Vista Printing To XP Shared Printer

Software

Start with the software side of things :

• Get the latest XP driver from HP
• Download and extract on the Vista machine
• Configure the setup.exe file from the driver to run in compatibility mode, and set it to XP compatibility
• Run the setup now in that compatibility mode
• When prompted, plug the printer directly into the laptop via usb cable
• At the end of the setup, print a test page just to confirm its working properly
• Disconnect the printer from the laptop and return the way it was
• Purchase a Linksys WPSM54g either new or from eBay
• Follow standard instructions to setup the Linksys device (note the first link in the "Further Information" section below - its useful for shortcutting how you get the Linksys up and running without the CD)

Print Server

Now you have a printer that is network ready, with no PC required to be a print sharing host.  Next, get the Linksys properly configured for the local environment :

• Now, on to the wireless print server. Take the usb cable that goes from the printer to the pc, out of the pc. Plug it into the print server.
• Power on the wpsm54g.
• Power on the printer after about 3 seconds.
• Push the reset on the print server now for 3 seconds. It will print out a page on the printer, showing the ip address of the print server (in my case it was a dhcp derived address).
• Launch firefox, point it at the new address obtained from the above step and begin the setup.
• Dont forget to change password
• Set the SSID and WEP key (if using)
• Set the ip address to a static address you have available so that it doesnt accidently change on you later.
• Now power off the print server, and back on again - to make sure it maintains all that information.
• ** Note that in my case, after setting the wep key, for some reason the print server kept going oout to lunch scanning for printers. After I hit the reset button again, its all functioning normally now. No need to reset password or ip or anything -it just works. It knows its the hp3015 printer, and all is good **

Add Printer

To finish the process, now add a printer to each device using this new method of printing:

• From the original XP workstation make sure you can add the printer (network) :
  • In the control panel, choose printers, then add-printer
  • Choose standard tcp-ip port
  • Set the ip to the new static address from above
  • Set the port name to hp3015-net (or whatever makes logical sense - its just a label)
  • Add the printer by selecting the HP manufacturer and LaserJet 3015 model type
  • Print a test page.
  • If all good, delete the usb / pcl6 drivers that were previously used for this printer to avoid any later confusion
• From the Vista workstation make sure you can add the printer (network) :
  • In the control panel choose printers, then add-printer
  • Choose standard tcp-ip port
  • Set the ip to the new static address from above
  • Set the port name to hp3015-net (or whatever makes logical sense - its just a label)
  • Add the printer by selecting the HP manufacturer and LaserJet 3015 model type (note that here it will use the pre-installed printer drivers ... FINALLY !)
  • Print a test page.

Believe it or not, thats it.  If you hadnt tried it before, this may seem like a lot, but it not really that bad. Because the network printer is different from a shared PC printer, the setup is different.  Whereas the original shared PC printer method would simply NOT use the locally installed and working HP3015 drivers already on teh Vista laptop, it would force you to load new drivers - none of which would work.  But the network ready printer design we use now, it DOES use the locally installed and already functioning drivers.  This is pretty much how XP used to work - so I dont know why it changed in Vista.  But basically, you could use this method to configure any non Vista type printer to work with Vista.