The easiest way to share a printer is through a router or a print server.
Both these hardware devices are easy to setup and are quite inexpensive. The
major manufacturers of these devices will supply complete instructions.

The other way of sharing hardware on a network is through software, which
sounds like the path you have been pursuing. This method is difficult and
has its share of "gotchas".

For example, you could plug your computers and printer into a router, use
the default settings (for now) and be sharing your printer in less time than
it takes to get the router out of the box. (OK, I'm exaggerating. But not by
much.) To make this work, your printer must have a network card or built-in
network capability.

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

"catrambo" <etrudell@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:%23hc37nP9FHA.3660@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> I have two computers. One has Xp Home and the other has XP Pro OS. I
would
> like to share my printer (Lexmark 6170) with my XP Home and XP Pro
> computers. My printer is connected to my xp home computer thru a USB
> cable. I tried several instructions from Lexmark and microsoft. but when
> I'm through going thru the processes I cannot get my XP Pro computer to
> print. I get a message"computer cannot communicate with the printer". Is
> there something other I should be doing? Both computers have been given
> different names but only one is connected to the printer. Can you help.
> Thank you.
>
>