I have a printer connected to a client workstation (vs. it being tied directly to the server).  There four or five people that use that printer.  They are connected to it directly via the IP address of the client workstation.  When everyone boots up, anyone can use the printer.  No problem. But later that day, someone may try to use the printer and it just hangs.  Also, if an individual does not shut down and they come in the next day, the printer may work, but later that morning or afternoon, it will hang.

We started to look at printer connections prior to printing, and it appears that the connection between the client workstation and the printer is being lost (the printer icon appears disabled).  When we try to print to it, we hang.  When we logoff (not restart but simply logoff) and log back in, the printer icon appears active and the printer works just fine again.

This is happening to both of our printers that are connected to two different client workstations. 

Any ideas as to what may be causing this problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.