Can I Use My Printer On More Than One Computer?
Posted: Friday, November 19, 2010
by Dennis Levenhagen
pcinfospace
Although I will give the instructions for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are fairly similar.
It is very important that the computers that are going to share the printer have the same operating system. You MUST make sure that a print driver is available for the operating system you plan to use or it will not work.
Be sure the printer is set up and operating correctly on the computer that the printer is physically connected to. Once you are sure take the following steps:
- Left click the start button in the lower left corner of your screen.
- Now left click "Control Panel".
- This will bring up a screen that will either be category view or Classic view. It doesn't matter which one your in but I will use category view for this article.
- Click on "Printers and other hardware".
- Click "printers and Fax".
- Right click the default printer. This is the one with the check mark.
- Left click "properties".
- Left click the "sharing" tab.
- Now left click "share this printer". You need to type a name for the printer. Make it short so that you will know it when you see it. EXAMPLE: Deskjet1000 (Do not use spaces)
The steps above only prepares for the following steps.
Now determine if you have a router that has ports in back of it. Connect a network cable from the computer that you just set up to the router. If your router does not have ports, you will need to purchase a switch.
Go to the second computer.
- Left click the start button in the lower left corner of your screen.
- Now left click "Control Panel".
- This will bring up a screen that will either be category view or Classic view. It doesn't matter which one your in but I will use category view for this article.
- click on "Printers and other hardware".
- Click "printers and Fax".
- Click "add a printer" located in the far left column of the page.
- Follow the wizard.
- Click "a network printer, or printer attached to another computer".
- Browse for a printer should be selected.
- Click next and let it find the printer you named above.
- If the search finds the printer double click it and follow the prompts.
If the above steps do not work I recommend finding a technician to help you. Many things could be wrong.
Be sure to test the printer if it tells you it installed it.
You can also buy a printer switch. However, since the development of USB technology this can be cumbersome.
Another option is to purchase a computer that will act as a print server. Unfortunately this is expensive and the average person will not need this. Many companies will use this method since you can send large amount of print documents to the printer and it will print them. I do not recommend this method unless you know how to set it up and that you can afford it. It can be expensive just to purchase the computer you will need.
You can now buy wireless printers. These are great but require the necessary skills to get them installed and keep them working. I am not going to discuss these in this article since the setup needed is fairly complex an some times doesn't work.
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