i have wireless (WEP) network of 5 PCs. they all connect to network just fine and get the IPs and everything seems fine but printer sharing. im able to ping the PC to which printer is connected via USB as well as browse the shares on the PC with printer attached. i tried to reinstall the printer drivers/cleaned up spyware, but every time im trying to connect to the printer from any client im getting this message "Cannot connect to the printer. Cannot connect/access to the server" - it goes something like that. It's very frustrating, i tried to add local port and use TCP/IP setting for the printer and it didn't help. I noticed in the PC with the printer in Connections there's another connection called Internet Sharing that sits there and if i hit properties the properties page pops up and after few secs it closes by itself. I tried everything possible. Found some reg fix on the internet but it didn't help. any ideas would be appreciated.

Hey, im guessing as all of your file shares are working correctly then all of your computers are on the same workgroup? On the computer that the printer is connected to go to the control panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel) and select "Printers and Faxes". Is your printer displayed in there? If it is make sure it is shared by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Sharing". Make sure button next to "Share this printer" is selected. On all of the other computers on your network go into the control panel again and select "Printers and Faxes" again. Click add a new printer. Select the "A Network printer, or a printer attached to another computer" button and click "Next". You can choose to browse for the printer or if you know the computer name choose the button that says "Connect to this printer (or to browse for a printer, select this option and click Next):"

In the box type in \\COMPUTER\PRINTERNAME where COMPUTER is the computer name and PRINTERNAME is the share name of the printer. Click "Next" Follow the on screen instructions and try printing out on a computer that doesn't have the printer attached to.

If you need anymore help reply :)

Matt

thanks matt ive tried that but first if i browse for the network printer from all client pc's the work group can not be expanded. also typing the path to the printer shows the error that says cannot connect to the shared printer. lost connection to server. the same thing is happening when i open the shares of the server on one of the clients which also shows shared printer and when i right click on the printer and hit connect.

i will try to uninstall and install back the file and printer sharing to see if it helps.

Hmm, I had a problem sort of the same, i couldn't access any of the file shares from my other pc, do any of the other computers have firewalls running ? if they do, configure the firewall to allow all the computers on your network to access each other,

Eample:

Computer 1 has a network IP of 192.168.0.2
Computer 2 has a network IP of 192.168.0.3
Computer 3 has a network IP of 192.168.0.4
Computer 4 has a network IP of 192.168.0.5
Computer 5 has a network IP of 192.168.0.6

Now, lets say the printer is attached to computer 1, if it is firewalled it might not be letting the other computers to connect. Open up your firewall configuration and add the network IP's to the allow list. So, adding 192.168.0.3 through to 192.168.0.6. Try doing that. Then reply with the news :)

i didn't play with the firewall but ill turn it off on the pc that serves printer + and also will turn it off on client pc. they're all on the same network so so i can just allow 192.168.0.X. thank you for the tip and i will reply back with my doings.