Wireless Printing
I have a laptop with no printer attached. But I do have a wireless network in my home, and one of the desktop computers on the network has a printer. How can I print from the laptop, over the wireless network, to the printer that's hooked up to my desktop?
Sharing a Printer On a Wireless Network
Although it may seem like printing over a wireless network requires come special magic, it's really no different than printing with a regular wired network. It doesn't matter if you connect your laptop to the network router in your home with a network cable, or if you use an invisible wireless beam to connect. (If you need help setting up a home network, see my illustrated Home Networking tutorial.)
If one of the computers on the network has a printer attached, all of the computers on the network should be able to access it -- as long as your printer is designated as a "shared" printer for the network.
To make sure your printer is network shared, open the Control Panel (on the computer that has the printer), click Printers and Other Hardware, then View installed printers.
Select your printer from the list of installed printers, then smack the Share this printer button. Now click the radio button next to Share this printer, enter a Share name, then press OK. (The example below shows the Lexmark 3100 printer on my desktop computer... yours will most likely be different.) Mac users, make sure the printer is shared in the Mac OS Sharing control panel.
Now your desktop computer's printer is shared, so any computer on the network can send print jobs to it. Oh, and it really doesn't matter if you're printing from a laptop to a desktop, a desktop to a laptop, a desktop to another desktop, or a laptop to a laptop. As long as both computers are on the network, and the printer is designated as shared, it should work.
Setting Up Network Printing
Now on your wireless (or direct wired) laptop, you will need to visit the Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, then Add a printer. This will define the connection between your laptop and the printer on the network.
When the Printer Wizard opens, tell it you're looking for a network printer, then browse for the desired printer on your network. You should select the printer that you just designated as the shared printer on your desktop. In the example below, there are two printers connected to a computer named GW3. You may have more than one computer on your network, with or without printers attached.
Press Next and the necessary printer software will be copied from the desktop to your laptop. In some cases, you may need to insert the CDROM with the printer driver, but usually not. The Printers and Faxes window should show your newly configured printer.
If you're connecting to a printer on a Mac computer, you'll need to download Bonjour for Windows so your Windows computer can access the Mac-connected printer.
If you have more than one printer defined, take note of which is the default printer. When you print from the laptop, the print job will go to whatever printer you have defined as your default printer. To change the default printer, right-click on the desired printer and select the Set as default option, or just select the printer you want to use from the application that you're working in.
Got comments or questions about networking printing from a wireless laptop? Post them below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on December 5, 2006 07:55 PM
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Article information: AskBobRankin -- Wireless Printing (Posted: December 5, 2006 07:55 PM)
Source: http://askbobrankin.com/wireless_printing.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Wireless Printing"
(See all 182 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Paul
03 Jan 2010
I have a new HP laptop with Win 7. I am trying to connect wireless to a printer that is connected via USB to a MAC desk top on my network. The new HP doesnt seem to recognise the printer. My old HP laptop with XP recognised the printer. Is this a Win 7 problem? Thanks
Posted by:
steve
03 Jan 2010
Thanks for the online help, everything work great the first time i tried it.
Posted by:
Mae
04 Jan 2010
I Followed all the steps, and when it came to connecting to the printer it said 'window cannot connect to the printer access denied' i have made the printer on my home pc shared, and my laptop picks it up, it just doesn't connect to it when i try and add the printer on my laptop.
Posted by:
Sarah
29 Jan 2010
Does it matter if the printer is not wireless???
EDITOR'S NOTE: No, but if not, the printer has to physically connected (wired) to either the router, or one of the computers on your network. See also http://askbobrankin.com/wireless_print_server.html
Posted by:
Courtney
31 Jan 2010
OK,I successfully connected my laptop to the printer wirelessly and did a test print; it worked fine, but when the main PC is turned off it won't let me print anymore. Is there a way around this?
EDITOR'S NOTE: If the printer is connected to another computer on your network, then that PC must be turned on. Altrnatives would be to connect the printer directly to the network router, either wirelessly or with a cable. See http://askbobrankin.com/wireless_print_server.html
Posted by:
menol
15 Feb 2010
To do all this you have to have a usb in your printer.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Do you mean a spare USB port on the printer to add a wireless adapter? If so, not at all. In the case where the laptop is wireless, you can send to a printer that is attached to another computer with a wire, or you can attach some printers directly to the router. For more info, see http://askbobrankin.com/wireless_printing.html and http://askbobrankin.com/wireless_print_server.html
Posted by:
Teressa Short
16 Feb 2010
I have a desktop that has a printer connected to it that I have shared. I can successfully print from one of my laptops but my netbook cant even see the shared printer. Both are running windows XP.
Posted by:
Billy Deans
20 Feb 2010
Bob-
I was able to fix my wireless system (printer and laptop) thanks to you. Not being that computer savvy I found that your no nonsense and easy to follow directions did the trick! Thank you.
Posted by:
Tracy
23 Feb 2010
okay, set up both my desk top which is hooked to the printer direct and a wireless lap top. Both appear to indicate printer sharing and the name of the printer shows correctly, but the lap top won't print. any suggestions as to what is wrong? Thanks, appreciate it
Posted by:
Stephanie
16 Mar 2010
Aaaarrrggghhhh. I have windows vista on both my pc and my laptop. My lexmark printer is connected via usb to my pc. I can print from my pc. I can access the internet wirelessly with my laptop. The free version of network magic won't let me manage printers. Both the pc and the laptop show up on the network. The printer shows up as connected to the pc. When I try to add a printer (as above) to my laptop, no printers are found. When I try to install the printer on the laptop, saying it is connected to another computer - it can't find the other computer, nor any ip addresses when I try that option as well. Printer sharing is set-up on both the pc and laptop. I'm at a loss - and frustrated. I need to be able to print from the laptop and I'm tired of carrying files back and forth on my memory stick! Thanks!!!!!!!!