I have a new Vista 64-bit computer. Connected to the Vista computer is an HP F4820 Desk Jet printer. My Vista computer connects to the internet via a wireless connection.
In another room in the house, we have an XP computer. It, too, connects to the internet and home network via the wireless connection.
When I got the Vista 'puter and the new printer, and hooked them up, the XP computer was able to print. It took some hoop-and-fire jumping to get it to do so, but it did.
My DVD/CD burner died and I had to kill my computer at the instruction of Dell (grrr), which created more problems than it was worth given that I already knew it was a hardware problem. BUT, anyway, now my XP cannot print.
Vista - has printer sharing ON. Printer is SHARED and in Networking and Sharing, Printer Sharing is ON (not passworded). In Networking and Sharing, the Vista computer: Network discovery: ON, File Sharing: ON, Public Folder Sharing: ON, Printer Sharing: ON, Password protected sharing: OFF, Media Sharing: OFF.
The XP computer has the HP printer drivers on it.
If I enter the printer location as \\computername\printername, it can find the printer. It has the drivers and the print spooler info shows up, BUT nothing prints. I get a "print failed" error. The printer won't work.
However, I have found Vista wants the XP computer to enter a password - To view the Public folder on Vista I have to enter my Vista log-in password. Once I do that, then the XP computer can print.
I need to make it so the XP computer can connect to the printer without needing that password entered. I had it set up that way before, but I've no idea what I did seven months ago to set it up.
Users of the XP machine (my children) do not need to know my Vista password, and having to go into a different area each time the computer has been shut off in order to enter the password is one step extra they don't need to do.
Help?! (If you need more details of various aspects, let me know. I'm sort of frazzled at this point, having spent two days attempting to fix this and a bluetooth connection problem I have since Dell instructed me to reset Windows to its factory condition.)
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide,
~wenmom