Vista - Unseeable printer

Have a WesternDigital NetCenter (network accessible storage unit with a 250GB
drive and two USB ports able to host additional storage or printers) an
HP1320 printer is on one USP port. The NetCenter has an IP address (I have
tried static and DHCP assigned by my router) and as far as I know it uses
standard protocols. This all still works fine under WindowsXP (the rest of my
network) but not with my one Vista Ultimate box (in a Private Network).

I manged to install the printer (not even sure how) under Vista but it stays
in a near perpetual state of "Opening" if I look at its status. Merely having
it set as the default printer causes merely opening Word or Outlook to stall
my entire system for ~5 minutes. Since this is the only true printer I have
here, I have set up CutePDF print-to-file up as the default to kludege past
this and at least be able to check e-mail.

If I select something to actually print, say, in Notepad. I see the circular
hourglass for 5 minutes, then it goes away and nothing prints. Then I can use
the print dialog again, however, and the document prints immediately. Yet if
I open the Network dialog nothing representative of the NetCenter is visable
there.

The drive on the NetCenter sets up easy and access to shares on it are fine,
even though no device with the those appears in the Network dialog. I can
also use it HTML page based set-up just fine from IE7 in Vista.

Any suggestions how to make Vista see the printer better?

I have cross-posted this in the Networing and Shares Community too, because
I see it foremost as a Vista does not play well on a network problem. Asking
here is like asking for help with symptoms rather than a disease, but any
help would be appreciated.

Also, any suggestions on Vista utilities (e.g., logging) that I can use to
get more information on this kind of thing?

TY in advance.