Printer sharing between Windows 98 and 2000

[deltaf508]

I'm working on a job and am having problems with a printer. Here are the details. The printer is connected to a windows 98 Machine. The printer prints fine on this machine so I know it installed right. However I'm trying to get a Windows 2000 machine to be able to print to this 98 machine as well.

I've tried everything to get the printer installed on the 2000 machine, but it will not work. Every time I "add printer" and choose "network printer" It will find the printer but will not install the drivers due to the different operating systems. I even went as far as downloading the 2000 drivers for this printer and pointing it to the path to where they were and it still would not install correctly.

My next option I'm thinking about trying is yank the printer from the 98 machine, plug it into the 2000 machine, USB will detect and install all neccessary drivers and add printer to the list, then yank the machine and put it back on the 98 machine. Then I can go into the printer properties on the 2000 machine and change the path of the printer to represent the network machine it is on(eg. \\Machine\printer name ) instead of the USB path . Will this work? I'm out of ideas, I have to go back on Monday and get this working...

BTW: the printer is a Brother MFC-9600

Any suggestions,

Gary

[the jester]

hey delta

I'm going to suggest skipping the hardwork and go with hooking the printer to the w2k machine

that's what I do - it's a lazy answer, but I eventually gave up on win98

my set-up
w2k with hp psc 750
shared with
1 w2k laptop (wireless)
1 wxp laptop (wireless)
1 gentoo/suse box using samba (cups confuses me )

[voogru]

I been having the same problems, I might just install win2k on the other machine (its running 98) but if there is a way to fix this it would be great.

[Marc04]

I've had similar problems in the past. What worked for me(as suggested by a Hewlett Packard tech), was install the drivers on the machine not connected to the printer directly as a local printer. When it asks what port it is connected to you can say lpt1. Let the drivers install and then go into the properties of the printer where it shows what port it is installed on and click to add a port. Then you should be able to browse to the printer. Go back and apply the changes and test it.

Marc

[deltaf508]

Thanks Marc I will try that. I actually thought of that as well. I'm just afraid that the 2000 machine won't take the drivers I offer it, because I tried something similar already (but not exactly the same). I will try it on Monday.

For all the other suggestions I would love to switch it to Win2K, but the machine is only a 233mhz machine with like 32 megs of ram. I don't know if Windows 2000 would like that setup.

Also I would move the printer but the guy I'm working for is very Adamant about having this printer, on this machine, In this location. Trust me I've talked to him about this. The guy is unbending. I just want to get it fixed an get outta' there. <vent>I've had a rough week. </vent>

I even called Brother Tech support about this. Here's there answer - "I'm sorry we won't answer your questions because we don't support sharing printers over a network" Nice answer huh. Especially considering this is a $300+ printer.

I'm going to try what marc suggested on Monday morning.

Thanks for the tips. If you think of anything else lemme' know.

Gary

[the jester]

hey delta

I have win2k on a wireless laptop with the following

1G HD
pentium 120
48MB

it's a brick, but it works

does the guy know that of the 2 os's he has running one is a true network os and the other is just not meant to be (98 says it all in '02)

I know that's not helping you - I'm just empathizing - rough week too