can't access cups

[Jack Byers]

Jack Byers     byersj at hotmail.com

I havent had this much pain/trouble on linux for many years

I have been attempting to configure a printer via cups  on an rh8.0 system

doing a lot of googling etc and reading documentation
the thing is i think i understand roughly what i am supposed to do
and i got partway there the other day and got the cups wizard going via 
localhost:631
  and got a printer w  name hpcups  supposedly set up,
but of course there were some problems, ...

ok so i tried going back and redoing the config w different driver etc, 
etc...

but now i cant access  localhost: 631 at all !?

response from the browser
   The connection was refused when attempting to contact localhost:631

huh?


similarly
[root at corni root]# lpinfo -v
lpinfo: Unable to connect to server: Connection refused
[root at corni root]#

[root at corni root]# lpadmin -p hpcups
lpadmin: Unable to connect to server: Connection refused
[root at corni root]#


more weirdness:

[root at corni root]# /etc/init.d/cups start
Starting cupsd:                                            [  OK  ]
[root at corni root]# /etc/init.d/cups status
cupsd is stopped
[root at corni root]#

  isnt this last pair of results  inconsistent?
     --the starting cupsd   says Ok
     --but the status msg says cupsd is stopped



I know cupsd was working in some fashion for me two days ago
i got the printer  'hpcups'  at least partially configured


??????
any advice/hints appreciated
i dont see anything at this level of dumbness  on google at all

Jack