Have you tried posting your wireless question in the wireless networking section? 

 

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=si_wireless

Did you share the printer?  Every printer is a network printer, if you want to get technical about it.

 

After sharing the printer on the computer it is connected to, perhaps this will help:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networ..._net_print.htm

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Also, The basics for networking are:

1. Make sure you have the same IP scheme (e.g. 192.168.0.x).

2. Make sure you have the same Subnet Mask, Gateway, and DNS IP addresses.

3. Make sure you can ping the other computer's IP address. If this fails, just for testing, make sure you turn off XP's as well as any other firewall.

4. Make sure you can ping the other computers by name.

5. Make sure you have the same workgroup name (watch for trailing spaces)

6. For troubleshooting purposes, turn off XP's and completely uninstall any other firewall software. You can always add more complexity after you get it working.

7. With XP, make sure you have the same username and password as the person logging onto the other computers. The default setting for XP Pro is to require a password for network access.

8. More details about how to network XP can be found at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_network.htm

9. More details about how to troubleshoot TCP/IP networks can be found at:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/trouble.htm

There continues to be a lot of misinformation about needing NetBEUI or to changing the NetBIOS setting. You can ignore both. Installing NetBEUI to solve a networking problem will just mask a some underlying and potentially important misconfiguration with TCP/IP. The default NetBIOS setting usually works. If browsing is a problem, you might set it to Enabled. But do not Disable it.

Also, the printer on each computer has the "hand" signifying sharing under them.

You probably have a firewall with the Norton product that is blocking the connection.

jmwills, Thanks for youresponse. Here is my responce to you questions:

 

1. IP address is the same except for the last number (e.g. 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2)

 

2. These are the same.

 

3. Yes I can ping them from each other.

 

4. Not 100 % sure on this (I'm at work now, away from the computers) So try to ping by name?     Office-PC and Laptop? Is this a "CMD>ping office-pc" just like using the IP address?

 

5. Yes both work groups are called "WORKGROUP"

 

6. I uninstalled the firewall software from the Vista computer (the one connected to the printer) but not the XP's. I use Norton antivirus only on the XP laptop.

 

7. I don't use any passwords to access either computer.

 

Does this make sense and do you see anything that might mess things up?

 

Thanks again. 

The only comment I have on that is that it worked before with the Norton, but I guess the PC restore may have affected the way it works. :mansad:

Determine the "Shared Name" of the printer and try to ping it.  Hopefully this is XP Pro and youcan use NTFS permissions instead of Simple File Sharing.  If so, give the "Everyone" permission in the share full rights to the printer.

 

To turn off Simple File Sharing go to My Computer>Tools>folder Options>View and scroll all the way to the bottom of hat list and uncheck "Use Simple File Sharing".

Unfortunately it's Home addition

Easier with Pro but make sure you have the printers shared and no third party firewalls are blocking the connection.  YOu will need to add a "network Printer" on the machine where the printer is not connected by using this syntax:

 

\\myxphomecomputer\sharedprinter

 

Where "MyXPHomeComputer" is the name of the machine where the printer is connected and "SharedPrinter" is the name of the shared printer.

 

http://willsit.com/resources.aspx

On any computer running Windows XP with SP1, disable the Windows XP firewall. It will not allow File and Printer Sharing. On computers running Windows XP with SP2, make sure that the Windows XP firewall has File and Printer Sharing checked off on the Exceptions tab. If you are running any third party firewalls, like those provided by such programs as Zone Alarm, Norton Internet Security, or McAfee Security Suite, make sure they are configured to allow local network traffic

Thanks, I'll work on it this weekend.