I have a HP Deskjet 960c USB printer (aka "the shared printer") directly
connected to a Windows 2000 SP4 machine and shared across a local network.
My two Windows XP SP2 computers have no problem connecting to the shared
printer (via the network) & can print test pages. However, my new Windows
Vista Home Basic connects, but does not print a test page.

The Vista machine can *see* & *browse* shared file folders & printers on the
Windows 2000 machine. I can even *install* the shared printer on the Vista
machine (by adding it as a network printer or browsing to it and clicking
*connect*), but when I go to print a test page, something strange happens --
the print job just disappears. It doesn't print and it doesn't hang...it
just disappears without any feedback. I open up the Print Queues on both
Vista and the Win2K machine. When I press the 'Print Test Page' button, a
test page shows up momentarily in both the Print Queue displayed on the Vista
machine and the Print Queue on the Win2K machine...however, the print job
disappears from the queue(s) relatively quickly and the printer doesn't do
anything.

In the Print Queue, I can pause the printer, and then the job is held there.
When I unpause the job, the same thing happens...the job stays momentarily
(2 seconds while status is *spooling*) and then disappears from the Queue.

On the Vista machine under the Network & Sharing Center, it shows that I'm
connected to a private network and that I have the following ON: Network
Discovery, File Sharing, and Password Protected Sharing. The others are OFF:
Public Folder Sharing, Printer Sharing (no printers installed), and Media
Sharing. I have confirmed in the Windows Firewall, that it is on with *File
and Print Sharing* listed as an Exception.

Any suggestions?

I had the same problem. I foud the following on another forum and it
worked.

"On the Vista machine, go to either "Control Panel". Choose "Printers"
or "Start Menu", "Settings" then "Printers". Choose "Add Printer", then
"Add a local printer". Click on "Create a new port". The default in the
drop down box is "Local Port". Do not change that. Click "Next". The
"Port Name" dialogue box will appear "Enter a port name". Type in the
\\computer name\printer name ie. My host's computer's name is *caafhome*
and the printer's share name is *EpsonR310a* so I typed in
\\caafhome\EpsonR310a Click on "Ok" and it does it's stuff."

Hope that helps


--
BCCISProf

Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Adding local printer first
and remapping it as network printer does fix a lot networking printer issue.
More post can be seen this link:
Vista Print Issues
Solved: Vista print Error 0x00000866 Resolution: 1. Add a Local
Printer and then create a new port pointing to the shared printer. ...
www.chicagotech.net/vista/vistaprint.htm


--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"BCCISProf" wrote in message
...

I had the same problem. I foud the following on another forum and it
worked.

"On the Vista machine, go to either "Control Panel". Choose "Printers"
or "Start Menu", "Settings" then "Printers". Choose "Add Printer", then
"Add a local printer". Click on "Create a new port". The default in the
drop down box is "Local Port". Do not change that. Click "Next". The
"Port Name" dialogue box will appear "Enter a port name". Type in the
\\computer name\printer name ie. My host's computer's name is *caafhome*
and the printer's share name is *EpsonR310a* so I typed in
\\caafhome\EpsonR310a Click on "Ok" and it does it's stuff."

Hope that helps


--
BCCISProf