Thx for all the help on this forum..and some from the hp forum, I finally got my network printer(HP Photosmart 1000 on a Host win xp pro) to work on my win 7 laptop.
I installed on BOTH systems the Deskjet 970cxi. Once I got the ps1000 working thru the 970cxi drivers on xp, the win 7 connected with it. I had tried the port changing thing and everything else I could think of. Finally got it working this way. The xp shows 2 printers (ps100 and dj970), but I have the ps1000(renamed) as the default for xp. Win 7 detects both, but only connects with the 970, so its set as defualt on laptop. Hope this helps anyone else with this problem.