Sharing a printer

[lti]

I am trying to share a printer between two computers. One is running Windows XP Home Edition and has the printer connected directly to it. The other computer is a laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium and is connected through a wireless router. Is there any way to get these computers to communicate with each other so I can print from the laptop, or should I connect the printer to the wireless network (which disables the USB connection)?

[weirdlookinguy]

Super easy dude. We are going to set up your XP Home machine to host the printer, and your laptop is going to print wirelessly. Note that with this setup, your XP Home computer must be turned on any time you want to print from the laptop.

1) Make sure both computers are on the same workgroup. On XP, open up the device manager (right click on My Computer) and then check the "Computer Name" tab. You can make up any workgroup name you like.

2) After that, while you're still on the XP computer, go to control panel and open up "Printers and Faxes". Right-click on your printer and make sure the Sharing option is enabled. If it isn't already, a wizard should pop up and walk you through setting up sharing.

3) On the Windows 7 machine, open up "Computer" from the start menu, then hit "system properties" on top of the window, then hit "Device Manager". Then go to the computer name tab, make sure the Windows 7 machine is on the exact same workgroup as the XP.

4) Restart both machines so that the workgroup names will be in place.

5) On the Windows 7 machine, open up the start menu, go to "Devices and Printers", then hit the "add a printer" option on the top of the window that opens.


From there you will get a wizard. Tell it you want to add a network printer, then give it a minute or two and your printer on the XP machine should show up and you can select it and let Windows 7 install.

Let us know if you get stuck, or if the Windows 7 machine won't see the printer over the network.


Sorry if this guide is a little redundant, I'm not sure of your skill level so I covered all bases just in case. Printer sharing is pretty badass, I have 4 Windows 7 machines at my family's house all printing to one Brother laser that is hooked up to my 24/7 XP fileserver. No stressing or drama about printing anymore, ever. All computers can print freely at any time.

[weirdlookinguy]

Also, avoid connecting your printer directly to the WiFi network if it has that option. I tried it with an HP printer and it was a neverending series of headaches. It just doesn't work right. Of all the things that can cause bullshit drama in a family, it was our sketchy POS printer.

I threw that piece of shit away and hooked up the Brother laser to my fileserver, and did a setup like the one I described in the post above. Not a problem since *knock on wood*

[weirdlookinguy]

Correction: on Windows 7, after going to sytem properties, hit "advanced system settings" NOT "device manager"

Sorry for the confusion.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by weirdlookinguy

Also, avoid connecting your printer directly to the WiFi network if it has that option. I tried it with an HP printer and it was a neverending series of headaches. It just doesn't work right. Of all the things that can cause bullshit drama in a family, it was our sketchy POS printer.

I threw that piece of shit away and hooked up the Brother laser to my fileserver, and did a setup like the one I described in the post above. Not a problem since *knock on wood*

Wired Lan printers have never given me trouble... never used wireless ones so i cab\n't comment there.

my guess is it has something to do with crappy "automated" printer driver software... for me, if I know the IP of the printer and the driver is installed, I can setup the printer.

[Uranium-235]

I've had maaany different customers with with wifi printers, and if theres problems I always do the same thing...update the firmware for the printer. never hurts, and can correct some wifi random hickups. I have off the top of my head like 5 people I know with wifi printers, all of whom work beautifully, all HP too

just a percausion and you're probably fine, but, if you can't seem to get them to connect, make sure there is no setting on the router like 'AP Isolation' enabled. These kinds of settings prevent connected wifi devices from communicating each other

[lti]

I found out that the printer can only scan a document when it is connected through USB. The computer the printer is connected to runs 24/7. I managed to create a workgroup on the computer running Windows XP before I started this thread, but I couldn't get the computer runing Windows 7 to join the workgroup.

Edit: I finally got the laptop to join the workgroup. I can see the printer, but Windows doesn't have a built-in driver for it. I didn't want to install the HP crap on that computer, but I have to if I want to print.

[shovenose]

Originally Posted by weirdlookinguy

Also, avoid connecting your printer directly to the WiFi network if it has that option. I tried it with an HP printer and it was a neverending series of headaches.

I bought my new HP photosmart D110a for two features (well, besides being super cheap):
1. ePrint, the capability to print over the internet.
2. WLAN printing, so I don't need to put it next to my PC

well guess what, NEITHER OF THOSE WORK! lol!

[brethin]

I have had no problems with my HP Officejet 6500 and connect to it all 3 ways (USB, WLAN and WiFi).

[Agent24]

Originally Posted by lti

Edit: I finally got the laptop to join the workgroup. I can see the printer, but Windows doesn't have a built-in driver for it. I didn't want to install the HP crap on that computer, but I have to if I want to print.

Try the latest driver download from HP. Often the web downloads are drivers only while the official CD is what bundle-installs a huge pile of junk.

[shovenose]

Originally Posted by Agent24

Try the latest driver download from HP. Often the web downloads are drivers only while the official CD is what bundle-installs a huge pile of junk.

usually both the Basic Driver and the one with all the stupid shit are available on hp.com

[lti]

I only installed the required software for the printer. I had to cancel the setup when it asked me if the printer was connected over the wireless network or through USB. At this point, I chose the printer from the list of printers installed on the desktop computer and set it as the default printer.

HP really made it hard to choose which components of their software you wanted to install. A typical user would install all of the bundled crap. Also, their help file says that file and printer sharing can be used to share the printer across the network, but they don't tell you how to configure the software to print to a shared printer.

[Agent24]

When I shared my old Canon over my network, I told Windows to install a new network printer and chose the Canon on the other machine.

Then it either copied the driver itself or asked me to provide the CD. I can't remember which but I never actually went through the standard driver installation procedure.

Although that was different for my Lexmark, which has it's own NIC, and the driver asks if you're installing it on USB or Ethernet anyway.

[japlytic]

With some multifunction units, only the printer section would work over the network.
There are USB print servers out there (some of which can also network the scanner and other non-printer parts of a multifunction unit), but as far as I know, many do not support host-based printers.

[Junk Parts]

I can offer you nothing. If I had to do what you need to do I'd be lost. All I can tell you is that I set up my printer by accident. My wife and I both got the exact same new HP PC's on the same day. I set hers up first as part of a home network in Windows 7 and the OS did what it needed to in order for her printer to work. It also installed her old wireles keyboard and mouse that were still in the room. Some weeks later I decided to see if I could share her printer on my new PC. Well did the "install printer" thing and my PC found her printer via wifi I guess. We both can use this printer at the same time now. All this is the "Black Arts" to me as I don't understand what happened but I know it works.