Networking permissions issue...

TheNissanMan · 1 Oct 2010

After a bit of help as I can't figure out whats going on!

At work a couple of the printers died at the same time so we replaced all the printers with one big Laser jobby connected to my old laptop (Vista clean build) to act as the print server. We have five machines which connect to it which are all running either XP or Vista, we are not running domains or workgroups, just everything connecting to the same wireless network with all the machines on static IP's.

Each machine can and does connect to the printer which has allow anything set as permissions but the workstations keep loosing their connection and you manually have to reset the connection to \\192.168.2.100 and re-enter the username & password, even if you click remember me!

The thing I can't figure out is:

a) why they keep dropping the username/pass when nothing changes

b) how to setup a desktop icon that the sales guys can just click to reset the connection username & pass...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

neil_g · 1 Oct 2010

set up local users on the print server with the same logon details as the clients, should do the trick..

whitey · 1 Oct 2010

maybe worth putting them all on a workgroup (even called workgroup)

you should be able to create a shortcut and copy and paste the path into it

neil_g · 1 Oct 2010

whitey said:
maybe worth putting them all on a workgroup (even called workgroup)

they probably are by default if i remember rightly, but it shouldnt really matter too much

pauljs · 1 Oct 2010

Setup as a workgroup, easiest and most reliable way. Windows Firewall can also cause connection problems, although if you're connecting sometimes it probably isn't that.

TheNissanMan · 1 Oct 2010

pauljs said:
Setup as a workgroup, easiest and most reliable way. Windows Firewall can also cause connection problems, although if you're connecting sometimes it probably isn't that.

Can always connect it jsut keeps losing the user/pass.

Will try setup the usernames & passwords when back in the office tomorrow

whitey · 1 Oct 2010

neil_g said:
they probably are by default if i remember rightly, but it shouldnt really matter too much

I couldn't remember if both OS's did that

trencheel303 · 1 Oct 2010

TheNissanMan said:
After a bit of help as I can't figure out whats going on!

At work a couple of the printers died at the same time so we replaced all the printers with one big Laser jobby connected to my old laptop (Vista clean build) to act as the print server. We have five machines which connect to it which are all running either XP or Vista, we are not running domains or workgroups, just everything connecting to the same wireless network with all the machines on static IP's.

Each machine can and does connect to the printer which has allow anything set as permissions but the workstations keep loosing their connection and you manually have to reset the connection to \\192.168.2.100 and re-enter the username & password, even if you click remember me!

The thing I can't figure out is:

a) why they keep dropping the username/pass when nothing changes

b) how to setup a desktop icon that the sales guys can just click to reset the connection username & pass...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If I am not mistaken, this happens in Vista due to a bug in either the print spooler or the network stack, where if multiple people try to connect at once to a printer, it all goes tits up. A security feature gone skewiff or something like that. Long story short, you may not find a solution for this except for changing the OS on the laptop - unless it's been fixed in a recent Vista service pack.