[Answer]Printer on wireless network goes offline

Question：We have a wireless home network with some XP and some Vista computers.  The printers are on a Hawking Technologies print server.  We can define and access the printers on all computers.  However, after a certain amount of time passes, the Vista computers show the server printers as 'offline'.  This does not happen on the XP computers.  The only remedies are to re-boot the Vista computers or drop and re-define the printers.  Is there some setting that I have missed that will maintain the connection to the print server?  If not, is there some command that will re-connect to the print server without having to reboot?

Thanks.
Peggie F. 

Answer 1：We have a wireless home network with some XP and some Vista computers.  The printers are on a Hawking Technologies print server.  We can define and access the printers on all computers.  However, after a certain amount of time passes, the Vista computers show the server printers as 'offline'.  This does not happen on the XP computers.  The only remedies are to re-boot the Vista computers or drop and re-define the printers.  Is there some setting that I have missed that will maintain the connection to the print server?  If not, is there some command that will re-connect to the print server without having to reboot?

Thanks.
Peggie F. 

Answer 2： Hi Peggie,

 We would like to get a little more information to better help troubleshoot your issue.  Please answer the following questions as best you can.

• What is the model number of the print server?  You might want to try installing a firmware upgrade to it.
• Does this happen on the Windows Vista PCs during inactivity or while in use?
• Are the Windows Vista PCs going into standby or hibernation mode before the issue occurs?
• Are the Windows Vista PCs updated with Service Pack 1?

Please try running the following commands on one of the Windows Vista when the issue occurs and see if the printer comes back online afterwards

•  Click the Start orb, and type cmd in the Start Search box
•  Right-click cmd in the Programs list and select Run as Administrator
•   if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue
•  At the command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each one

           net stop spooler
        and then
           net start spooler

This will stop and restart the print spooler service.  If this resolves the issue of your printer being offline, please let us know.

---

Shane
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Answer 3：Shane,

I am having this exact issue with Vista. I ran the start/stop spool and it brought the printers back on line, but they go off again aftera few hours of being idle. I am running two Brother wireless printers connected thru a Linksys router. What is the next step to solve?

Thanks,
Robert1001