Here is the scenario. I have a small peer to peer Windows 98SE network for training. The network consists of 10 Dell Optiplex 590’s, a 10BaseT Hub, and two HP deskjet printers (HP Deskjet 712 and 722). What is ahppining is that I have connected the printers to two of the workstations and shared them. I can pring fine from those two workstations, but when I add the shared printer to the other machines I get an error stating that “cannot communicate with printer” and something to the effect to make sure it is turned on, cabling, etc or your network does not support Bi-Directional traffic. I have setup numerous networks and shared many printers but have never ran into a problem like this. Is it that the printer models cannot be used ina sharing scenario or could it be the hub itself? I am at a loss. You can connect to each of the machines, copy files between machines, etc.. just not print to the shared printers.
Michael Black
Network Engineer
