How to extract/ unzip exe files

[Huffer]

What is BIGBLACKBOX? Your desktop? I would guess that the printer is connected by USB or even perhaps parallel port to the desktop and it is using good old Windows file and printer sharing to share the printer with the network. So you need to find the BIGBLACKBOX share on the network (likely WORKGROUP) and the printer will show up as a shared resource inside that shared computer. Once you see it just click on it and it should install and if you need a driver use one of the methods outlined above. 

So you are not looking for the printer per se in the network you are looking for BIGBLACKBOX. There are better ways to do this by the way but let's work with the world as it is right now. The way you have it screams "1998!"

We need to duplicate the network settings you have on the older laptop onto the newer laptop except obviously the exact IP address will be different by a digit or 2.  

[UncleScotty]

I really appreciate your patience, Huffer.

You are correct: BIGBLACKBOX is my desktop to which my HP 4000 is attached with a big ole parallel cable.

It is obviously in shared mode (of some sort) or I wouldn't be able to print with it on my old laptop.

You can see the path/naming convention I used to Add it to the old laptop, based on the "example" printed just below the "Select a shared printer by name" field ...where I have entered \\BIGBLACKBOX\HP LaserJet 4000 Series PCL 5.

Unfortunately, when I enter this same name into the Add printer by name field on the new laptop and click Next, a "progress box" appears saying "Connecting to HP LaserJet 4000 Series PCL 5 on BIGBLACKBOX"......but a second dialog box ALSO appears asking for a Username: and Password in order to "connect to BIGBLACKBOX".

Any idea what and where those details would be? (Man, the nightmare of setting up this printer sharing on the old laptop years ago is "reconvening"....I think it was a three day ordeal!)

I'm willing to switch horses if you think there's a better way to "start clean"!?!

[Huffer]

I am not sure if you are not understanding me or what. For a shared printer using Windows printer sharing you do not use the ADD PRINTER dialog. Just open the graphical Network like this:

Network shared computers

On my network I just click on Server and you see a shared network drive and then a shared printer. Just double click on the shared printer. Your computer will then start trying to find a driver for it and do what I said above. 

how shared printer looks to other computers on network

If you cannot see BIGBLACKBOX in your network GUI as above then the laptop you are trying to access it from is not on the same Workgroup. 

[UncleScotty]

I SEEM to have things working (for now, at least) after fiddling with a combination of...

1. Making sure all computers were on the 2.4  GHz network of my Asus router

2. Changing the name of the Workgroup to be consistent on all pc's

3. Using the Network Reset utility to "freshen" up all 3 computers network adapters

4. Creating a new "User" account on the HP laptop (I MAY be mistaken, I was once before, but does networking only work properly with a USER as opposed to Administrator account?)

5. Last but not least turning off "Password protected sharing" in the Network and Sharing Centre (otherwise, I was being plagued by requests to Enter Network Identification ID and passwords)

I could finally SEE the 4000 on the new laptop; double clicked it; it went and got a driver (somewhere)....and voila! I could print.

Thanks for the inspiration, Huffer. (God these things really DO have a guy looking at Macs again, though!)

Cheers, Michael

[Huffer]

You might want to provide an accepted solution here since it was a bit of a slog. If you think this would have been easier on a Mac you have not done it on a Mac. User/Admin has nothing to do with whether networking works. Anyway its pretty clear you needed an "Expert", right? 

[UncleScotty]

As it turns out, my group-congratulations were a little premature yesterday.

The new HP laptop WILL print using the 4000 LaserJet....but only if the "host" computer is turned on. (As opposed to the old laptop which will print on the 4000 whether the desktop is turned on or off....which is my preference, of course, because I use the desktop just seldom enough, that,  a) I don't want to leave it running 24/7 just to support the prospect of a print job being sent down to it's basement location from a laptop up in the family room or the bedroom and, b) NOR do I want to have to run down one or two flights of stairs to fire up the desktop from scratch every time I want to print out a recipe for rhubarb pie or instructions for removal/replacement of the carburetors on my Yamaha.

Even though HP4000 was added to the Lenovo using an "older method", it seems to be the way that works.  The  "Add Printer" utility pictured below is the method I used to connect the two devices long ago (in a Windows XP world).....but it has weathered all the Win 10 updates and upgrades and still works like a charm.

