Cannot print to Laserjet 1020 as shared printer

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This is a problem that has me baffled. Apologies for all the detail, but I can’t explain the problem in simpler terms.
Setup
3 PCs
Desktop PC
Connected to router via ethernet cable connection
Connected to HP Laserjet 1020 printer via USB cable (this printer is shared)

Laptop S
>Connected via wifi to router
Printing on Laserjet does not work

Laptop M
Connected via wifi to router
Printing on Laserjet does work (via wifi and printer sharing)

All 3 PCs running most recent version of Windows 10
Printing to the Laserjet used to work without any problem when Home Group was still part of Windows
After Home Group was removed, printer sharing still worked, but the shared printers needed to be set up again on the laptops whenever there was a significant update to Windows

Present problem
Remote printing works on Laptop M but not on Laptop S (even though it worked on both Laptops until a week or two ago)
Not sure what the underlying problem is, but for some reason Laptop S cannot “see” the Desktop PC
How do I know this? If I open File Explorer on each PC and look at Network,
Desktop can see both laptops
Laptop M (the one that can print) can see the Desktop and Laptop S (as you might expect)
Laptop S (the one that can’t print) can see Laptop M and the router (under Network infrastructure), but not the Desktop
So it seems that because Laptop S can’t see the Desktop, it can’t connect to the Laserjet printer.
What I can’t figure out is why one Laptop can see the Desktop and print, while the other can’t.
What is even more odd is that Laptop S can’t see the Desktop, but it can see a “media devices” from the Desktop, one “multimedia device” for each account on the Desktop
Note that I’ve tried adding the Laserjet as a printer to Laptop S, but it can’t find the shared printer, presumably because it can’t find the Desktop PC.
Both Laptops are Lenovos. Laptop S, the one that doesn’t print (though it used to) is an older model, but running the latest version of Windows. Older hardware might have something to do with this, but printing on the Laserjet worked fine until a week or two ago, and in general, it has been easier to set up the shared printer on the older Laptop than the newer one.

All in all, I’m baffled. Is there some property of the wifi connection that makes the difference?
Or something about the router? it shows a firmware update on 26-Aug-2019, which might have something to do with the problem. But why a firmware update would cause problems with one laptop and not the other is not so clear.

Any troubleshooting advice gratefully received …

Stephen Yeo

Edit to remove HTML. Please use the “Text” tab in the entry box when you copy/paste.

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I assume you are running Win10 v1903 when you say the latest version of Windows.

If that is the case, it is a good possibility that your problem was caused by the September Cumulative Updates – please see the many articles on the main blog concerning this problem.

If you have installed KB4517216, KB4517211 and/or KB4524147, there is a good chance that uninstalling the update will fix your problem.

Also, you may need to turn on SMB-1. Consider the security risks involved.
Control Panel\Programs and Features\Turn Windows features on of off

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Thanks very much indeed for the suggestions (and for wading through all the details I provided)

I am indeed running 1903 on all three PCs concerned (desktop and two laptops), and I have the patches up to and including the Cumulative Update for October installed on all three PCs.

On the PC causing the trouble (i.e. can’t see the Desktop with the shared printer), KB4517211 is installed, but if I look at the explanation on the Microsoft website, it says that the problem with the print spooler is resolved in this update. Or are there other printing problems that are not fixed?

In any case, the difficult seems to arise before I get to the stage of printing, since on the problem Laptop, I can’t see the Desktop or the other Laptop when I click on Network in File Explorer. But I can see the problem laptop from the Desktop and from the other Laptop, which is odd.

I had a look at SMB-1 but there seem to be so many dire warnings about using it that I thought that would have to be a last resort.

What is more puzzling is that I have been able to get the print sharing working, albeit with a bit of fiddling, ever since Home Group was removed. And it still works on one of the Laptops, but not the other. For some reason one of the Laptops can’t see the other PCs, even though they can see it. And so if the Laptop can’t see the Desktop, then there really isn’t any possibility of printing working, is there?

In any case, thanks very much for your suggestions. It feels as if there is a network switch somewhere that is set wrong, and I just figure out what it is.

Stephen Yeo

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PKCano brings up an interesting idea. You might want to check the SMB1 settings on all three computers. You might find that it is enabled SMB1 is enabled on the Desktop and on Laptop M, but not on Laptop S.

