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Losing Network access and printing

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by rgrowcock

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I have a small local network setup at home using XP Pro. One Dell desktop wired, one Dell Laptop wireless. I keep losing network connectivity and can't figure out why. Nothing has changed.

The network will work fine for a long time, then, boom, I lose it. When I lose my connectivity, I also lose a networked printer. My printer is a HP 4 with a jetdirect card and its own IP address.

There seems to be no rhyme or reasong to losing my connections. The main desktop stays on most of the time and the printer is turned on when needed. Laptop comes and goes as needed. I know that I a connection on the laptop, because I can surf the Internet and ping all of the hosts. I do have a firewall, but it is configured to allow printing.

If the printer didn't work at all, I would think it could be the firewall. But, at times, I am able to print. This just seems to be hit or miss and it is frustrating not only to me, but to my wife as well. She tries to print off of the laptop and can't.

Anyone have an idea? Or is this just a Microsoft thing?

One other issue, is there a way to turn Appletalk on in XP? I have a iMac that I would like to network too and can't get it to work either. Thanks!

Roger

10 replies

by lmon

Check to see if your wireless connection is being bridged with something else if so remove it from the bridge.

by rcom

Try updating the firmware for the jetdirect card in the HP4. Make sure to get the correct version. If I remember you have to remove the card to get the number. If you're using the older Jetadmin software for jetdirect get the newer software that HP has available for download. I found it doing a search for Jetadmin.

If you have a linksys router there's upgraded firmware for that too.

by evileyejoe

Are you also losing the printer on the wired pc? trying to find out if you are losing connection just on the wireless.

by rgrowcock

Only losing printer on wireless laptop, not wired PC. I can still browse the wired PC's shares from the laptop too. Can you see why I'm frustrated? Roger

by rgrowcock

I re-ran the XP Network disk on both computers and everything works fine now. But why should I have had to do it again? This is what I can't figure out.

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