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sah18Flag for United States of America

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Windows XP - having trouble printing to shared printer on my desktop from my notebook computer on wireless network

I am running Windows XP Professional on both my desktop computer and my notebook.  These are in my home, where I have a wireless network setup.  I have shared out my desktop printer, and have setup the notebook to print to that printer previously.  I initially used the netbios machine name to find the printer during setup, which worked fine the first time I did the setup.  After a week or so (I don't print very often, by the way), I tried printing again, but my notebook could not find the printer (even though my desktop machine was on and able to print to the printer itself).  I then tried removing the previous printer install from the notebook and tried adding it in again, this time using the ip address (i have static addresses assigned to each device on my home network).  It worked -- but again, just like before, it only worked for awhile, and eventually could not "locate" the printer on the network in future attempts to print to it.  I now again have tried removing the printer install from before (from the notebook), but can not even add it in this time at all -- it doesn't find the name and it also can't find it by ip either!

any suggestions on how to correct this problem would be great.  I just don't get what's happening with it.
thank you.
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tim_qui

What printer are you using, make and model # ?  It sounds like you may need to reset it to factory defaults, then try.
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ASKER

HP Laserjet 1100A.  I'm not sure what you mean about resetting it to factory defaults.  It's printing fine from my desktop system with no problems.  It's just my notebook is having trouble locating it on the network.
Is the notebook is connecting to the printer wirelessly?
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ASKER

yep.
That's what I figured.  I have an HP wireless printer that usually works for about 1-3 months before I have to uninstall and reinstall the software drivers on my laptop to get it to work.

On mine I have to plug an ethernet cable into the printer from the laptop during installation, then remove at the end of the process.  Sometimes I am forced to reset the printer back to factory defaults to install it properly.
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ASKER

The printer isn't wireless.  It's my network that's wireless.  The printer is directly connected to my desktop computer.
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tim_qui

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Post a pointer question under networking to bring more attention to this question if resetting the ap did not help.
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ASKER

thanks for your help, i did actually list it there also.  i've found a temporary work-around, but still i think something is not quite right on my network.  thanks again for your time.
You're welcome.