can share printer wired but not wireless on same laptop

I have a laptop and a desktop, both running XP home SP2, on a home network
connected to an Actiontec MI424 wired/wireless router. I have a printer
attached to the desktop and want to be able to print to it from the laptop.
If I connect the laptop to the network with a cable I can easily run the Add
Printer wizard, navigate to the desktop computer, see the printer attached to
it and add it to the laptop. I can then unplug the cat5, enable the wireless
adapter and print to the printer for a few days. After that the laptop
cannot access the printer and I have to repeat the process.

If I leave the laptop connected wirelessly and run the Add Printer wizard it
will not show the printer attached to the desktop, I can only see the pritner
if the laptop is wired.

I wanted to add a few things, the printer is definately shared and works just
fine when both are connecte via cat5. I am running WPA2 encryption on the
wireless, both computers are in the same workgroup.

Are there some ports that Windows closes once the wireless is enabled which
may be blocking access to the printer?

In summary: both pc's wired = can access shared files and print to shared
printer. Can also see the shared printer in add printer wizard.

one wireless/one wired = can access shared files and printer for a day or so
then it stops working, at no point does the shared printer show up in add
printer wizard when connected wirelessly

Hi
As long as the Wireless works, using the Network is the same with wire or
wireless,
Try to change the computer with the printer to static IP. By doing so the
printer would be on the network with the same address regardless of DHCP IP
assignments.
Jack (MVP-Networking).

"Nih" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:3A05A3E9-D2EC-4336-97F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I wanted to add a few things, the printer is definately shared and works
>just
> fine when both are connecte via cat5. I am running WPA2 encryption on the
> wireless, both computers are in the same workgroup.
>
> Are there some ports that Windows closes once the wireless is enabled
> which
> may be blocking access to the printer?
>
> In summary: both pc's wired = can access shared files and print to shared
> printer. Can also see the shared printer in add printer wizard.
>
> one wireless/one wired = can access shared files and printer for a day or
> so
> then it stops working, at no point does the shared printer show up in add
> printer wizard when connected wirelessly

Both the laptop and pc have static IP addresses. What I noticed today (on my
dad's network) is I went upstairs to the desktop and woke it up, I saw that
the network connection icon in the system tray (wired connection) was
animated, it was acquiring network address even though it is static. Is it
possible the NIC on his desktop went into standby when the computer kicked
into standby? I have it set to turn the monitor off after a while but NOT to
turn off the harddrive or go into hibernation.

I'm going to take a look at his power settings next time I am there

"Jack (MVP-Networking)." wrote:

> Hi
> As long as the Wireless works, using the Network is the same with wire or
> wireless,
> Try to change the computer with the printer to static IP. By doing so the
> printer would be on the network with the same address regardless of DHCP IP
> assignments.
> Jack (MVP-Networking).
>
> "Nih" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:3A05A3E9-D2EC-4336-97F4-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I wanted to add a few things, the printer is definately shared and works
> >just
> > fine when both are connecte via cat5. I am running WPA2 encryption on the
> > wireless, both computers are in the same workgroup.
> >
> > Are there some ports that Windows closes once the wireless is enabled
> > which
> > may be blocking access to the printer?
> >
> > In summary: both pc's wired = can access shared files and print to shared
> > printer. Can also see the shared printer in add printer wizard.
> >
> > one wireless/one wired = can access shared files and printer for a day or
> > so
> > then it stops working, at no point does the shared printer show up in add
> > printer wizard when connected wirelessly
>
>

For anyone else having this issue I seemed to have fixed it by doing the
following. I activated Windows Wireless Zero instead of using the software
that came with the wireless adapter. This allowed me to run the Windows
Wireless Network wizard, once that completed it set up the shared printer up
automatically and it has not dropped the connection in several days. Before
this it would drop after an hour or two.