Electronics
Sharing your printer
Introduction
Our step-by-step tutorial explains how to share your printer over a network.
There's no need to unplug and move a printer to another computer to print - if you share it over the network. We take you through the steps involved in sharing and connecting, for both Windows XP and Vista.
Getting started
This tutorial assumes a network of two or more computers already set up in a home network, and they all belong to the same workgroup.
The default workgroup for Windows XP and Windows Vista is, appropriately, “WORKGROUP”. So if you haven’t manually changed the workgroup you won’t need to do anything (you can find the Workgroup setting in Start > Control Panel > System under the Computer Name tab).
It also doesn’t matter if you have a wireless or wired network, it will work just the same – if your computers can “see” each other, they can share a printer.
The following steps cover sharing a printer in both Windows XP and Windows Vista, as well as how to connect to a shared printer over the network for both operating systems.
Windows XP
These instructions take you step-by-step through the processes of sharing a printer and connecting to the printer using Windows XP.
Share a printer from Windows XP
Step1
To begin, click Start > Control Panel > Network Connections. Right-click on your network connection and select Properties. Make sure File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks is ticked, and select OK.
Step 2
Ensure your printer is plugged in, turned on, and that drivers for it are installed (which should be the case if you’ve already been using it from this computer). Click Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes to find your printer.
Step 3
Right-click on your printer and select Sharing. This will bring up a dialog box allowing you to share the printer over the network. Click Share this printer and enter a name that you want to call the printer on the network, then click OK.
Connect to a shared printer from Windows XP
Step 1
Click Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes and then click Add a printer to open the wizard. Select A network printer or printer attached to another computer and click Next.
Step 2
Select Browse for a printer and click Next. Find the name of the other computer on the network, and double-click it. The shared printer should appear underneath it.
Step 3
Select the printer and click Next. You will be asked if you want to make it the default printer. Click Next to continue and the printer will now be available to use in XP.
Windows Vista
These instructions take you step-by-step through the processes of sharing a printer and connecting to the printer using Windows Vista.
Share a printer from Windows Vista
Step 1
Click Start > Control Panel > Network & Internet > Network and Sharing Centre to find the settings. Click Turn on printer sharing so that computers connected to the network can use this printer, and disable Password Protected Sharing.
Step 2
Now to make the printer available on the network. To do this, click Start > Control Panel > Printer (under Hardware and Sound). From here you should see your connected printer.
Step 3
Right-click on it and select Sharing. At first, the sharing dialog may be greyed out; if so click on Change sharing options. Then, click Share this printer and give it a name that will be seen on the network. Click Apply and you’re done!
Connect to a shared printer from Windows Vista
Step 1
To begin, click Start > Control Panel > Printer (under Hardware and Sound). Then, at the top, click Add a printer.
Step 2
Next, click Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer and allow Vista to search your network for shared printers. When your printer appears, click on it and click Next.
Step 3
Vista will add the printer as a device for you to print from. Once this is done, it will display the printer’s name and you can set it as your default printer. Close all the windows and the printer can now be accessed from other applications.
Other devices
Printers aren’t the only device you can share over a network. In fact, with only some exceptions, you can share many other devices over as well, including:
- external hard drives
- internal hard drives
- CD/DVD drives
- USB keys
- MP3 players.
To do so simply find the device in My Computer, right-click on it, and select Properties > Sharing. You can optionally set up passwords to restrict access, but usually on a home network it’s easier to make the shares public.
Note that sharing your computer’s CD/DVD drive actually makes it possible to install software on one computer from the CD/DVD drive of another, all done over the network.
Did you know?
Mac and Linux computers can also access printers and other devices over a Windows network, as long as support for Windows networking is enabled.