I remember all of the dire warnings about keeping SMB1 enabled, so I disabled SMB1 on all of my Win7 computers. Unfortunately, doing so turned out to be very unreliable. Sometimes the Win7 computers could see each other on my home network, and sometimes they could not. None of my Win7 computers could see an old XP computer on the network. None of the computers could see a network attached printer which only supports SMB1. Given that I back up my computers regularly, that my AV program on all computers is configured to block and then alert whenever any unknown process tries to run, and that I am using a hardware firewall in conjunction with software firewalls, I turned SMB1 back on after wasting two hours trying to resolve the issues where were created when SMB1 was disabled.

I too do not use Homegroup on my Win7 computers. Instead, I have the networking on each computer configured for Work, with these Home or Work Profile settings:

Network Discovery: On
File and Printer Sharing: On
Public folder sharing: Off
Media streaming: Off
File sharing: Use 128-bit encryption
Password protected sharing: On
Homegroup connections: Off, and instead use user accounts and passwords

Interestingly, everything on my home computer network works perfectly only after I configured all of my Win7 computers to use the exact same settings.

Since you are not having any issues with your Desktop and Laptop M computers, I suggest that you look at your settings on these two computers, and then make sure that your Laptop S is using the exact same settings.

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[Vincenzo]

I see your desktop pc is connected via ethernet to the router. If you can connect your printer directly to that router too, it would solve your problems and have the additional advantage of not needing the desktop pc to be on in order to print.

That would require an ethernet connection on your printer, which from a quick search just now I don’t think yours has that. But I suspect an ethernet to usb adapter MIGHT work for you, although I have never connected a network printer using one of those. Perhaps someone else here has tried that?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Vincenzo.

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We used many dozens of USB print servers (mostly Netgear and HP) in small satellite offices back in the day when ethernet-enabled printers were far more expensive than USB-only printers.

(We found that managers always insisted on their own personal printer and just went out and bought them locally from petty cash rather via IT as they were supposed to. Then the managers were annoyed when IT wouldn’t support any printer that wasn’t network-connected… so the manager then had to buy a USB print server to connect their non-approved printer to the network.)

The USB print servers worked very, very well. We had a couple of failures due to overheating when the back of the printer was placed too close to the wall behing, thus preventing any ventilation, but no other problems.

If your router doesn’t have a USB port that can be enabled for shared network printing then have a look at this article for further information about dedicated USB print servers.

Hope this helps…

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The simplest solution might be some hardware that plugs into the usb port on the printer and connects to the wifi network, so that the printer looks like a wifi enabled printer. But I’m not sure whether this sort of hardware exists.

Similar hardware that plugs into one of the spare ethernet ports on the router might also work, but it would require that the connected printer be visible somehow “behind” the router. But the Desktop PC is also connected via one of the ethernet ports on the router, and I can’t see the Desktop PC from the problem laptop, so I might have the same problem with the printer and an ethernet connection.

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Thanks. The router (a BT (British Telecom) Home Hub 6) does have a USB and spare ethernet ports. A look at the BT forums suggests that the USB port can’t be used to connect a printer (only a storage device).

The spare ethernet ports might offer a solution, but the printer has a usb but no ethernet port, so that would require an adapter. Not clear whether that would work.

 

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Question from ignorance, I am not great with printer compatibility. My starting point is that all three Operating Systems are 1903 and so will not have SMB1 enabled unless that was done purposefully. The printer is vintage where SMB1 was standard, and the Plug-N-Play drivers would reflect that.

Is it possible, there’s that word, the two systems that work properly have updated drivers that are different from the faulty system?

If this is true, SMB1 could remain disabled, maintaining the more recent standard for security. But this is beyond my knowledge to say for certain.

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A network print server won’t cost less than $40 so it’s probably best to persevere with your computers.

Have you tried removing / resetting the network on laptop S, then re-installing / setting it up from scratch?

cheers, Paul

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By removing the network, do you mean just the wifi connection or is there more that needs to be removed?

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This article shows how to clean up the network bits.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-regain-internet-access-after-installing-update-windows-10

cheers, Paul

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Thanks, that was a useful reference. Some of it wasn’t relevant, since I can reach the internet from all 3 PCs.

But I decided to see if I could reach the Desktop computer via its IP address and the network troubleshooter.

I obtained the Desktop’s IP address by running IPCONFIG on the Desktop. Then I tried pinging that address from the problem Laptop, and I did get a reply. So the Desktop is reachable from the problem Laptop via ping.

