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Advice on linking a printer please


Bugsy
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I have a PC, which has a printer connected and a Laptop which is WiFi linked. Can someone explain (in simple language) how I send files to my printer from my Laptop to my printer.

Thanks.............................

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BB, I think you will need to have both your computors networked together. This way each can use whatever facilities each computor has.

If you have a Wireless link, Netgear or similar you would have to be certain that it is secured. Otherwise anyone nearby could access both computers.

Also, don't forget that the main Computor (Attached to the printer ) would have to be permanently on, as would the printer.

I have a wifi laptop and my son has the main teminal but the printer is in our lounge. I just plug the USB link in when I need the printer. My son e-mails me a download and I print it out for him. Perhaps you can do the same.

David

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[quote user="Bugbear"]

I have a PC, which has a printer connected and a Laptop which is WiFi linked. Can someone explain (in simple language) how I send files to my printer from my Laptop to my printer.

Thanks.............................

[/quote]

Assuming you're running WinXP on both computers and have set up your basic network connections, first make sure that the PC is setup to share the printer: Start/Control Panel/Printers and Other Hardware/Printers and Faxes; right-click the printer and choose Properties/Sharing, select "Share this printer" and choose a share name (preferably the printer name, such as "Canon ip2200" without quotes).

Then make sure that the whatever firewall you're using on the PC will allow access from your laptop.  You may need to enter the laptop's MAC (physical) address (probably not) or its IP address.  It's easiest to just allow access to the entire range of IP addresses your router uses, but you can determine the laptop's IP address (and MAC address, for that matter) by going to Start/Run/cmd/OK and typing "ipconfig/all" (without quotes).

Then, still on the laptop, go to Start/Control Panel/Printers and Other Hardware/Add a Printer and let the Wizard walk you through it.

When you've selected  "A network printer or a printer connected to another computer", the wizard should find the printer connected to the PC.

After you're connected, you should be able to send a print command just as you normally would on the PC (sometimes there are minor differences re page previews, etc.).  Of course, the PC and printer must both be turned on (that's the downside of having the printer connected to the PC and not directly to the router).

If you have problems, or aren't running XP, post again.

PS: all this assumes your printer itself isn't wireless-enabled.  If it is, it's probably a lot easier, but, having never had one that was, I can't help you.

 

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One more afterthought.  When I first set up my home network, I had enabled the router to dynamically assign IP addresses to my PC and laptop (it's one of those choices in the router setup, I can't remember exactly what it's called).  And it named the PC XXX.XXX.X.1 and the laptop XXX.XXX.X.2 or something like that.

And then one day (maybe I had logged onto the laptop first), it named the laptop XXX.XXX.X.1 and I couldn't access the printer from the laptop.  And I fiddled with the PC's firewall settings, but it still wouldn't fly.

So I went back to the router settings and set it to permanently assign the same address to the PC and the laptop.  End of problems.

 

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Okay, I lied.  But this really is my last thought:

It's a good idea to enable the highest level of encryption enabled on your router and computers, also to limit sharing to the minimum (I only allow printer sharing on mine).

It's also a good idea to specifiy the MAC address of any computer you want to allow access to your network and to turn off the router's signal broadcast.

Emailing files for printing would really be a last resort if your computers' operating systems were just totally incompatible.

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