Wireless Printing

Category: Macintosh , Networking , Printing , Wireless

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?



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Sharing a Printer On a Wireless Network

wireless printing

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.

control panel - printers control panel - view 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.

share a printer step1 share a printer step2

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.

control panel - printers control panel - add a printer

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.

add network printer browse for network printer

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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Related Keywords: Printing   wireless   network   printing   laptop   desktop  

Most recent comments on "Wireless Printing"

(See all 177 comments for this article.)

Posted by:

Brad
19 Dec 2009

I get to the point of "add printer wizard" "browse for printer" "Shared printers:" "Microsoft Windows Network" but my printer never shows up in the dropdown box. Do you know why?


Posted by:

pck
21 Dec 2009

I have a pc laptop that I connected wirelessly to a printer, the printer is connected to a MAC desktop via USB. I did everything you suggested and it printed just fine, but...when the MAC goes into a sleep mode (still powered), my laptop doesnt see the printer. Is there a way to wake up the MAC, or work around the sleep mode? Thanks

EDITOR'S NOTE: I would look for "wake on LAN" settings on the Mac, or disable the sleep mode.


Posted by:

Ken
28 Dec 2009

windows 7 no wirless printer wizard.


Posted by:

randy
29 Dec 2009

my laptop cant find the shared printer on the network.i followed the directions given on connecting a wireless laptop to a printer on a desctop


Posted by:

Bruce Miller
31 Dec 2009

thanks for the how to share a printer on the wireless network.
My network: belkin 802.11g with one desktop Vista, one desktop XP, one laptop XP. The printer is HP7110 officejet all-in-one connected to the Vista machine. I think it has a limited driver due to the Vista OS but it prints fine.

I shared the printer but cannot see it from my XP machines. I can only see the Vista machine. So I key in the printer name when trying to add to the XP machines. Still doesn't receive the print jobs sent from the XP machines. what else can I try? tnanks much. //Bruce


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


There's more reader feedback... See all 177 comments for this article.

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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