problem with printing...

[Alessio]

At work we have a major problem that we could not solv it till now: there is a firm where in every office there are 2 computers, and 1 printer, ther printer is phisicalli connected trough usb cable to one computer and the other one uses it via sharing. the computers are in domain. Simple sharing is set up, users have acces to each others computer. [printers are not the same: ex: hp 1200, hp 1018, canon...etc.]. tried connectin printers via name, and ip, no result, driverupdates for printers still nothing, we even installed sp3, aded adminshare .reg to computers.

the problem:
- the printers in some offices [not all] just stop working and acces via network is unavailible.
- you cand ping by name and ip and it goes trough, but u still can not acces the computer to which the printer is connected.
- there are no virus infections [ujxirfu acts like this but there is no trace of virus, spy, or rootkits]
- ip-s are fixed by server so not a problem with ip conflict or name conflicts.
- winmentor still works when this occures so network is still active
- internet works


we are running out of ideas here :D

[Raymond]

Erm, is there any firewall that might be blocking it?

[Alessio]

NO FIREWALL INSTALLED, WINDOWS FIREWALL DISABLED, NOTIFICATION DISABLED, SYS RESTORE ALL DISABLED.

[mEtRiX]

No CAPS please. :o

[Raymond]

He's fed up and hell yeah me too. Damn we're spending our time helping people for free and some people just don't have the patience.

[Alessio]

erm.. did i do something wrong?

[brayden]

puting letter in all capitals like this ABC means your shouting didn't you read the rules.

[Alessio]

guys you are missunderstanding me :), i was palaying counter when i wrote the reply, and i use caps to jump, it was in no way shouting or anything of sort, i am a patient guy, and i think raymond replyes really fast to posts, so if i offended you, then i apologise, it way not intended

[Raymond]

Ok forgiven :P
I thought you intentionally typed all in CAPS, which means you're shouting or fedup.
Sometimes to troubleshoot a computer problem, we'll have to narrow down the problem.
Let's take this step by step. You mentioned that the printers are physically connected to a computer and shared.

Are you able to use another computer to access the computer that is connected to the printer? Go to Start > Run and type \\computername

[Alessio]

normally yes but when the problem occours then i get message that i din`t have permision ti acces the compuer, \\name, \\ipadress (none of thease work), then sudenly after a bit it just comes back, and i can acces it again. this might be 5 min or 30