I then tried running the network troubleshooter, as the article suggested. It didn’t find any problems, but offered to help with other problems, including “I’m trying to reach a specific website or folder on a network”. I tried that option, but entered the IP address (I guess I could have tried the network name of the Desktop PC, but I wasn’t sure what that would be). Not surprisingly, given that ping worked, I got the message

“Website (numeric IP address of Desktop PC) is online but isn’t responding to connection attempts”

The detailed explanation was

“The remote computer isn’t responding to connections on port 80, possibly due to firewall or security policy settings, or because it might be temporarily unavailable. Windows couldn’t find any problems with the firewall on your computer”

So one possibility is that the firewall on the Desktop PC is allowing connection attempts from one of the laptops, but not the other. That is consistent with the fact that the Desktop PC is visible in Windows File Explorer from one laptop but not the other. I suppose there might be a firewall in the router that is doing this, but the error message from the troubleshooter suggests that it was able to reach the Desktop PC via the router, but the Desktop refused the connection.

I guess this is progress, but not yet a solution.

 

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Port 80 is a red herring – internet only.
You need to remove all traces of the network from that laptop and then reinstall.

cheers, Paul

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@ Stephen Yeo

Stephen Yeo wrote:

Present problem
Remote printing works on Laptop M but not on Laptop S (even though it worked on both Laptops until a week or two ago)

At the beginning of any trouble shooting, I usually ask *What happened just before you noticed the problem?* The time frame of *just before* varies from immediately to possible a day, or a few days, or even longer–but usually it’s fairly close to the problem beginning.

So, what changed or happened *a week or two ago*?

Stephen Yeo wrote:

All 3 PCs running most recent version of Windows 10
Printing to the Laserjet used to work without any problem when Home Group was still part of Windows

After Home Group was removed, printer sharing still worked, but the shared printers needed to be set up again on the laptops whenever there was a significant update to Windows

I do not use Win10, so I’m in the dark here–so all three computers were successfully sharing the printer when you first set them up using Win10 *Home Group*? Microsoft (?) has now removed the option of using *Home Group*–what did Microsoft (?–or who or whatever changed that) change that *Home Group* setting to on each of the three computers–what’s in use now?

After *Home Group* was *removed*, all three computers continued to successfully share the printer, but you now had to do the following: “the shared printers needed to be set up again on the laptops whenever there was a significant update to Windows”.

*shared printers*–plural? Are there other printers involved? What had to be done to *set up again on the laptops*–what settings had to be reset?

And then, one or two weeks ago, something happened–and now laptop S can not connect to the Desktop computer–correct? Again, what happened one or two weeks ago?

I currently use Win7 and Win8.1. When setting those systems up, the advice I found recommended *not* using a *HomeGroup* network–instead use the *WorkGroup* network. The reason was that there were compatibility issues that created unexplained connection issues between computers that could not be easily resolved. I don’t know if that issue also has continued to effect the Win10 OS.

Apparently, the network type name needs to be the same on all shared computers–so the name, the capitalization, any spaces need to match–again the best recommendation was that one used *WORKGROUP*–capitalized, and all one word to avoid compatibility issues.

Now that *Home Group* has been removed, what is the network type that is being used, and is it the same and identical on all three computers?

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I’ve carried out every step in the article that you cited, except turning off the firewall and antivirus. These steps didn’t make any difference – still no sign of the Desktop PC and other Laptop from the problem Laptop.

I guess I could try switching off the firewall and antivirus software – but on which PC? I seem to be able to ping the Desktop PC from the problem Laptop (at least by IP address). So it doesn’t seem as if the Laptop is blocking things – more that the Desktop responds to the ping but not to an attempt to establish a connection.

But I would be the first to admit that I’m out of my depth here …

 

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@ Stephen Yeo

Again, I don’t know what settings are available on Win10, but here’s the Win7 *Advanced sharing settings* that might be important to your situation:

*Network Discovery* needs to be turned on–check it for the laptop S computer.

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@ Stephen Yeo

I ran across this webpage while looking for information that might relate to your problem that you have posted:

How to Change Workgroup in Windows 10

In the comment section, there was a posting that suggested a technique that might help resolve your issue:

Comment #5 by Bandit233

Bandit233 wrote:

Brink, wanted to let you know your post is applicable to multiple Win 10 peer networking issues and should be linked to multiple threads in the forums. Here’s why: I’ve had multiple PC’s on my home network using peer networking, folder and file sharing, and printer sharing ever since Win 10 was released, but this month’s patch Tuesday release from MS broke my network connections on 2 of my PC’s. The computers all showed connected to my workgroup, but the file browser was unable to see the PCs, mapped drives and folders and shared printers were all dead. The ONLY thing that got my connections restored was your command prompt fix for joining a workgroup. Thanks for the fix, Cheers.

The method referred to here: *… your command prompt fix for joining a workgroup … * refers to OPTION TWO outlined on that webpage.

