[Motanu]

Thanks Melonhead. A good Sumaritan named Unbidden, referred me to this thread.

Let me add a few notes while this is fresh on my mind:
If you stop after adding the printer as 'local', it won't work, but that step seems to be necessary to prpoerly install the right printer driver. After completing the procedure, you must go back and add the printer as 'connected to another computer'.

[Bud Norris]

My problem was I couldn't print to my shared printer, not that I couldn't access it. However the printer in my Vista "printers' was set up as a network printer not a local printer. Even though the port was named correctly i.e. \\host name\prineter name, and Vista said it was sending the files to the printer it was not.

I went thru the "add printer"/"new port"/"local Port"/"Port name/Printer name" and by GOD it worked.
I was seeing the printer installed on my XP machine in Vista Printers. It said it was the printer I was sharing from my XP machine. But some how I wasn't really connecting to it with Vista.
When I added the new printer on a local port and named the new port Vista recognized it and I could then print to it.
So I deleted the original shared network printer from Vista "printers" so that only one prinetr shows up and all is still well.

Thanks to MELONHEAD above all for his solution and many thanks to all on this site who was involved!

This problem was also resolved by Melonhead's solution on another thread called "Can't connect to network printer from Vista". with a reference to this thread.

[rahien]

Great find, man! thanks!

[profje]

Great! Many thanks!! this solved a problem on which I spent a whole day before starting to Google.