atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Windows Vista Business Service Pack 1?

I am trying to install two network printers on a new machine.
One is a shared parallel printer connected directly to the server.

The second is a stand alone network printer.

I get the same error when trying to install both of them. It says it can't connect to them because the print spooler has stopped or the printer is not connected to the network. I know this is not true because all of the other machines can print to them.

When I click on "Network" I am able to see the server and most of the other computers on the network once in a while but not all the time and I am able to see the stand alone very often but no other computers. I am able to ping the server 100 % of the time. I never tried to ping the stand alone because I did not know it's IP address and I decided I'd had enough for the day.
I've spent all day setting this thing up and everything is up and running except the printers.

I have mapped my F: drive to the server and all of my shortcuts work without failure so I know I have a connection.

Ideas?

Bobby, check the network jack & cable. Good place to start.

Had a similar problem a couple of weeks ago. Even the jack/wire tested good. Changed the jack & voila.

Two things that I find to be unreliable with Windows are network discovery, and adding a network printer using the wizard. If you know the IP or name of the server, just put that in directly rather than trying to browse to it. In the address bar of any explorer window, (My Computer for example) type \\servername or \\<server IP address> If you see the name of the shared printer, just double click and it should tell you that it needs to install the printer before it can be used. If you don't see the name of the shared printer, check the share settings on the server.

Thanks guys.

Dave, I forgot to mention I'm replacing an old computer with this new one so I'm using the same cable, jack, patch cord, and switch port . The old computer never had problems with the printers.
The Boss wanted the billing department to have the "latest-greatest" computer and the old one will be handed down to another department.

Clinton, I've tried the wizard and entering the name manually. One time during the process it did tell me the driver needed to be installed but it hasn't since then.

My job would be so much easier if they would have went with XP Pro.

A couple of pointers:

1. Make sure Network Discovery is ON on the Vista PC and you are connecting to a Public/Work type network.

2. "Print Spooler Service not running" maybe an indication that either: (a) Users do not have a right to install printers (ie printer drivers and printer ports), or/and (b) you need to login as an admin that has said rights.

3. It is basic practice to give all servers a static IP. That includes print servers embedded into printers (as is the case with so-called "network printers"). If the print server gets its address from DHCP, I would advise changing to static.

4. Microsoft does things with printers in the typical unorthodox and convoluted way. A "network printer" according to Microsoft is a shared printer attached to another computer. A real network printer (as in printer with embedded print server) is actually installed as a "local" printer. There's a method to their madness: Windows sends output to printer ports, not printers. In the case of shared printers, Windows prints directly to a port of the computer that has the printer attached. Since this is a remote computer, this becomes a remote (network) printer port, and therefore a network printer.
When you install a real network printer, Windows creates a printer port on your machine. So for Windows this is a "local" printer, even if that's a printer located on the other side of the planet.

1st - You probably already know this but each time before you try to install the printer you will have to restart the Print Spooler if you get the "Print spooler has stopped error"

2nd. - check firewall for "enable file and print sharing is on"

3rd. - try either a different driver from PS to PCL. We have several printers that we use different drivers for Vista.

Update: Problem resolved. Thanks for all of your help and suggestions!

I finally gave in and called a friend that is a top notch network guru and he had things up and running for me in short order. I hated to call him because he quoted a price to sell this customer a computer and the customer went with Dell because it was a few bucks less. But this guy is a class act and did not hesitate to help me even though he missed making a few bucks on the sale. I'm gonna take him to lunch as a small token of appreciation. :thumb:

Printer number One was parallel printer connected directly to the server.
To install it all I had to do was go to the "Network" and click on the server until I saw the printer. Then double click on it until the printer status box opened. After a few seconds when it said " 0 Document(s) in queue". That's it! It was installed then.

Printer number Two was a stand alone network printer with it's own IP address.
To install this one I had to open the printer wizard and install a "Local" printer. The first thing was to open a TCP/IP port for the printer. Then I clicked on "Have Disk" for the driver. From that point forward it was identical to Windows XP.
In this case I did have to download the Vista driver from the manufacturer's web page but that was easy.