The case of the missing IP addresses

[Jomama]

Last week I installed an MFP on a network for a customer. They have an IT guy on contract, not normally on site and he met me there.
He wanted to put the print drivers on the mail server so that the mix of 2K and XP ws could just download as usual, I agreed as that usually works out OK. I walked him thru the install, accessories, Standard TCP/IP. They also have a bunch of 98s so I showed him how to use the manufacturer supplied redirector as there is no Standard TCP/IP on 98.
I Personally set up the scan-to-email and did a demo on the machine. I checked on the driver install befoe I left and it seemed to be working.
So today, I get a call that none of the 2K/XP workstations were printing 98s were printing OK. The customer says it worked for a few days but today all the 2K and XPs failed to print.
So I scurry downtown: when I right cliked on the driver, it said "print spooler not running". I checked the component services and it said the spooler was started. But I restarted it anyway. Same thing. I cant get into the driver so I deleted it.
The office manager wasnt in today so I coulnt get into the server room and didnt have the driver disk. so I DL the driver from the manuf site and reinstalled it.
Here is the weird part. At the point where I would choose the port, I expected the IP address to still be listed. but it wasnt. But I added it and everything was fine then. I went to all the other 2K and XPs and it was the same thing. The IP address wasnt there anymore.
The driver that I deleted was called "Ricoh AF750 on Mailbox". (name of the server) so I am thinking that he set up a print server rather than just putting the drivers on the server for download.But why did the ip addys disappear? Weird?
It is all working now but if it happens again, ***?

[glc]

It may be the latest batch of Windows Updates. The patch for the spooler vulnerability is knocking out the spooler on some machines.