I have a windows network. Computers are Win98SE #1, Win98SE #2, XPsr2 #1 and XP sr2#2. I have USB printers attached to 98SE #1 and XPsr2 #1. Printers are shared. System in place for approx. 2yrs and has worked fine. About 3 weeks ago XPsr2 #1 had difficulty accessing the printer on Win98Se #1. Access became very slow. No other computers were affected and all file sharing btwn all computers worked fine. On XP 1, I removed and reinstalled the 98se1 printer many times with no luck. I completely uninstalled the USB printer on Win #1, removed all drivers and then did a new install. I opened it as a share. All the other computers found it and added it to their printers. Xp#1 "sees it" but when I try to access it the XP#1 computer freezes, even by trying to print a blank page from wordpad/notepaad. I hooked an old parallel HP111p to Win #1. XP1 sees it but accesses it very slowly. XP1 prints fine to the printer attached to it. I have scanned for virus/worms etc with latest edition of Symantec. The whole system is behind a Linksys firewall. I plugged my network cable into different ports.
What I do know is that:
System used to work,
Printer is freely accessible to the other computers,
Regular file sharing btwn all computers works fine,
My other XP computer is virtually identical to XP1 and it accessess the printer fine,
The printer works fine from instructions from its own computer,
I have not added any software to either of the affected computers.

What will not happen is any communication btwn XP1 and printer on Win 1.
Network cards are Linksys in the WIn and onboard Realtek on the XP's. All other network components are LInksys. I have XP1 partitioned into 4 win drives. Drive C is 22gb with 15gb free, drive D is 26gb /23 free, same with E and F. Not sure about Win #1 but it has plenty of resources to receive similar files from the other computers. Even trying to install the Win #1 printer by adding it to XP1 has been extremely slow.

My guess is that as the other computers can access Win #1, the problem must lie with XP1.
Thank you for reading this. I'd love some direction.
Help greatly appreciated.

Yeah, I would start by reinstalling the IP Stack, namely the TCP/IP protos. Pretty sure you can do it through add/remove programs, then choose windows components, blah blah... Google it for better directions.

Other options are try a network card from another machine (may imitate reinstalling the protocols, maybe), of course drivers and what-not are your issue.

Could also try removing all other add-on cards. All PCI cards and USB devices, especially dial up cards! Seen dial; up cards go bad and seize machines network access.
All that doesn't work, you've wasted too much time, backup/wipe/reinstall windows. That doesn't work, throw the f***er out.

Thanks JC105. I'm not sure if doing that would help. I still have basic file sharing btwn the two computers and with all other computers. My issue is simply with the printer as I say in my orig. post.