[criptonite]

I have created an account called laptop on a Windows 7 desktop so that the laptop can connect to the Win 7 network via the wireless router. This is so that I can share the printer connected via usb to the Win 7 Desktop.

Everything works fine i.e. I can print from the XP laptop to the printer via the network...until I restart the laptop. Then I cannot access the network, apparently because of logon restrictions. If I delete the account from Win 7 and create a new one then delete the printer from the the XP laptop and reinstall using the new account details I can print to the shared printer again....until I restart the laptop.

I can't think of what I'm missing. Any thoughts?

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Sounds like you have a pretty complicated setup for sharing that printer - you shouldn't need a separate user account. Can you explain a little bit more about your network setup and how you shared the printer?

This Windows article has some pretty basic steps for sharing a printer, simply click the To share a printer attached to your computer link to view detailed simple instructions.

[The Admiral]

Sounds like you have a pretty complicated setup for sharing that printer - you shouldn't need a separate user account. Can you explain a little bit more about your network setup and how you shared the printer?

This Windows article has some pretty basic steps for sharing a printer, simply click the To share a printer attached to your computer link to view detailed simple instructions.

[criptonite]

I agree, it is complicated. I went back to the beginning and tried a different way.

First I left homegroup on the Win 7 machine, computer name DAVID-PC (according to another site homegroup only works between Win7 PC's) and created a work network. I used the default name of WORKGROUP. Then I changed the workgroup name on the XP laptop from MSHOME to WORKGROUP. I found after that that I needed to rightclick the epson printer, select properties and turn on printer sharing, which I did. Then I could print to the printer on the Win 7 machine. But, I rebooted everything and now the XP laptop can't print over the laptop again. The error dialog says "Windows can't print due to a problem with the current printer setup". I've tried pining DAVID-PC and it can't find the host DAVID-PC.

[criptonite]

Found the problem! It was nothing to do with the network settings. For some reason, my laptop loses the wireless connection to my Netgear router. I have to reboot the router then XP can see and print over the network. THanks for your help though. I now know how to set up a much simpler network

[The Admiral]

Good to hear you got it working!