Wireless Network Printing

My home network is comprised of three computers, two desktops & one laptop.
One of the desktops is Ethernet wired through my Linksys WRT54G router and
Cable modem. My printer is also connected to this computer. The other
desktop and laptop are wirelessly connected to my network. My network has
been working fine for many months except for an issue involving not being
able to see all three computer icons when clicking on view network computers
in My Network Places. This was a minor issue that I ignored because I could
still share files and my network printer.

Then, a few days ago I thought I would try to correct that minor issue by
running the Windows Wireless Network Setup Wizard. All three computers had
originally been setup manually. After running the wizard on my laptop and
before running it on any other computer, I discovered that I was unable to
print a document from the laptop. When I clicked print & selected my network
printer, it was unable to connect and returned the error notice "The RPC
server is unavailable".

I opened my printer dialog, clicked properties and that brought up another
error notice stating "The properties could not be displayed. The print
spooler service is not running". I then went to the wireless
desktop and got the same notices when trying to print. I finally checked
out my wired desktop (The one with the printer connected) and it printed
without a problem. So it appears that running the Setup Wizard somehow
changed or corrupted my wireless network settings.

I checked everything I could think of with my router and my network settings
and nothing caught my eye. I also went to Administrative Tools>services and
found that print spooler & RPC Server do show as started however all buttons
to stop & restart RPC Server have been grayed out making them unable to use.
I also tried system restore with no improvement.

I'm hoping to find a fix short of having to reinstall XP. Any suggestions
will be appreciated.

Hi
Sharing Files and printers is done the same way whether it is wire or
Wireless. I do not know how running the Wireless Network Setup Wizard
created Services problem.

Some of the Services are dependent on other services in order to start,
looks like your system Services got "messed up".

Check all the Services to make sure that the default Services are running,

http://www.Microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

BTW. The Setup Wizards are very good for initial setting of the Network,
additional running of the wizards, when there is trouble, usually make it
Worse. Once you have troubles, you have to learn how to assess and
configure the system manually (or seek professional help).

This page, at the beginning, shows the basic way to look at the Wireless
network configuration.

http://www.ezlan.net/wireless.html

Jack (MVP-Networking).


"Skip1" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:150B08B6-FD77-4045-B2DC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> My home network is comprised of three computers, two desktops & one
> laptop.
> One of the desktops is Ethernet wired through my Linksys WRT54G router and
> Cable modem. My printer is also connected to this computer. The other
> desktop and laptop are wirelessly connected to my network. My network has
> been working fine for many months except for an issue involving not being
> able to see all three computer icons when clicking on view network
> computers
> in My Network Places. This was a minor issue that I ignored because I
> could
> still share files and my network printer.
>
> Then, a few days ago I thought I would try to correct that minor issue by
> running the Windows Wireless Network Setup Wizard. All three computers
> had
> originally been setup manually. After running the wizard on my laptop and
> before running it on any other computer, I discovered that I was unable to
> print a document from the laptop. When I clicked print & selected my
> network
> printer, it was unable to connect and returned the error notice "The RPC
> server is unavailable".
>
> I opened my printer dialog, clicked properties and that brought up another
> error notice stating "The properties could not be displayed. The print
> spooler service is not running". I then went to the wireless
> desktop and got the same notices when trying to print. I finally checked
> out my wired desktop (The one with the printer connected) and it printed
> without a problem. So it appears that running the Setup Wizard somehow
> changed or corrupted my wireless network settings.
>
> I checked everything I could think of with my router and my network
> settings
> and nothing caught my eye. I also went to Administrative Tools>services
> and
> found that print spooler & RPC Server do show as started however all
> buttons
> to stop & restart RPC Server have been grayed out making them unable to
> use.
> I also tried system restore with no improvement.
>
> I'm hoping to find a fix short of having to reinstall XP. Any suggestions
> will be appreciated.
>
>

Jack,

Thanks for your reply. I visited your web site and did a lot of reading.
Very interesting stuff!

One thing I did find is that the parameters of my network are somewhat
different from those you list as a functional set of parameters for a working
network. Hopefully correcting these will solve my problem. I don't know if
I can send attachments in this forum or not so I'll just email you at the
address from your web site.

Thank you...Skip

"Jack (MVP-Networking)." wrote:

> Hi
> Sharing Files and printers is done the same way whether it is wire or
> Wireless. I do not know how running the Wireless Network Setup Wizard
> created Services problem.
>
> Some of the Services are dependent on other services in order to start,
> looks like your system Services got "messed up".
>
> Check all the Services to make sure that the default Services are running,
>
> http://www.Microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true
>
> BTW. The Setup Wizards are very good for initial setting of the Network,
> additional running of the wizards, when there is trouble, usually make it
> Worse. Once you have troubles, you have to learn how to assess and
> configure the system manually (or seek professional help).
>
> This page, at the beginning, shows the basic way to look at the Wireless
> network configuration.
>
> http://www.ezlan.net/wireless.html
>
> Jack (MVP-Networking).
>
>
> "Skip1" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:150B08B6-FD77-4045-B2DC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > My home network is comprised of three computers, two desktops & one
> > laptop.
> > One of the desktops is Ethernet wired through my Linksys WRT54G router and
> > Cable modem. My printer is also connected to this computer. The other
> > desktop and laptop are wirelessly connected to my network. My network has
> > been working fine for many months except for an issue involving not being
> > able to see all three computer icons when clicking on view network
> > computers
> > in My Network Places. This was a minor issue that I ignored because I
> > could
> > still share files and my network printer.
> >
> > Then, a few days ago I thought I would try to correct that minor issue by
> > running the Windows Wireless Network Setup Wizard. All three computers
> > had
> > originally been setup manually. After running the wizard on my laptop and
> > before running it on any other computer, I discovered that I was unable to
> > print a document from the laptop. When I clicked print & selected my
> > network
> > printer, it was unable to connect and returned the error notice "The RPC
> > server is unavailable".
> >
> > I opened my printer dialog, clicked properties and that brought up another
> > error notice stating "The properties could not be displayed. The print
> > spooler service is not running". I then went to the wireless
> > desktop and got the same notices when trying to print. I finally checked
> > out my wired desktop (The one with the printer connected) and it printed
> > without a problem. So it appears that running the Setup Wizard somehow
> > changed or corrupted my wireless network settings.
> >
> > I checked everything I could think of with my router and my network
> > settings
> > and nothing caught my eye. I also went to Administrative Tools>services
> > and
> > found that print spooler & RPC Server do show as started however all
> > buttons
> > to stop & restart RPC Server have been grayed out making them unable to
> > use.
> > I also tried system restore with no improvement.
> >
> > I'm hoping to find a fix short of having to reinstall XP. Any suggestions
> > will be appreciated.
> >
> >
>
>
>