I was asked to set up a LAN for a group of older citizens who voluntarily do tax returns for other older, lower income citizens. Had no problem seting up LAN with printer and file shareing using 6 new HP laptops running XP Professional. Have a 7th laptop running XP Home which fails to connect. Have used "Add Printer Wizard" for the successeful installs. Not successful with the older laptop. Get as far as the last step which shows MS Windows Network/VOLGROUP(name of our LAN/then name of server preceeded by a small +. When I click on the small + the printer name(s) don't show. Firewall has been turned off.

Hi,

Welcome to DaniWeb

A few questions to start with

1) have you used a domain or workgroup to link the PC's ?

2) Is the printer plugged into one of the PC's ?

There are networking differences between XP Home and professional which is probably why you are having problems.

3) How long did you wait after networking the pc's before trying to connect printer to last laptop ?

On unconnected laptop I would try going to Internet Explorer (IE6 or 7) and enter \\PCname where PCname is the name of the PC with the printer attached. You should then see a list of all shared devices and folders on that PC.

Then click on printer and install it.

I also recommend making sure that all PC names have no spaces in them. I know what Microsoft says but..... (e.g. PC2 is acceptable but PC 2 is not a good name)

If this does not work then enter \\ipnumber where ipnumber is the ip number of the pc with printer and see what happens.

Hope you let us know what happens.

Denis

How are you connecting these laptop, is it wireless/wired, are you using a router?
as denisoxon said home edition will give some problem to network, but answer the questions above then we can assist further

My network is wired and is setup through an Encore 8 port router. Thanks for your willingness to help.

A few questions to start with

1) have you used a domain or workgroup to link the PC's ? Work group = VOLGROUP
2) Is the printer plugged into one of the PC's ? Yes, into the same computer that aslo acts as server for the tax program these people run.
There are networking differences between XP Home and professional which is probably why you are having problems.

3) How long did you wait after networking the pc's before trying to connect printer to last laptop ? Have tried many times - have had the system up and down. No problem with the computers running XP PRO - just with the computer running XP HOME

On unconnected laptop I would try going to Internet Explorer (IE6 or 7) and enter \\PCname where PCname is the name of the PC with the printer attached. You should then see a list of all shared devices and folders on that PC.

Then click on printer and install it.

I also recommend making sure that all PC names have no spaces in them. I know what Microsoft says but..... (e.g. PC2 is acceptable but PC 2 is not a good name)

If this does not work then enter \\ipnumber where ipnumber is the ip number of the pc with printer and see what happens.

Hope you let us know what happens. I WILL DO THAT BUT WON'T BE ABLE TO GET BACK TO THE LAN SITE FOR ANOTHER TWO DAYS. THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT.

Denis[/QUOTE]

can the other computer see the Xp Home PC, can the XP Home PC get to the network ( see the other computer) can it connect to the internet (there is internet right????)

to be a bit specific, is it only the printer you cannot connect to on the XP Home PC.

check the protocol that are used on the XP Pro PC, make sue the same thing match up with the home, did you run the network wizard on the XP Home PC, ensure that the firewall setting on the XP Home PC Exception tab is check for file and printer sharing (network wizard would enable this by default)

Problem has been resolved - not a very technical solution though. One of the gentlemen in the volunteer group that I was working with had an XP Pro installation disk and I installed on the "problem" computer. Was able to connect all computers without any further problem. Do believe from what I read and from what was mentioned in previous threads that there is an incompatibility between XP Home and XP Pro.

Thanks for you input as I tried to wirk through this frustrating problem which is now history.