Windows 95 - Sharing a printer

[BenoitRen]

Network topology:

Our home network consists of 1 desktop running Windows 95, one WinXP laptop, and one WinXP desktop. Occasionally my WinXP laptop joins the party. They are all connected by a router which is connected to the Internet.

Background:

For a long time we have been sending documents via the Internet or via Personal Web Server's FTP service to my Win95 PC to print them. I grew tired of that, and further contributing to the issue was that I didn't have OpenOffice on my PC anymore (too long to load, barely used). So months back I figured I would share the printer that's connected to it.

This has worked fine for months, with a hiccup now and then, with one minor detail: my Win95 only rarely saw the other computers. But that didn't cause any issues, so I just shrugged it off. One or two weeks ago we did have an issue on the laptop, which was solved by re-enabling the Computer Browser service (I have played with them in the past, seeking to disable unneeded ones).

Issue:

Now, however, it's impossible to print from the laptop, and I have no idea what the issue is, as I didn't change anything. The computers are on the same workgroup (WORKGROUP), on the same subnet, the Win95 has Client for Microsoft Networks and NetBUEI installed, binded.

On the Win95 PC, when it is the only one on the network, Network Neighbourhood works fine. However, when the laptop joins in, when trying to view Network Neighbourhood, the PC spends an eternity trying to find anything while the pocket light icon animates. Trying to refresh the window doesn't help. Eventually Explorer.exe crashes. Rebooting multiple times and waiting for Win95 to log in to the network didn't help.

On the laptop with WinXP, it can see both itself and the Win95 PC. But when I try to print, in Word it tells me that it can't because a setting may be wrong, and in OpenOffice it tells me that I don't have the necessary permissions to access the printer. The user account is not limited, but of that other type that offers more rights, but not as much as the administrator. When trying to access the Win95 PC through Network Neighbourhood, it tells me that I don't have the permission to, and when I try to view its properties, it tells me that it can't find the PC. The printer is listed as a network printer, but it says that it can't find it on its server.

I've tried to search for any information on what could be happening on the Internet, but didn't find anything.

Help!

[Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa]

You need to setup your computer on a network. Look up Internet connection sharing. The first thing you need to do is setup a network on one computer and then setup for another. The idea is that you log into that network and you share printers. It works out great where you can have even ten or twenty machines sharing a computer.

Again you can also do it the old way and direct your computer on a network. You can send those faxes for free. Yet I have no idea how that works.

[BenoitRen]

I wouldn't be complaining that it didn't work if I didn't have them set-up already.

Internet Connection Sharing has nothing to do with sharing printers.

[BenoitRen]

About one month ago I decided to reinstall printer sharing. I had removed them before after some time because I couldn't get it to work anyway.

My WinXP laptop can use the printer fine, but the other computers still can't. Getting only those computers to acknowledge each other isn't working either. Windows networking is such a pain. I checked everything, and the settings are the same, etc., but no dice.