Printer sharing

Hi,

Im looking for help with sharing my printer! I have a dell aio 924 connected to a dell pc (xp home) and then a wireless 2wire 1701hg router making a network.

I then have a dell vostro laptop (xp pro) that i want to be able to print off of, however i dont know how to or if it is possible!

Any help appreciated!

 

It's quite possible, and the printer sharing wizard for XP should be fairly self-explanatory; have you tried to walk through it yet?

 

Right, just use the printer sharing wizard in windows. I have my printer tethered to my desktop and print wireless to it from my laptop.

 

Just right click on the printer icon and select share. Be aware that if you are connecting the printer to a computer, this computer must be on all the time to be able to access the printer. Is better if you can connect the printer directly to the router, but I'm not sure you can do so with your printer, you will have to ask DELL.

 

That printer doesn't have a network port; It uses USB as its connection type, so therefore you can print to it wirelessly but the pc that its connected to needs to be on all the time. (as wireless mentioned above) Not neccessarily logged on but just started. To connect to it wirelessly; On the computer that the printer is connected to, go to Start-->Control Panel--> choose 'Printers and other Hardware' then 'View installed Printers or Fax Printers.' Rright click on the printer and select properties, go to the Sharing tab, select share this printer and give it a name. Now on the laptop click Start--> Run and type ncpa.cpl then press enter; then click on the left, My Network Places. Then View Workgroup Computers...u may have to expand the tasks on the left to see these options. Double click the computer name and locate the printer. Right click on it and select connect. After that, click on Printers and Faxes on the left task pane. And u should now see the printer there; right click on it and set it as the Default Printer.

 

The configuration I have at home to avoid to connect the printer to a computer, is the following; a D-Link printer hub (Ethernet and wireless) connected to the router, and the printer connected to it using its USB interface (the hub has 4 USB ports), it works as a charm, and it's independent from the computers in the network.

 

If the OP isn't adverse to spending a little more money, there's also the option of going with the Netgear wireless print-server (which can also serve as a wireless to wired connection for several pcs as well). I've been using that print-server for about 6 months now without much of a problem.

 

With that metal pipe on your hands, whatever you say boss

 

Thanks everyone! unfortunately, dont think ill get a print server though, id last without the printer, but if the options there its really handy!

Great directions, one problem, the pc isnt showing in the workgroup, its only the laptop showing when i go to the workgroup via the laptop! Pc is on, connected to the net etc etc! Any suggestions?

 

Download the patch below,

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...1d-ee46-481e-ba11-37f485fa34ea&displaylang=en

 

I'm not sure that the LLTD Responder is needed in this case since, according to the original post, we're only dealing with XP here - one XP Home, one XP Pro.

 

Unfortunately, the built-in network discovery software for workgroups is pathetic, and it may take a couple of minutes (up to 30 I believe) for the system to get around to "seeing" if there's anyone else there.

If you still don't see the printer yet, post again and we'll try to get it properly set up. One way you can try is to manually add a network place. Let us know if you want to try that, and we'll walk you through it.

 

find out the name of the computer that's connected to the printer. press start-->run and type cmd and hit enter, then type hostname and press enter. Note the name of the computer..go to the laptop and open up Explorer; start--> run and type explorer hit enter and type \\computername in the address field at the top of the explorer window and press enter. (\\computername being the actual name of the computer) If that works it should show the printer that's connected to the computer. Right click it and set it as default for the laptop. And BTW, u did share it already right? per my instructions in post #5! And also, the laptop should be connected to the network as well (whether wirelessly or directly to the router; either way)

 

Downloaded that patch to the laptop, not sure if i should but i did it before the other comment was there and thought it would fix everything!

Printer is set to share alright!

But now theres abother problem with the workgroup, nothing will show up!

It giving me the following error message

"Workgroup is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the admisistrator of this server to find out if you have access permisions

The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available"

 

The patch would not have produced that, the patch was so Vista and XP computers could see each other in the workgroup, I miss to read that you had an all XP computer network.

If the workgroup is not accessible try to install it again using the network wizard.

 

Sorry, im not that good with all this networking, its new to n=me and confusing! How do i do that?

 

Try to re-start the laptop first and see if the service comes back.

 

was the laptop connected to the network when u tried this...meaning..could u at least get on the Internet?

Edit: Both computers should be connected to the same network to do this...that is, once they are in the same workgroup. They both should be connected at the time. One way to test is to go on the Internet on each.

 

No good unfortunately! Nothing back yet after restart. Yeh, was on internet with wireless on and connected etc

pc name is heffernan and laptop name is niallheffernan, does that make any difference?

 

On the laptop hold down the "Windows Logo key" and press E. In the address field type \\heffernan and hit enter. What happens?

 

it says windows can not find \\heffernan! Check spelling etc etc

 

While i thinkof it, if anyone has msn messenger and are willing to do remote assistance via that, im open to the idea, basically, you can see my screen and talk me through it or i can give you full control! Dunno if anyone is able to do that but im open

 

Nope, the computer names can be different, the network must be the same.

