11.1 KDE 3.5 CUPS? remote printer problem

I can print a test page from YAST. I can print a text file from Open Office to the remote printer.

Trying to print from FireFox or Thunderbird, kpdf hangs the application until you try and close the application then it tosses and error message window and asks if you want to terminate the program.

http://www.slhess.com/pictures/prterror.jpg

It’s always a similar error. kcontrol can’t access the printer and hangs as well even when run as superuser from the CLI. The CLI reveals no useful information.
I have the most recent updates applied. As printing was working in the past. I think an update may have broken printing at some time.

This is not my computer and updating to 11.3 is not an option as the computer will just not support KDE 4.4 with it’s limited CPU and Memory resources. There is no money for a new computer at this time and printing is needed.