AHA, so you do have a network! We were networked, and my wife had the printer hooked to her computer. I could not use Poser, or the other programs, if my wife's computer was turned off. Now we're not networked, and I have two printers! The printer itself does not need to be turned on. But the programs need to be able to find the printer port, or something like that. Who knows why the programs aren't polite enough to say: "I can't work unless I can find your printer!"