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My initial thoughts on this is if both computers are sharing the printer under the same share name, and they are both windows XP workstations, windows will natively try and search for network shares and printer shares and automatically create shortcuts to them under your network connections. This may cause the default printer conflict. You can toggle this option under windows explorer by opening any windows explorer window, going to Tools > Folder Options > View (tab) and under files and folders the first option is "Automatically search for network folders and printers". Hope this helps in your quest to track this down! Chris Harper STUDENT IT SPECIALIST [log in to unmask] Office: (517) 355-6611 x 103 Cell: (616) 291-1987 University Relations • Michigan State University 1330 S. Harrison • East Lansing, MI 48823 -----Original Message----- From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard Wiggins Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 1:19 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [MSUNAG] Fwd: [MSUNAG] Why does default printer keep changing? Wow, my tiny little home network is getting more professional attention than its had in its 10+ years of existence! -- It's always on PCs. All computers think they belong to a workgroup named Mariners. -- The printer connected to Basement is almost always turned off. The printer on Kitchen, and Kitchen computer, are almost always turned on. -- Yup, they are HP printers. -- Kitchen is always reachable via its Wi-Fi connection. Basement is wired into the hub, always on, always reachable -- Laptop is single user and so is Basement -- After the default printer has changed to Basement, Laptop shows the Kitchen printer online as well as the Basement one, even though the Basement printer is powered down. If I print to Kitchen printer or switch default, it never fails, whether Kitchen is in Standby or not. Only time Kitchen printer appears offline is when Kitchen computer is powered down. -- No third party nuthin. -- Pure XP network, no WIn 2000. -- Yes, the printers in question are both HPs (very good, Carnak!) Thanks, all! I'm sure you have bigger fish to fry, but this is a fun puzzle... /rich On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:22:26 -0500, John Resotko <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hmmm... just the usual questions for troubleshooting: > > 1) are the printers in the Home Network on network print servers, or > are they connected to "always on" PCs that are using Windows connection > sharing to share them across a workgroup? Is a workgroup defined? If > so, are all PCs connected to those printers on the same Workgroup name? > > 2) if the printers are on solo network servers, when was the lastime > you upgraded the firmware in the stand-alone print servers? Are all > PCs, laptops, etc up to date on the latest Windows patches. > > 3) troublehooting on the network wire connected to the Kitchen > printer... is it ok, no faults? > > 4) on the PC/laptop that switches the default printer back to Basement, > how many user profiles are on it? Could the "switch" be caused by > another user profile using Basement as it's default printer that has > full Administrative rights to the PC in question? Could the profile > switch be resetting the default printer and overridding previous > setting. > > 5) any third party print managers, print utilities, or nifty printing > software on the PC that keeps switching default printers? You might > want to install a utility that tells you what runs on startup, then shut > down those startup programs one at a time in case any of them might be > altering the default setting. > > Good luck, it sounds like one of those nasty intermittant programs > that's gonna eat a lot of time and effort to try and track down. > Remember, when it's not cost effective to do that, backup the data on > the quirky PC, wipe out and restore the OS, then reapply patches and put > your data back. In the long run, that can sometimes be the quickes > solution rather than chasing ghosts in the machine.... > > /John R. > > >>> Richard Wiggins <[log in to unmask]> 03/31 9:27 AM >>> > This is a curiosity not a crisis but I thought maybe someone with deep > Windows knowledge would know the answer. > > Imagine a home network. All Windows computers. Domainless. A > computer named Basement has a laser printer, as does a computer named > Kitchen. Sometimes a computer named Laptop prints to Basement, > sometimes to Kitchen's printer. > > No matter how many times I set the default printer from Basement to > Kitchen, at some later time, perhaps after a reboot, Laptop reverts to > Basement as its default printer. > > I wouldn't think this has anything to do with the browse master > negotiations, but Basement is the oldest computer on the network. > > Any theories? Thanks, > > /rich >