Wireles Router - Add Printer

  • Thread starter Impreza04
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Impreza04

Impreza04

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United Kingdom
Kent, UK
This is just a qiuck question

Currently, We have a linksys wireless router, which we run a PC and Laptop from.
We are planning to get a printer and want to connect it to the router so both computers can print from it.
The two computers are not connected in anyway, they just connect to the router and thats it.

Anyone have any links to tutorials, or can help me understand how I would go about adding this printer to the router.

Final note is that the printer will be connected witha wire, in case someone says how to do it wireless


Ty for any help
 
Depends on the printer. If it is network enabled, once you plug it in, you can use a control panel to configure the ip address, or print off details of its mac address and the ip set up automatically.

You then use those in the add printer wizard.
 
Hmm, Sounds simple, but then its a gonna have to be a really cheap printer...
So it may not have that kind of functionality
 
Impreza04
Hmm, Sounds simple, but then its a gonna have to be a really cheap printer...
So it may not have that kind of functionality
Click to expand...

If it doesn't support network connection, then it doesn't have a built in print server. You can locally install the printer on one of the computers and 'share' the printer. In sharing this resource, the printer will be accessible by both computers. The downside is that the computer that it is locally installed on acts like a print server which means it must remain ON for the other computer to print to it's shared resource.
 
You can also buy a print server to connect the printer to that will connect to your router and host the printer on the network so that any computer on the network can print to it. I think they even make wireless print servers now so that you don't have to run a wire from the printer to the print server to the router.

At home I have the printer attached to the computer and shared over the network - but I've been considering getting a print server so that (as Pako says) the host computer doesn't have to be on.
 
Print servers are really nice. I've been considering getting a 3 port Jetdirect box. I have a Laser, Color (Printer, scanner, fax), and a Photo Printer. With four computers in the house, I currently have all three printers hooked up to one computer. It would be nice to not have to have that computer on when I (or someone else) needs to print. I can really see an advantage where I have a Apple OSX box, two XP Pro boxes, and one XP Pro X64 box, a print server that can communicate to all three OS's would be nice.
 
The OS compatibility issue is an even better reason to get a print server - I hadn't thought of that. The trouble I've been running into has been finding a USB print server that has enough ports to be relatively expandable - yet isn't too expensive. So far (since I only have one printer at the moment), I haven't felt like it's worth the money. But I'm sure it'll happen eventually, just a matter of time.
 
Its been decided that its best to set the printer up on ym PC, and then share it with the laptop.
So that means I've got to figure out how to connect the two computers using the router... ooo this is gonna be fun..
 
Meh, it's easy. Use the router to assign IP addresses.

Then on the PC that hosts the printer, go into the networks control panel. Open the properties of the active network connection. Check that "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" is installed and active. If it is not, install it using the "Install" button, and follow the prompts.

Right-click the printer, choose "Sharing", then choose "Share this printer". Give it a sensible name and OK your way out.

Open a command prompt at type "ipconfig /all". Note down the IP address.

On the other computer, open a command prompt, and type "ping -a " followed by the above IP address. You should get responses from the desktop, including the desktop's host name. Now type "ping " and the hostname. You should again get responses.

Now click start, then Search. Choose "Computers or People" and enter the host name of the desktop. You should see the desktop. Double-click it, and you will see the shared printer. Right click the printer and choose "Connect".

Now use the "Up" button on the window showing the printer to get back to the point that you can see the Desktop PC. Drag the Desktop PC's icon onto the desktop of the Laptop. That's all there is to it.

The dragging of the icon stage has been very useful to me on my LAN, where there is no DNS server covering the LAN hosts. I find that Windows XP can be a little lazy when it comes to going out and looking for devices that are hosting network resources. But if you create a shortcut to the device, you can (faced with connection difficulties) double-click the shortcut to invoke a more thorough search which will then make your resources available.
 

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