Sharing a printer... a little more complicated

Ok, i've been able to share my printer on 2 laptops wirelessly to my wired desktop which the printer is connected to. Now i have a new laptop and installed the printer by downloading its software drivers (i didn't do this on the other laptops) and connecting it through the usb. But i would also like to be able to connect wirelessly whenever the printer is connected to my desktop instead of my laptop (the desktop has to be on for it to work right?). Can i get any help? I allowed printer sharing on my desktop and i couldn't find it through the network on my laptop.

 

Once you turn printer sharing on you must then select the printer you want to share before the others will see it. You must also tell the FW to allow this traffic.

 

Yes the desktop has to be on for that to work.

The easiest way to do it is this. Once u have "shared" the printer on the desktop; and enabled/allowed "file and printer sharing"; On the new laptop that u want to connect to the printer with; go to Start-->Run and type ncpa.cpl and hit enter. On the left pane click on "My Network Places" and then "View Workgroup Computers". If you see the desktop computer that u connected the printer to, double click it, then if the printer is already set to shared u should see it. Right click on it and choose connect. If u have all the procedures and parameters set up correctly this should work easily; If not then something needs to be fixed. (The above instructions will work w/ XP...if the laptop is running .Vista it may be different.)

Good Luck!

 

What operating systems do you have? Be specific; list each computer and the operating system running.

 

My desktop is XP while my laptop is Vista. Let me clarify guys. My desktop has the printer connected to it currently, and I want to connect my laptop wirelessly to print it. On 2 other wireless computers, this has worked. The thing about this one was that it needed the drivers downloaded (i got a new printer along with the laptop) so i downloaded it on the laptop, but i had to connect the usb to it. So now, the printer was wired to my laptop. Having the printer wired to the laptop was fine, but now, i also want to have it set up wirelessly when the printer is connected to the desktop instead of the laptop. Right now, printing a document on wireless will just put printing on pending, essentially doing nothing.

 

Do you have other networking problems with the Vista laptop? Can you share files and folders on the XP machine and access them with the Vista laptop? Can you "see" the Vista laptop from the XP machine, but not the other way around? Are you running XP Pro or XP Home?

Have you read this Technet article about sharing files and printers with Vista? http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

 

Yes, your desktop must be on all the time.

You could also (if the printer is equipped for) install the printer to the router so this way it doesn't depends on the desktop state.

I personally havea D-Link printer hub with USB ports, one is used for the printer, then the hub is connected to the router. This hub in particular can also be accessed wirelessly. This arrangement work very well.

 

ok almost same situation but my vista laptop and XP SP3 desktop is ok can see every pc on the network and can share files and print perfect nothing is wrong.. BUT.. my sis vista laptop cannot do that. everything is on, network discovery, file sharing , printer sharing. but when i got to network on her laptop i can only see her pc on the network and not the XP SP3 desktop which the printer is connected to via usb, and she cannot see my laptop . let me state that both laptops have vista HMP SP1 and desktop is XP Pro SP3. Also, when i go to network on my sis pc i see her pc is on but i also she some Windows Media player gateway to access music from the other computers. how do i get my sis pc to see other pc on the network soo i can eventually share the printer.

 

Chango99: You said you downloaded the drivers to your laptop and then connected the printer to your desktop in an attempt to share it wirelessly? Maybe the drives need downloaded to your desktop which you're attempting to use to "host" the printer.