Solved Laptop can no longer access shared printer/files on home network

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...nto-win7-box-how-print-remote-xp-machine.html describes an original difficulty I had getting remote computers (laptops and desktops) to print to a USB printer connected to my Windows 7 box. Read far enough and you'll see that I solved that problem using http://www.sevenforums.com/network-...ng-issue-win7-printer-xp-remote-machines.html

Fast forward 13 or so months. Since that time I have replaced the printer, I've had a motherboard and processor issue with my box (since fixed), and no interruption of things working as they should. My printer - Canon ip4800 series - is USB hardwired to my Windows 7 computer, and the other home computers - two Windows 7 laptops, an XP box, and an XP netbook - can print to the printer, and view files on my Win7 machine, over our wireless home network. And that's been constant through the changes described.

Then yesterday, for no known reason, my daughter's Win7 laptop stopped being able to print. She'd send jobs to the correct printer, but they'd just queue up, with the queue visible from her machine, but not when I looked at the printer from my machine (that is looking at the print queue from her machine shows the jobs, but looking at it from mine shows no jobs).

Nothing I did would result in stuff from her machine, from any application, to go to the printer.

I finally deleted the printer from her machine, figuring I'd just add it back.

Nope.

When I try adding a printer to the laptop, it doesn't find the printer on the list of available printers. When I try adding it by typing the name - \\mywin7\canon ip4800 series - that fails.

When I look at "network" from her laptop, my computer shows up, but if I click on it, Windows says it can't connect.

When I type ping her_computer from a DOS box, it can't find it - but when I type ping any_other_computer it finds those.

Her laptop can get on the internet from our home wireless network. All the other computers in the house - Win7 and XP - can access shared files on my PC, and more importantly, print across the network to my USB printer.

NO IDEA what changed. The laptop in question had printed a few days ago.

Please, patiently and precisely, guide me through stuff to check on my PC and her laptop, to get this working again. I've been through the network and sharing center on my PC and the settings are correct.

Again, as it is right now, my printer is not defined on her laptop.

Final, cro-magnon-level question here: If I did a system restore on her laptop, back to a point when it had been able to print, might that fix things? Yes, I know, better means exist.

Hello,

First thind I'd suggest to you anyway. Please note that anything that you have installed and windows updates will be affected. Files will remain untouched.

If I did a system restore on her laptop, back to a point when it had been able to print, might that fix things?

Click to expand...

Please give us an update.

Okay, totally maddening.

I did try the system restore. Good news was that I had my printer icon again visible on the laptop. Bad news is the same problem is there: I can "print" but nothing actually prints. The queue on her machine just fills up with stuff and they don't print.

When I look at the queue from her machine, the title in the queue Window says:

Why is this? The printer is online, as evidenced that I can print to it from my own computer, and from other remote computers.

Before I did the system restore, my computer (called mywin7 here) was visible when I clicked "Network" on her laptop. But clicking on the icon for mywin7 would give me an error

From a dos prompt on her computer, I can ping mine successfully.

What's going on here? More importantly, how do I fix it?

The error code is a symptom of a firewall blocking. If you are using a Security or Firewall software, disable the firewall feature for now. If you're using a Windows built-in Firewall make sure that file and printer is allowed.

I completely disabled my Windows firewall and this did not fix the problem. Other Win7 and XP computers in my house and on the same network can print to this printer - so could the laptop in question, until some time in the past couple weeks.

Neither my computer, nor the laptop in question, has ever had a Norton product on it. That's a frequently cited issue in matters like this, but it doesn't apply here.

A selective boot from msconfig, with none of the services loaded, also failed to fix this.

I am going to try to see if I can divine something from the event viewer on the laptop.

Please look at continuation of thread

Just to emphasize that the problem appears to be network-related, and not printer related, I have moved the issue to http://www.sevenforums.com/network-...rinter-its-network-error-code-0x80070035.html

I'll welcome a solution anywhere, but hoping that will attract an idea that works.

Almost three full years after it began, this issue is solved. I had never paid anyone to clean a machine of malware, but after increasingly bizarre behavior from the computer, I brought it in to the shop, and whatever they cleaned out restored the networking functionality. Marking as solved!