I have a home network with 5 networked computers running Win98se. This is a wired ethernet network through a switch. I have file and print sharing through ICS. I have installed avast! 4 home on all computers. We share on HP DeskJet 932c printer hooked to the computer that has ICS installed. Lately the only computer that I can print from is the one connected directly to the printer. When I try to print from any other computer it says there is a problem with printing due to the network being busy. On different AV programs I have used in the past I remember having to block some file extensions from being scanned so the scanner and printer would work properly. I can’t remember which extensions these were. Is this possibly a cause of my printing problems? My firewall doesn’t show that it is blocking anything when trying to print over the network, and I have downloaded and installed updated drivers for the printer from HP. Any thoughts?
Well, I don’t know why scanning files should prevent them from being printed (unless they’re infected of course - then the access is not allowed).
Anyway, you can try yourself - if you temporarily disable the Standard Shield completely (by clicking the blue icon, clicking “Details” if not expanded already, selecting the Standard Shield provider and clicking on the “Pause”, or even “Terminate” button), does the problem disappear?
You might try disabling your firewall as a test. As if not configured properly it could be blocking all local traffic not related to the internet. You know the good ol netbios ports. In theory you probably only want to block netbios ports to the internet and not the internal network. Many firewalls don’t report this traffic anyway, but have checkboxes for such traffic.
You also might check the gateway machine as well. Disable the firewall on the machine trying to print and on the gateway and see what happens.
I have avast! installed in XP (Pro version) and Windows 98 (Home version) in a home network. I use Zone Alarm (last version of freeware). I have no troubles with printing at a HP Laser printer…
KC, could you answer igor’s and doggeral’s questions?
I have disabled the firewall (Sygate Personal) and terminated Avast! on both machines. The result remains the same. Either the test page doesn’t print and I get the message about the network being busy try printing later, or the client and/or gateway crashes. This must not be an Avast! or firewall problem, but must be a network or printer problem. Thank you for helping to eliminate these possibilities.
Ugly…
FYI that sounds a lot like a driver problem. You may try completely uninstalling the printer, and reinstalling it preferably with updated drivers then re-download the drivers through the network.
Also I know ICS in windows98 does have occasional connectivity problems in certain situations, so something else you might look at.
KC, doggeral’s ideas were good. Maybe you can see into your network settings (Control Panel) if sharing printers were allowed or not, and, of course, other settings of the network (name, DNS, IP, etc.). I have the same network (Win98 + WinXP) and sometimes the network goes down… Could be the order of the boot: I suggest first XP and then 98. Are you using ICS (Internet Connection Sharing)? Which computer is the gateway (the one thats connects to the Internet)?
Is WinXP firewall (internal Microsoft firewall of XP) turned on?
You said is not a firewall trouble… I’m not quite sure… As I say, I have the same configuration and the majority of the times the firewall cause a failure in the LAN (I use ZoneAlarm in both computers). If you need more help, feel free to send me an IM or e-mail