Shared printers XP and 9x

Setup a 98 box with a legal restore disk. (changed the hardware on the
box so I had to extract the core os from the disk). It's up and
running
but can't get a shared hp printer to work from 9x. The printer is
setup on an XP box. Made sure I used the wizard to set up the share,
named it so 95 box could see it as well, and made sure to set Netbios
over TCP.
This printer is set up on a virtual USB port on the XP. (USB only
printer)
When I install the printer on the 9x box, (it is there), it won't
install the drivers. I'm assuming the HP 9x drivers I have (from HP)
won't work on a Virtual USB share, only a direct connection.
I have Win2K setup on the same box as 98. I have the same printer
working on that boot as well as another box with 2K and XP.
Is there a work around to get this connected?
I have a parallel printer working on all 9x and NTFS boxes using an HP
printer server. Obviously this doesn't support a USB printer.
Is the only way around this a second printer server or network ready
printer?
Any feedback would be appreciated. I'm sure using a XP printer with a
9x machine will be a common problem I'll face.

 

Can you see the printer across the network?
I've had problems sharing a USB printer with it attached to a 98 box in the
past. I just couldn't see the printer across the network when it was
attached to the 98 box.
If you can see the printer across the network XP should give you the option
to install the driver files for other operating systems.
If you can see it across the network, and have the drivers installed you can
just right click it and select install printer.
That is the easiest way to install a printer.

AG

 

Thanks for the response.
To answer 1st response, yes I could see the printer on the network.
To answer 2nd response, this is a workgroup, although I tried to get a
TCP port to work but of course no way to assign a port address to a
printer that doesn't have an IP address.
To followup:
I redownloaded the 9x drivers from a non HP site. Extracted them on
the XP
box and compared them and found 1 sub directory I didn't have before.
I setup the XP to load additional drivers from the properites|shared
tab and
tried to find the right driver. Autorun.inf wouldn't run so I looked
through all the subdirectories until I found a .inf that was buried
under a couple of other subdirectories that fit the Hp model. Hit
that and it loaded drivers. Great!
However, when I installed the printer from the 98 box, I got files
missing
errors. I wrote them down and went looking on the XP for them and 98
wouldn't see them. I know this sounds weird. I reinstalled this a few
times
to make sure I didn't miss something.
To make a long story short, I installed the drviers on the 98 as well
and went looking for the main .inf on the local disk. During the 98
printer install process, when asked to find missing files, I located
the same .inf that was loaded on the XP and drivers loaded and the
printer works.
I've had some strange sound card driver cut and paste issues before
but not a relatvely new printer.