So, all three of your computers need to have a unique *Computer name*, but they all have to share the same *Workgroup* name:

If I understand Bandit233’s comment, even though his computers still shared the same *Workgroup* name, somehow the Win10 Update changed two of his computers so they no longer had access to his previously working network. By running the elevated command that’s outlined in *Option 2* on those two computers, and using the *same* Workgroup name as used previously, it re-set the network relationships so those two computers were successfully re-joined to a functioning status on the network.

Now, your problem may not have occurred after a Win10 Update–could have been some other glitch that occurred. But the problem sounds to be the same regardless of how it happened.

Worth a try to see if this resolves your problem.

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You know, that was a very good suggestion. I was sure that it was going to work. But when I looked at the PCs, they were all connected to the workgroup “WORKGROUP”. I then tried adding the problem laptop to the group using the powershell command (option 3 in the reference you gave me) but that failed with the message that the laptop was already a member of the group.

I suppose I could try to create a new workgroup with a different name and then add all 3 PCs to the group, but that might affect the printing on the other laptop.

Anyway, thanks for a very thoughtful suggestion. Doesn’t seem to help though.

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@ Stephen Yeo

Stephen Yeo wrote:

… when I looked at the PCs, they were all connected to the workgroup “WORKGROUP”.

That’s exactly what Bandit233 said regarding his setup:

The computers all showed connected to my workgroup …

Stephen Yeo wrote:

I then tried adding the problem laptop to the group using the powershell command (option 3 in the reference you gave me) …

But, (sigh) that is not what Bandit233 did to solve his problem with his wayward computers on his network. He states:

Just Lurking wrote:

The ONLY thing that got my connections restored was your command prompt fix for joining a workgroup.

None of us know *exactly* what these various *command prompt* and Power Shell commands do–what flags, or switches are flipped on or off in the system. We do not know if the Power Shell command touches all the same things as the *command prompt* command.

Stephen Yeo wrote:

Doesn’t seem to help though.

Yes, apparently *Option 3* does not work!

But until you actually do exactly what Bandit233 has reported worked (*Option 2*), I would have to say you do not know if that will also fix your problem.

Stephen Yeo wrote:

I suppose I could try to create a new workgroup with a different name and then add all 3 PCs to the group, but that might affect the printing on the other laptop.

You certainly could try that–basically *starting over*. But just about anything you do has the potential of knocking out the current networking relationships that you may have to re-establish. But, I think accessing a shared printer only requires being able to *see* the computer on the network (i.e. the computer’s unique name), and the assigned name of the printer. If your current *working* laptop continues to be a part of the network after a name change, then, if needed, re-establishing the printer sharing should go without a problem.

But, I would still try *Option 2* first. It has no negative side effects that I can see, except it may not work!

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Have you downloaded from HP and installed the HP Laserjet software on Laptop S?

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Tried option 2, but that did not make the Desktop PC visible from the problem laptop. Oddly enough, the other laptop is visible from the problem laptop, but not the Desktop (or the shared printer)

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And in response to PKCano, I have been able to print from the problem Laptop in the past, but something has changed and neither the Desktop nor the shared printer is visible from the problem laptop – although the other laptop (from which I can print) is visible from the problem laptop.

So

the Desktop can see both Laptops

one Laptop can see the Desktop and the shared printer (and print)

the other (problem) Laptop can see the other Laptop, but not the Desktop or the shared printer.

all the PCs say they are part of WORKGROUP, and I’ve joined both the problem Laptop and the Desktop to WORKGROUP using the command line solutions suggested in another message.

At this point it “feels as if” the firewall on the Desktop is not allowing connections to the problem Laptop. but that is just a conjecture. I can ping the Desktop from the problem Laptop, but can’t see it in File Explorer.

 

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Have you checked that the security software or firewall is not the problem?

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As a test, have you tried enabling SMB-1?

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Ha! Beat you to it!  🙂

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I Know 🙂

Stephen Yeo wrote:

I had a look at SMB-1 but there seem to be so many dire warnings about using it that I thought that would have to be a last resort.

I’m wondering if Stephen has actually tried.

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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I do agree with you both that the test should be tried at least. The result may be instructive especially if it still fails.

What I wonder, if all three units are under Stephen’s administration, and he does not allow SMB-1, then how does the other laptop print?

It is hard to move forward without the test result communicated to the helpers.

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[Vincenzo]

Vincenzo wrote:

Have you checked that the security software or firewall is not the problem?

I should have added – by turning off the firewalls on all computers, rebooting, and trying.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Vincenzo.

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