1. Client Machine. What operating system is your computer using? Windows XP Home or Professional? Original, Service Pack 1 (SP1), SP2, SP3?
Is it configured in a "Workgroup" or "Domain"?
2. Server (Machine hosting "plotter" on local port?). What operating system is the server using? Netware, Windows, Linux? Windows XP Home or Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003?
3. Connecting to a Shared Printer (from Windows XP client computer). I'm assuming printers and plotters are configured and accessed the same way.
Troubleshooting File and Printer Sharing in Microsoft Windows XP File and Printer Sharing with Microsoft WindowsThe following is taken from the downloadable Microsoft Word document referenced in the "Troubleshooting" link above. If you want pictures and screen displays, download the document. In the procedure(s) below you may substitute the "IP Address" in place of the "ComputerName" hosting the printer. Either of the three methods should work. Quickest and simplest would be:
Using Start-Run
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In Open, type \\ComputerName and then press ENTER.
The window that is displayed contains the file and printer shares of the specified computer. An example is shown in the following figure.
From this window, you can double-click the shared printer icon to create a connection to it. Alternately, you can open the Printers and Faxes folder and double-click the shared printer icon.
If you use the "Add Printer Wizard",
you do want to click a network printer, or printer attached to another computer.
Connecting to a Shared Printer
There are several ways to connect to a shared printer, including the following:
From the Add Printer Wizard
Using Start-Run to open a window containing the shared printer
Using My Network Places to open a window containing the shared printer
From the Add Printer Wizard
To connect to a shared printer from the Add Printer Wizard, do the following:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes.
2. In Printers and Faxes, click Add a printer in the Printer Tasks list.
3. On the Welcome to the Add Printer Wizard page of the Add Printer Wizard, click Next.
4. On the Local or Network Printer page, click A network printer, or printer attached to another computer. An example is shown in the following figure.
5. On the Specify a Printer page, you can do one of the following:
Click Browse for a printer to use a Browse window to locate a shared printer on your network.
Click Connect to this printer and type the \\ComputerName\SharedPrinterName (in which ComputerName is the name of the computer sharing the printer and SharedPrinterName is the name of the print share).
Click Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network and type the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address of the shared Internet printer.
An example of using the Connect to this printer option is shown in the following figure.
6. Click Next.
7. On the Default Printer page, click Yes if you want to make this network printer the default printer. Otherwise, click No. Click Next.
8. On the Completing the Add Printer Wizard page, click Finish.
The shared printer should now appear in your Printers and Faxes folder. An example is shown in the following figure.
Using Start-Run
Another way to make a connection to a shared printer is by doing the following:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In Open, type \\ComputerName\SharedPrinterName, and then press ENTER.
For example, to connect to the shared printer named COLOR on the computer named HOMESRV, you would type \\HOMESRV\COLOR. You can use upper or lowercase letters for the computer and printer share names.
If you don't remember the name of the share, you can do the following:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In Open, type \\ComputerName and then press ENTER.
The window that is displayed contains the file and printer shares of the specified computer. An example is shown in the following figure.
From this window, you can double-click the shared printer icon to create a connection to it. Alternately, you can open the Printers and Faxes folder and double-click the shared printer icon.
Using My Network Places
To use My Network Places to display the contents of a shared folder, do the following:
1. Click Start, and then click My Network Places.
2. In the Network Tasks list, click View workgroup computers.
A window is displayed containing the set of computers in your home or small office workgroup. An example is shown in the following figure.
3. From the workgroup window, double-click the computer containing the shared printer, and then double-click the shared printer.
