Wireless Printing - Comments Page 1

My wife can usually print from her wireless connected laptop to my networked printer. But, it often takes a long time because she may have been off-network -powered down or whatever. Then when she wants to print it takes a while for the thing (or her) to figure out she has to log in to the computer that the printer is connected to before the printer becomes accessible. How can we either auto-login or get rid of the need to log in to the "master" computer? It is running windows 2000 and only has the one account on it. Her Laptop has XP. Thanks!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I think that's an annoyance specific to Windows 2000. I had the same problem and could find a way to auto-login from another computer.

When I click "apply" following "share this printer", there is an error message stating: "Printer settings could not be saved. OPeration could not be completed."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Try this: Go to Control Panel / Performance & Maintenance / Admin Tools. Doubleclick on Services. Scroll down in the list to the "Server" item. If it doesn't say "Started" and "Automatic" then double click the entry and change those settings. Reboot and try to share the printer again.

Everything ran smoothly until I browse for printer on my laptop. It searches but never finds anything. The desktop has Windows XP. The laptop has Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. The printer is an HP Deskjet 895Cse. Thanks for any advise!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Be sure to browse for a NETWORK printer, not a local printer...

Your procedures worked like a charm. Thanks much.

A couple of comments on your tour of wireless/network printing. First, my desktop is XP PRO and my laptop is XP HOME. I haven't been able to make the 2 computers network together, and I think I followed all the instructions. However, if I was able to complete the network, in order to use the "networked" printer connected to my desktop, I assume that the desktop must be turned on to accomplish this.

Since I rarely use the desktop anymore, I had to figure out a way to use the printer without directly connecting it to my laptop. I found that there is a device from DLINK called the DP301P which is a small device that connects to the parallel port on my dual port printer. I haven't had time to procure one of these devices, but it seems like a great way to avoid having the desktop computer turned on all the time.

One little suggestion: Make sure that the share name matches the "local" name of the printer. I have had problems mixing-n-matching various versions of XP/Home and XP/Pro and trying to share a printer, and finally determined that Windows was getting confused about the printer's "real" name the it's "share" name. Since making the two names identical, things have been working much better.

I'm sure that various flavors of firewalls plus various accounts (admin and limited) are also adding to the confusion, but eliminating the schizophrenia over the printer's name has made everything much better. -jp

I was successful at setting up one shared network printer for two desktop computers. I just tried unsuccessfully to share a network printer with a new HP laptop. The two desktops and laptop are all running XP. When I get to the point of the laptop browsing for a network printer it comes back with MSHOME and no associated printers under it. I currently have designated a shared printer setup on both desktops. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Are you using MSHOME as the network name on all computers? Can you share files or Internet connection on the laptop? Can you "see" the laptop from the desktop?

I have tried this several times in the past, and the best advice I can give you (if you've tried the rest and still having problems networking) is to make sure you're username/passwords match on both computers. For example, if you try and share a printer connected to your home desktop, and print from a laptop you brough home from work, then you need to make sure that the username/password you log in with on the laptop exists on the desktop. If it doesn't, you'll need to add it by using the computer manager. By default, Windows won't let you just "log in" and use a printer unless the host PC gives you access. This step is often overlooked.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It can't hurt to try, but I've done printer sharing on networks where every computer had a different username & password.

Is there any truth to the statement that I can only print one document at at time on my wireless printer (hp)? In other words, can I not send a second document for printing before the first one finishes printing? Thanks.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I can't see why that would be true. The second print job should just queue up.

Thank you all for great advice. Can I print wirelessly with only 1 laptop computer that is wireless?

I have an HP Photosmart7660 printer with a USB "B" connection that I can connect to my USB on my laptop. But I'd like to eliminate the wire and have been told I need to buy a print server at $80 to plug into my printer. Is there some other way to do without a second computer and without a print server?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't think so. Some printers can plug directly into a router with a network cable, and act as a shared printer for the network. That might be an option for some.