"What you are trying to do, is often to stay off line long enough for your IP to be allocated to someone else, which will then FORCE the server to assign you a new IP . Breaking the DHCP lease, and disconnecting equipment during this time, increases your chances of this." "Most people have dynamic IP's these days, which means it should be easy to switch IPs , yet for some people this may not work very well. In some cases, especially with new Fiber optic networks, even if you RESET, or UNPLUG your router , you still get the same IP when you return online. That's because there is a additional device, a fiberoptic bridge, that sits usually outside the house, is powered from the pole, and cannot be easily reset or powered down by the user. This device will continue to hold a live connection (and thus an IP)even when you fiddle with your router."

The crash was eveil and took place in stages. First, I was told there wasn't enough virtual memory. The the screen/programs kept freezing and I had to use the start button on the tower to shut down the session in order to get out of the frozen screen. Things got very slow and when I ran MS security Essentials it removed several files but the problems persisted. Finally, when I rebooted I didn't have a router and last, the modem stopped working. I took the tower to a local repair shop and he was very curt when he called me and said I had a terrible virus. He was about to wipe clean the hard drive and I askede if I could come in and save some files. His reply was that he didn't have time to wait for me. I couldn't stand going without email and internet so I just let him do his thing. Oh, he also told me to get a new router and he had never seen my old router. I did as I was told and went to Staples where a salesman advised me against getting the super-duper wireless model router because my ISP, TDS is notoriously slow (boy do I agree with that!) and even if I got a very good router I still would never be able to stream movies. The repairman gave me back the tower with a version of XP slightly different from my original (no, I don't know what I had, only that the screen and icons work a little differently), Internet Explorer 8 and Outlook Express. I immediately had problems setting up OE even thgough my ISP confirmed I had used all the correct settings. I had bought a new printer with wireless capabilities and it worked only as a wireless. Then--the router stopped working!!! When the man from Staples came he sat down and opened a few programs and punched in changes while he was able to talk to me. He found that my laptop had a virus but I no longer use it because I prefer my netbook. He told me he found several settings that were incorrect even though I never changed them. He was quite a whiz, polite, patient and I am pleased I now know someone local who will come to my house if I need him. He said Staples will have some good sales around Christmas and recommended HP. One of my previous desktops was HP and I was always satisfied with the way it worked. He carefully told me he thought I would find what I want and get a better deal with an HP when I said I was considering a Dell. Lastly, he recommended I get 6G of RAM, 500 or more on a hard drive, and a quad core processor. I am about to put out a general question on this forum asking what I can expect if I pay for a quad core vs. a dual core. Before he left he asked if I wanted him to he would set me up with a gmail account. I told him TDS's POP3 and SMTP is gmail and I was going to let them set me up with their gmail for my two email addys. My mail is @ TDS, not @ gmail, but the server uses gmail. Not certain I understand this. Sorry, I am aware I said a lot but didn't tell you specifically what the tech did when he came to my home. It was like he worked magic! Nancy

OK Sapphires you have answered my questions. Now I will suggest something absolutely stupid. I suspect your printer is one of many models Lexmark built that has a peculiarity. Next time you print a photo remove your internet connection cable and the job will/should complete. There, I told you the cure was stupid. Lexmark built about 50 or more different models with this defect. Then they made it difficult to find the answer on their web site. The article will not be there now probably as these are older printers now. I could not find your model on their site, nor mine. Ours did the same trick and it was always when printing photos and always around 45 to 50% finished when the printer stalled. All that expensive ink wasted does not make for a happy customer.

What IowaGirl and ChemoCurl wrote will work. It's the only way to cancel your print job. Unplugging the printer won't do work because the computer will continue spooling the print command. So, cancel the print as explained above. The problem is it takes so long for it to cancel, so you will have to restart the computer for the cancel command to take effect. The dreaded problem I have with WindowsXP is doing it the one time doesn't work. If the first time doesn't work, restart the computer and do it a second time. Then restart again. Otherwise, you just have to sit and wait for the print job to cancel.