Newbie - Can't share printer

[kpic]

Here is what I have:
Host computer is WIN XP Pro connected to Westell 327 (Verizon DSL). I have a wireless laptop running Vista and want to use my printer attached to my host computer from my laptop.

I have a network connection between the two fine (internet is up and fine) but I am unsure if I am doing something wrong in trying to share the printer.

I have pinged from the laptop to host and it is fine. They both have the same workgroup name but when I go to my laptop "network" sometimes it shows "internet gateway device" and other times it shows my "Westell modem" when it shows the westell modem I am able to click and enter into the configure screen for it.

When trying to "add printer" through the laptop it is unable to find it - I tried the auto search and manually entered the host IP address to no avail.

I do have the printer set up to "share" on the host and have simple file sharing set up as well and set up one of my host drives to be shared (although I cannot find it on my laptop).

On the laptop under network sharing I have everything set to on except "password protected sharing".

I have turned off the firewall on both machines while trying this.

Let me know if more details are needed.

[johnwill]

This is a procedure that I've had success with installing Vista printers when the normal install didn't work.

1. Temporarily connect the printer to the Vista machine and install it as a local printer using the proper Vista drivers.
2. Disconnect the printer and move it to the XP machine it normally connects to and make sure that it's configured as a shared printer.
3. Open the Printers and Faxes folder on the Vista machine, right click on the printer and select properties.
4. Create a new Local Port for this printer with a name of the full network path name to the shared printer, i.e. \\computer_name\printer_name.