used ones that work well, these things are pretty sturdy. We use quite a few that are many years old.

Something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Jetdirect-170x-External-Parallel... will be fine for a parallel printer. You just need to have network jacks and someone who takes care of your IP scheme to assign some static IPs. I strong suggest you use static IPs for printers, will make managing and trouble-shooting them much better.

To setup direct IP printing, just like adding a local printer, but create a new TCP/IP port for the printer. Then put in the drivers and you are set. A server is better, but needs more work to setup.

Either setup is better that sharing them off your computers though.
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