Printer Question

[Gershom]

How can I print from my laptop to another printer in my house? My laptop is wireless.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Email the document to the desktop which the printer is attached to?

 

[Gershom]

I was hoping to find a way to click the print button on the laptop to have it print on the printer that is attached to my desk computer.

I've heard the idea of "networking" but I'm not exactly sure of what that means or how to accomplish it.

 

[NateT]

If your desktop is also wireless, you can share the printer. Assuming you have Windows, go into the Printer and Faxes group (either on the start menu or on the control panel) on your desktop, right click your printer and select "Sharing" and select that you want to select the printer.

Then on your laptop you go into the same group (Printer and Faxes) and say that you want to set up a new printer. When stepping through this wizard, select that you want to install a network printer. Then select "Browse for printer" and find the printer connected to your desktop and finish the wizzard.

Then when you want to print, you can either select that printer fromt he dropdown list, or set it as default (in which case you wouldn't have to select it every time.)

Hope that helps

 

[Gershom]

Thank you, Nate! I followed your directions, but I did not complete it because I was wondering about security issues that my computer prompted:

As a security measure, Windows has disabled remote access to this computer. However,you can enable remote access and safely share printers by running the Network Setup Wizard.

If I enable remote access, will be computer's security be at risk?

 

[Pastor Larry]

Do you have a wireless router with print server? That is what you start with.

 

[Gershom]

I'm not sure what you mean. I do have the wireless router.

I'm not computer savvy.

 

[Pastor Larry]

What kind of wireless router do you have and does it have a print server on it? You have to have both. I have a D-Link DI 714P+. NetGear makes one as does Belkin and several others. They are anywhere from $50 on up. Once you get that, then you plug your printer cable into the print server and go through the wireless set up. Then you set your printer to print to DLink port and it will print. It is not terribly hard to figure out. DLink has good customer support and the install is pretty self-explanatory.

 

[Gershom]

Thanks, Pastor Larry. Makes a little more sense now. I have a Linksys wireless router. I'll dig through the book that came with it.

 

[NateT]

I've got a netgear w/o a printserver. If you find out it does not have a print server on there, what you can do is share the printer and ignore MS's security warning.

Then go onto your wireless router (probably through a web address like 192.168.0.1) and setup your wireless access. You can specify MAC address filtering. A MAC address is a unique number for a PC. It will probably tell you what is already on there. So for my network, my router will only allow wireless access to my laptop and desktop (because those are the only two MAC addresses I have enabled.)

 

[SpiritualMadMan]

If both Computers are on the same Network (wireless or not)

You should be able to go into Printers and Right-Click and select 'Sharing'... On the Computer that has the hardwire connection to the Printer...

Once the Network catches up to the change...

You 'should' be able to go into 'Add Printer' and Browse the Network and find the Printer you just shared...

You may have to install the drivers using the Drivers Disk on the Laptop...

And, some printer drivers do not 'share' well...

And, some recent WinXP updates have knocked off the 'sharing' I had with my wife's Win98 machine... Bubble Jet in Color

But, she can still print to my Laser Printer B&W

I'll check more when I get home if this doesnn't help...

 

[superdave]

If you do share anything, or even if you don't. Make sure you turn on the wireless encryption on the router, and lock it down, so only your mac addresses can connect, as well as turning off the SSID broadcast. These settings will help secure your whole wireless network.

 

[Gershom]

Thank you, everyone. I appreciate all the help.