[HazelGirl]

Hey you guys.

Printer sharing was just working like yesterday and now all of a sudden i cant do it!

I have it all checkd in preferences and what not and my main computer (a Mac Mini) is setup to share and everything..and I could even switch files easily between my mbp and mac mini via network connection, but now all of a sudden not able to network the two!

On my mbp, my printer no longer shows up as a shared printer and i dont even have the option of selecting a shared printer anymore.

Also, it used to show my mac mini as one of the networks, but now, it just shows mbp.....some for my mac mini...i tused to show mbp, but now it does not.

any ideas?

[Tuoder]

What has changed between now and the last time it worked?

[HazelGirl]

I haven't changed any settings or anything. The only thing I did was removed the backup schedule on my mbp (backup from .mac).........other than that, i changed no settign and in fact the last time i printed wirelessly was only thursday! I slept all day friday and dint use it untill late at night when I noticed my computers were no longer networked/visible to each other.

[Tuoder]

The first thing I would do is cycle the power on whatever device it is that connects these two devices. Then, if that didn't work, I would check the settings on each, trying to see if anything has been tampered with or otherwise changed. Then I would shut down and turn on the service on the Mac that does Windows sharing. After that, I would throw up my hands and say "screw it" for a while.

[HazelGirl]

wow, i feel like a moron...aparently the problem was that i was connected to someone else's network!!!! I thought I was connect to mine, but I wasn't! I thought that mine would always be automatically selected....apparently it wasn't! most recently! I re-selected my network an dmy Mac Mini showed up just as it should and I have th eoption to print from the shared printer again! I was scared there for a moment.......but all is fine now!

[ghporter]

I have a solution for that particular pitfall: give your network a very unique name. NEVER leave it with its default name, EVER. I named my wireless network something that sounds dumb, but it sure doesn't sound like anyone else's network name, so I can tell in an instant when I've found the wrong network.

I consider this right up there with changing the admin password on the router as soon as you get it plugged in. A default network name tells the outside world what brand of router you have (at least 9 times out of 10), and if someone is bad and knows an exploit against your brand of router, they can start poking at it right away. Make it hard for them and they usually leave you alone.