Printer networking guide for small networks

Printer networking guide

I have had a few requests lately for a brief guide on networking a printer. I am going to assume your computers are networked. If there not networked, then this article is not for you.

Lets first run through a brief checklist before you network your printer.

Your network cables, and printer cables are plugged in, and you have power to both computers and the printer.

Your network is setup, and you can from your main computer, the other computer on your network.

You have successfully installed the printer on the main computer.

You have the drivers for your printer, either on disk, or on your computer.

If you have everything above, we are ready for the brief networking guide. If you don’t, then you need to look around for more information.

Go sit down to the main computer with the printer connected to it. Go to my computer and then click printers. If printers are not located there, it should be in your control panel. To go here click, start/settings/control panel. Once you are in the printers, right click on your printer.

Now, go to sharing and click shared as. Give the printer a name and hit OK.

Go to the computer you want to share the printer on. Not the main computer, and go to My Computer/Printers/Add Printer/Next.

Now for 2 single computers that only use the one account. Do this, click add network printer, click on the computer name and then the name of the printer when it asks you. If your sharing using NT, make sure you have an account, if you don’t, you can add one in the user manager within control panel. If using windows 98, add a log on account, it will show up start up or when you log off.

Now for several computers using multiple accounts, for example hotels or schools. Log in as administrator from the computer you want to use the printer from. Install the printer normally as a local printer, pressing next, selecting the correct port, LPT, USB etc.

When its installed, right click on the printer, within printers as mentioned above. Right click the new printer/properties, go to details, select add new port, and then type the name of the share. For example \\computername\sharename.

Test it out, if its still not working, then get ready for support lines, and have a microphone connected to a loud speaker with an amp. This will serve you well when you need to shout.

Look around on various forums on the Internet also; lots of problems can be fixed doing some reading on technical forums.

Printer networking guide by computer-and-printer-reviews.com

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