I have a Lexmark 5000 series printer, all in one. I have not had any problems before with this, but now I installed ZoneAlarm firewall and I am unable to print. I tried reinstalling the Lexmark Software and drivers, that did not work. The issue with the printing happens like this:

I select print and hit ok
The Lexmark notification screen comes up says that it has started printing. The paper starts to feed and then everything stops. The message that printing is in progress stays there forever unless I reboot. When I try to cancel printing, is says deleting but never does.

Do you think this is related to Zone Alarm? If so, how do I go about fixing it? Should I just get rid of Zone Alarm?

You guys have helped me with a couple of issues recently and I really appreciate your expertise and patience.

There is an apparent issue with ZA and Lexmark drivers-- it can be fixed via configuration in Zone-Alarm...though you don't mention what OS you are running. Zone Alarm has some very good message boards... and it's a good firewall.

Re: ZA Suite blocking Lexmark printing - Access Issues - ZoneAlarm User Forum

sorry, I am using Win XP SP3.

I do not seem to be getting any help from them. I did what they told me to, by reinstalling the driver, and I still have no printer that functions. Any other ideas? If not I guess I will have to uninstall the firewall.

Or, would a Linksys wireless g broadband router be better? Also, since I only have the one laptop, I would be able to connect the broadband connection to the wireless router and still be able to use the laptop without cables, right?

The router + Windows firewall should be adequate... the laptop needs a wireless card to transmit to the router.