[SOLVED] HP Laserjet connected to a USB port

[ChrisL]

I can certainly feel everyone's pain in doing something so (seemingly) straightforward as printing.  I have had a lot of issues with Linux and printing (at least with my network).  I do have to say though that it was nearly impossible to print to an XP connected printer on the Windows network with a Vista laptop, so it's not just Linux.  I loaded the HPLIP and by usb-connected printer works fine off that machine (Linux).  I have another Linux machine on the network I would like to use the printer for as well.  Some stupid questions I guess, but not having a lot of luck:

1) USB connected printer was set-up with HPLIP as a "usb" printer not network printer on the connected machine, is this correct?
2) Then I should install HPLIP on my other Linux box and set up that same printer with HPLIP as a Network printer, right?
3) Two Windows 7 laptops, what should I do with those (yeah, I know - other than burn them)? I go through the Windows printer set-up/Discovery thing and it finally sees it, load drivers, etc. prints the test page and than a document fine ... then two days later I try and use the same printer and it no longer works.  This happens over and over.

We had sort of thrown in the towel and were using Google Cloud Printing, which worked great for a few weeks, but today - no dice with that either.  Suggestions?

Chris