 

Okay..go on the desktop pc and check that file and printer sharing is enabled. Do a Start-->Run and type ncpa.cpl and hit enter. Right click on the Local Area Connection and choose properties. And put in a check in the file and printer sharing. Now, select Advance...then verify everything is set to how mines look then click settings. Print screens are attached as guides!

Edit: I'm open to remote assistance but I think this could be fixed right now w/ out the need.

BTW, you can do this on the laptop's Wireless Adapter also.

 

Did we verify that both computers are members of the same workgroup? Also, since one of the systems is XP-Pro, we'd better double-check to make sure that that system isn't set up as a member of a domain as opposed to a workgroup. If I recall correctly, domains and workgroups are not the same thing, so even if they have the same name, a computer on a workgroup named BLUE will not "see" a computer on a domain named BLUE even if they're wired together.

 

Did that as you said makaveli72, no joy!

However, when i look at the workgroup on the laptop, it works again, for some reason! but i only see the laptop, niallheffernan! In the address bar, its just "home"

When i go to the workgroup on the pc, "home" is shown in the address bar, but nothing is shown under it, ie, the pc or laptop isnt showing up!

Perhaps the problem shyster1 mentioned above?

 

Do me a favour please, do a Start-->Run and type sysdm.cpl and hit enter on both the laptop and desktop. Then click on the Computer Name tab and post screen shots of them here!

 

Just go to start, my network places and select setup a home network in both computers and make sure you put both computers under the same workgroup name.

 

Its you doing me the favour makaveli72!

Wirelessman, tryed that already and gave them both home, as screenshots show!

Screenshots are bigger than maximum allowed aparently, maximum is like 195.3kb

but,
pc;

compuet description; Heffernan family pc
full computer name; Heffernan.
Workgroup; HOME

Under, there is a button to change the name

Laptop;
Computer description; Niall heffernan laptop
Full computer name; NiallHeffernan
Workgroup; Home

Under that there is an option to change name but also to "use the network identification wizard to join a domain and create a local user account, click network ID"

 

Then if the screenshots display both under the same workgroup then the problem is not there.

What are you using to setup your network, windows or another application (e.g. Network magic)?

 

What do you mean wirelessman? Wondows afaik, i set it up in my network places, on the left, the set up new home or office network! Said i was using the redidential gateway option, thats correct i guess?

 

You have HOME and Home. Change either one to have exactly the same workroup name.

 

After u change them to the exact workgroup name (either all caps or lower case)....you will be prompted to restart the computer on which u changed the name. you do not need to change both computer names...just match one with the other exactly.

On the laptop hold down the "Windows Logo key" and press E. In the address field type \\heffernan and hit enter. See if it works then! If it does, browse to the printer, right click on it and select connect. Then go to printers and faxes on the left task pane of that same window and right click on the printer and set it as the default.

If it doesn't show the desktop machine when u enter it's name above in the address field. Then ping the desktop machine from the laptop. On the desktop machine do a Start-->Run and type cmd and hit enter; then type ipconfig and take note of the IP address of the desktop. Then on the laptop Start-->Run and type cmd then type ping ipaddressordesktop

If it says request timed out..... then that means either the laptop or desktop is not conencted to the network.

 

Names turned out to be the same, typo whe i inputted it, sorry bout that!

No good for typing in \\heffernan, windows couldnt find it!!

But when i pinged the ip of the desktop on the laptop, it worked, it was pinged with 32 bytes of data four times with an average speed of 2ms!
When i pinged the ip of the laptop from the desktop, it timed out

So i dont know what the problem is, didnt in the first place either i guess!

 

hmm...I wonder if this is just XP Home showing it's A!&@# off... (I hate XP Home) I really don't know what the issue is. I do know that this shouldn't be this difficult to set up.

Okay the desktop seems to be fine, seeing that u could ping it w/ out issues. You couldn't ping the laptop from the desktop so i'm now wondering what kind of antivirus/firewall program are u running on the laptop/desktop machines?

And did u do the same procedures that I mentioned in post #24 on the laptop? Check that....

 

If the desktop is not responding to the ICMP Ping packet from the laptop, it could be because two reasons; 1. The desktop decided to ignore the ping packet and not send anything back or 2. The desktop is not running.

Obviously the desktop is working so the 1. reason seems more viable. A firewall could well be producing this indeed.

 

If ye are not able to solve it its ok lads, it must be hard if ye cant like

Running avg free antivirus on both machines, windows firewall, turned on but allowing exceptions as per your post #24 makaveli72.

As i say, wirelessman, normal windows firewall is enabled, but the exceptions are being allowed also.....

 

The other reason why a ping message would not get to a device is because the router doesn't have a route to the device, basically no address. Is your router set with DHCP enable? And your desktop/laptop set to receive an IP address and DNS automatically?

 

Lads, problem solved! Im now printing wirelessly! Woo!

Me thinks it was an issue to do with the dchp, i just changed some of it, so i input the router address and subnet mask manually, then put the desktop ip down as first dchp address and laptop ip down as last, it worked!

A huge thank you lads! Ye are great, and geniouses too!

 

Great, I'm glad you are connected to the network again.

 

Okay, i'm not sure what the fix was but I have an idea..either way great job on solving it yourself! :thumbs up: