Vista/XP wireless printer sharing fix?

[HCI]

I have an XP desktop that is connected to a printer. I am really only using the desktop as a print server. I have a laptop with dual boot Ubuntu and Vista. Everything is connected wireless and I have my laptop printer driver set to print to a local port //x/y.

Here is the problem.

I can start Ubuntu and print no problem. I start Vista and I can see the printer under networking, but under printer services it shows the printer is not ready. I can refresh all day and nothing happens. I have to go in and delete the printer off of printer services and then reinstall the driver every time. After I do this it works no problem.

It is very annoying and I would not even fool with booting Vista; however, I have a report I have to print everyday that comes off a webserver that has to be logged in by IE.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[HIFI]

I had the same setup and issues, never could figure anything out and gave up ended up buying a network printer and all has been great.

 

[navychop]

I had similar problems with Vista and a network printer. I got rid of Vista and all was well (W7 upgrade). Years ago, I used a print server for a couple of older printers and it usually worked well. But decided that EVERY printer I buy in the future would be networkable, for both home and office.

Good luck. But I suspect your best bet will be to get a network printer. Prices for printers including this feature have really come down - to below $200. Look at the Canon MX-870.

 

[diogen]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

What driver do you use?

I noticed that switching to a PostScript driver usually improves communication (in addition to adding options).
Although most of the time it slows down the printout (depending on how the decoding is done - in software or hardware).

By default a PCL5/6 driver is installed. And get rid of anything but the driver itself.

Also, using Vista by now is almost a sin...

Diogen.

 

[Steve Mehs]

While I never had a dedicated computer for the function, I had both a Motorola and Linksys Printer Server a few years ago. I’d get tons of errors when I’d go to print on my XP machine, but if I kept click Ok it would eventually print. Had no problems with Windows 2000. Bought a Wireless HP Deskjet a few years ago and did away with the printer server. Last year I upgraded to a Wireless HP Officejet. Both were a breeze to set up and get working on Vista. As much as I hate WIFI was a pasion, having a wireless printer is nice, in fact other then a once in a blue moon thing with my Evo, the printer is the only wireless device on my network.

 

[tstolze]

I have 2 friends with this exact setup that I helped. I will search tonight, I had to do the setup manually in Vista, adding your own printer port if I recall correctly.

 

[navychop]

I had some success by defining printers by IP address in Vista, but it didn't always continue working.