Hi, mannicbk.
It seems to me that turning off the firewall would be a last resort. Question - when you turned it off, did it help? If it did, it can be a major clue as to what is happening. If not, turn your firewall back on. Firewalls typically only get in
the way if they are a third party firewall included with Anti-Virus (A/V) software and not the firewall included with Windows.
It sounds to me like you are connecting wirelessly to the printer. Have you tried connecting to it with a USB cable instead? By connecting through a wire, it will ensure your printer driver is installed properly on your laptop and that your computer
can communicate with it.
If the printer is attached to the network, you could try connecting to it this way as well. Wireless connectivity is only one (1) of the three (3) ways you can connect to it.
You can optionally download and reinstall the printer drivers. I bet they told you to try that already though. Note that if you download them, you may need to choose a different Operating System (OS) and choose 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) to match your
system. Here:
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?UseCookie=yes&oid=232592&prodoid=63099060&infoType=Downloads&platform=nodetect
If you're still having trouble, you can the PrinterForums support site (not part of Epson) for Epson printers here:
http://www.printerforums.net/forums/epson.12/
Another idea may be to try the HP forum for your laptop. Yes - they'll try to steer you to the printer's site (Epson) but they may some ideas about wireless issues for your particular laptop. Note that it appears a lot of other users are having
trouble connecting their HP laptops to Epson printers. Maybe you can find a solution buried in all the posts here:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?filter=labels%2Clocation&q=epson+printer&location=category%3ANotebook
Note that this forum is for Microsoft training and Microsoft certification and you are probably not going to find many answers here.
Good luck!
Best wishes, Davin Mickelson