Mint 11 printer sharing works with Win 7, not with Win XP

[volcano_son]

Hello - I have followed the how-to at viewtopic.php?f=42&t=28397, as well as other Internet sites, but haven't found a solution to this problem. I'm struggling with this and don't know what to do next.
HERE IS THE SET-UP: My main computer on my home network is a dual-boot machine running Mint 11/ WinXP, with a direct-attached Epson printer. I also have an old Windows 2000 machine with a direct-attached HP printer, and 2 laptops -- 1 WinXP and one Windows 7. I have file sharing working among all of them, and the laptops all use the printer attached to the Win2K machine. The main computer uses its own printer and always runs Linux except when temporarily rebooted into XP by the kids in order to use iTunes. Everything was happy until the Epson on the main computer died.
NEW SET-UP: I moved the HP printer from the old Win2K machine to my main computer, and attempted to share it with all the other computers on the network. This works fine when the main computer is running WinXP, so cabling and network integrity must be ok. But when the main computer is running Linux Mint 11, only it and ***the Windows 7 laptop*** can access and use the printer. Since that works, I'm guessing that the Samba and CUPS must be configured correctly, plus all file sharing still works with all the machines.
THE ERROR: When I tried to add a network printer on the ***WinXP laptop***, I got an error about the drivers not being found on the network, which I thought odd since it already knew how to print to the HP over the network from when it was attached to the old Win2000 machine. (I initially got the same error with the Win 7 laptop, but it apparently had its own copy of the necessary drivers because when I told it to search, it found and installed what it needed.) So I plugged the HP directly into the XP laptop, let it install the HP drivers, and it could print to the HP fine. I then reconnected the HP to the main computer, and tried again to add it as a network printer on the XP laptop. (This set of steps was supposed to fix it, according to tips on another website.) Now the "Printers and Faxes" window on the XP laptop displays the HP printer with a Status of "Printer not found on server, unable to connect". BTW, the old Win2000 machine does not see the printer at all, so maybe that's a clue. That doesn't concern me because the Win2000 machine is being retired -- it was only still here mainly as something to hang the printer off of for laptop usage.
I have searched without success for any cases of a problem like this, and do not know what to do next. Any advice or fix for this would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Dan

[DrHu]

It is more of a windows issue than anything else..

Every windows OS computer needs its own local drivers installed to access a printer, unless you are using a print server, in that case you install all the printers and their driver files onto one computer, and any other computer that unfortunately needs a driver (that is any other windows computer), may also need to install it locally in order to use the printer server's shared printers..

The other way to get to a printer is via it's own IP address (this is how IPP : printing from the internet works, for example)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 10%29.aspx