New
#1
Printer sharing problem on Win7-64bit
I've been helping a friend with his home network. He has a new, high-end PC with 6GB of RAM and a printer connected via USB port. He had an installation of Win7 RC/32-bit that worked but had started shutting down intermittently as its eval period had expired. I did a new install of Win7 32-bit, and everything worked, his other two PC's could print to his shared printer. Then we noticed that his Windows was accessing only 3.5 gig of his machine's RAM, so he wanted the 64-bit version so he could use it all. I did a new install of Win7/64-bit, reinstalled his apps, shared his printer. But now his other PC's (one Win7 Home Prem, other XP/SP3) cannot see the printer. He has a Belkin draft-N-spec wifi router with good coverage; it serves DHCP addresses and apparently DNS name (see note). The Win7 PC's have both IPv4 and IPv6. From those PC's I can ping his PC by IP address just fine, but can't see it by name. I try to access his shared printer by a UNC address using his PC's IP address (e.g. \\192.168.1.4\PrinterName) but it fails with 0x00000569, "access denied".
Naturally I suspect something involving the 64-bit version of Windows 7, as that's all that has changed.
Note: all the IPconfig reports show the Belkin router as the DNS server, but I haven't yet gotten into it to see whether it actually is doing it. But I think it is, as Internet access works for all PC's.
I'm reviewing the Microsoft doc on sharing files & printers among different versions of Windows, but would appreciate any suggestions or pointers. Here are a few ideas I'm thinking about:
· Check whether Windows firewall on other PC(s) is blocking NetBIOS.
· Make sure NetBIOS name resolution is working on all three PC’s
· Try disabling IPV6 on the Win7 PC’s.
· DNS server (the Belkin router)? Try turning it off? Or make sure it has name entries for all three PC’s? Flush its cache?
· LLMNR? (only works in IPV6 on Vista/7 PC’s)
· Turn off “password protected sharing”
· Disable UAC?
TIA
Bob