Been having a problem getting my daughters HP laptop staying connected to the network. Also having a terrible time getting the printers to "share". I found a free program called Network Magic and I loaded it. It worked great for getting the laptop connected but it's worthless in all other aspects. Great setup screen and easy to use but just lacking. Should I just go back to the OS network setup? Anyone know of another software or a site for crash course on setting up a network "properly" with WIN 2K? Hoping you networking guru's, Ken & appcomm will give a little insight here. LOL PS: Magic says I need to load the drivers for printers not connected to my machine?? How do you do that without a port connection for the printer?
what problem are you having with the HP? did you make your network..secure... many people don't which i find just plain ignorant.
The HP just wont connect to the network on boot, all the time. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. It's got me baffled. I agree on not securing the network. It is just plain ignorant. Especially since it's a no brainer process.
ddrdan, Is the laptop connecting wirelessly or with a cable? Also, how many PC's do you have on your network and are they all running the same Windows OS or do you have a mix of XP and Win2K?
Haven't had a chance to use Network Magic. Got it installed but it won't detect my router. Wonder if it has something to do with the firewall settings on the router itself or the firewall software I'm running on my PC. Craig
Network Magic will not detect all routers. There was a list on thier website at one time that listed all supported routers.
You would think though that if a router maker was going to bundle the software with the router that it would atleast work with it. Craig
My thoughts exactly and let them know it! I was at the very least not a happy camper when I went to the trouble of installing it, only to find out it was not supported on the router. This was a D-Link, "G" series so you'd think it would have been up to date.
Actually just found the issue with why I can't use Network Magic. It fully supports my router, just not the newest firmware version which I have installed. Guews I either have to have the newest version of firmware and do everything manually myself or back date the firmware to be able to use Netwrok Magic. Is Network Magic worth it? Craig
Sorry for the delay in response, been busy on the day job. Using "ADD A PRINTER" to install the driver asks me for a "port"??? Using the HP CD fails when it can't find the printer connected to "my" PC?? I'm sorry, I, of all people, should know rule #1, if you want help I need the pertinent info!! Here's the set up: Administrator conected to DL-524 wireless and Embarq 660 router. WIN 2K Pro - printer:HP1220C & HP1120C PC #2 (desktop) hard wired to DL-524 Win 2K Pro - Printer HP 7350 PC #3 (desktop) hard wired to DL-524 Win 2K Pro PC #4 (HP laptop) 802.11g wireless Win XP Home (portable printer not sharing) For some reason PC#2 is not recognized by my OS or NM??? Has to be a setting in the network setup on PC#2??? Not from what I've seen in my use. What I did find is you can load the software to easily get all the PC's connected and then uninstall and they all still work. Now I'm going to my OS to set up sharing. The key to making the connection setup go easy, is load the software on the administrator first, without the other PC's turned on. Then start the "add a PC" and stop before it searches, then go load the software on the next pc, then go back to administrator and continue the "add". It will open up the security then connect with the other PC and it's done.
Going out on a limb... but is there any chance in hades that this system has (or had) AOL Instant Messenger on it? They had a virus go around a few months (year+ maybe) that did the same thing to a whole group of people at work (as well as my kid's home PC). Even after removing the virus, it took a long time to get printer sharing to work. Any sort of inbound network connections are still a futile attempt though. (Public shares, admin shares, etc. All rejected due to permission rights.) To clarify: To the user everything looks normal, but everything an external admin tries to do is shut out (including appearing in the master browser list, and sharing files, folders, and printers.)