Is there some reason we can't replicate that setup with the new HP laptop? 

Here's what the Devices and Printers page looks like on the two different laptops.......

OLD

NEW

Are there any other printscreens I can send that will provide clues?

[Huffer]

When you are using printer sharing the "sharing" computer has to be on and running for one of the other computers on the network to print from it. You are not connecting directly to the printer in such case you are connecting to the printer through BIGBLACKBOX. It is essentially acting as a print server. If the 4000 Laserjet is only connected to the BIGBLACKBOX by a parallel cable then I cannot understand how another computer on the network can print to it when BIGBLACKBOX is turned off. As I said, using printer sharing is not the optimal way to set up a network printer. Does the 4000 by any chance have an ethernet port on it? On the "New" screen below you seem to have a connection to the 4000 on "Michael-PC" using a different driver. Any idea how that happened?

[UncleScotty]

"If the 4000 Laserjet is only connected to the BIGBLACKBOX by a parallel cable then I cannot understand how another computer on the network can print to it when BIGBLACKBOX is turned off."

I understand what you're saying ...and perhaps that's the reason for your question "Does the 4000 by any chance have an Ethernet port on it? "

Yes....I DO have an Ethernet connection and I DID have a cable running from the 4000 to my Asus router. Was THAT perhaps the reason the old laptop was able to print remotely...whether the BBB was on or off? (I'm by no means a connectivity architecture expert and am at a bit of a loss as to what's talking to what and how. e.g. I have the BBB hardwired to the router, but I also have a Linksys-Cisco-Hi-Gain-Wireless-N-Antenna-WMP300N hooked up for wireless, JUST IN CASE the desktop HAS to be on a wireless network along with its wireless laptop buddies around the house.....for.....whatever!?!? (My favorite slogan: better to HAVE a gun and not need it than to NEED a gun and not have it.) Overkill? Probably. Cause of confusion? Possibly.

You've made the comment (a couple of times) that my "setup" isn't the "norm" or "ideal" configuration.

I'm all ears if there's a better, simpler, easier way to hook these babies up to each other. Especially if I can get all three (my two and my wife's) laptops capable of printing on the HP, especially if it can be done without the BIGBLACKBOX turned ON.

RE: your final comment: On the "New" screen below you seem to have a connection to the 4000 on "Michael-PC" using a different driver. Any idea how that happened?

If you're referring to the PCL 6 driver, I think it was just the "remnants" of an attempt to update the driver(s) for the HP 4000, and/but it's not in use. Don't ask me why I haven't "dumped" it.

As I say, I'm ALL EARS for the elegant solution. Thanks.

[Huffer]

Absolutely the only explanation for the other laptop's being able to print with BIGBLACKBOX turned off is that the 4000 is otherwise connected to the network. First thing to do to simplify your life is choose one way or the other to connect and the network connection has the advantage of being "always on". My guess is that the 4000 has something called an HP JetDirect network adapter. This was state of the art in the Windows 3.1/95 days but requires a bit of legacy knowledge to get working right today. As I said there are HP tools you can download which will allow you to configure the JetDirect but the starting point is to figure out what its IP address on the network is. Do you know what that is? 

[UncleScotty]

I used the Menu buttons on the 4000 to try and print off its Configuration page.

Actually ended up with two pages printing:

1. Configuration Page, where under the heading Printer Information, the last item listed (after Serial Number, Page Count, etc, is HP JetSend Address: ip: 192.168.1.45

2. JetDirect Configuration Page, where under Protocol Information, it shows

TCP/IP STATUS: READY

CONFIG BY: FRONT PANEL/TELNET

IP ADDRESS 192.168.1.45

SUBNET MASK: 255.255.255.0

DEF. GATEWAY 192.168.2.1

There is additional info.....but I'm hoping that 192.168.1.45 is what you're looking for?

(Coincidentally, the old laptop seems to have now LOST its ability to print when the BBB is off. I THINK I happened to notice at one point that the Asus router seemed to have "its OWN network", if that's possible; I believe I saw "Asus-something" on the "List of available networks", but, of course in my zeal to get everything on the SAME network, I avoided that, perhaps in the throes of which I killed the Lenovo's ability to print on its own, without the aid of the BBB?) So many variables....so little time! (I laugh, because otherwise I would cry!)