DOS-usuable Shared Printer

Setup the Printer on a local port [LPT1] of your machine (in my case XP Pro). Then issue the following command from a command prompt:

net use LPT1 \\computername\printername /persistent:YES

depending on how the printer host is setup, you may have to give password info.

Hosts file redirect [WIN]

Have your hosts file installed for ad blocking, but still seeing adds from sites you know are in the file? Check this:

From http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm

The next most frequent cause is that a virus has pointed
the system to another hosts file.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  \SYSTEM
   \CurrentControlSet
    \Services
     \Tcpip
      \Parameters
       Value of type REG_EXPAND_SZ
       Name: DataBasePath
         
         The correct path where Windows finds the hosts
             file should be:

%SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc

and only that path alone.

Several viruses are known to redirect Windows to the 
Windows\help folder (or perhaps some other folder) 
and put their own hosts file there. If you find this, 
don't try to just correct the registry entry. You must 
first remove the virus.

And having removed the virus, go fix the registry entry so the hosts file works.