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?
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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)
Printed from: http://askbobrankin.com/wireless_printing.html
Copyright © 2005 - Bob Rankin - All Rights Reserved
Most recent comments on "Wireless Printing"
(See all 162 comments for this article.)Posted by:
pete
09 Sep 2009
Thanks for the article; I have a pc that I'd like to wirelessly print to my HP 7300 that is connected to our mac; I donwloaded Bonjour and all looked like it was set...except I received an error suggesting I don't have "sufficient access to my computer to connect to the selected printer"...I made sure printer on mac said "shared"...what am I missing?
Posted by:
Claude Christian
11 Sep 2009
Thanks for the article, I followed your instruction step for step and it was like taking candy from a baby
Posted by:
Kim
16 Sep 2009
Hi Bob. I have a situation similar to Laura above. "I am accessing the internet through wireless. Do I need a wireless printer, or can I use my existing printer that is not hooked up to any desktop computer?" I didn't see a posted response, but am hoping to be able to do the same thing.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I think you're needlessly associating the issues of internet access and printing. If you have a WIRELESS connection to the Internet, you can have EITHER a wired or wireless printer attached to your computer. Similarly, if you have a WIRED connection to the Internet, you can have EITHER a wired or wireless printer attached to your computer. Of course this assumes you have a router with wireless capability. Just think of the wireless connection as an invisible cable and things should become clearer.
Another related thought... if you're asking about connecting your printer directly to the network router (instead of to a computer) then see my article on Wireless Print Servers. http://askbobrankin.com/wireless_print_server.html
Posted by:
Jerry
22 Sep 2009
I am setting up to print over wireless network from my laptop to home PC (where the printer is connected)I get to the point to search for the printer from my laptop and it will show Microsoft Windows Network but no printers are listed. I did enable my office PC to share the printer connected to it. What am I doing wrong?
EDITOR'S NOTE: Did you make sure both computers are using the same network name? You might also try temporarily disabling firewalls.
Posted by:
Gridders
15 Oct 2009
My printer is connected via usb cable to my main Desktop Pc. I seem to only be able to print to the printer from a laptop wirelessly, when the main PC has someone logged onto it. It used to work, irrespective of being loged on or not, provided it WAS switched on. I note now that when I log on to the main PC, the internet connection icon says 'acquiring network address', which I'm sure it didn't used to do? I suspect a windows security update or something?
Any help, gratefully recieved.
Posted by:
Andy
16 Oct 2009
Hello Bob, Like Jerry's issue - 22 Sep 2009, I'm having the same issue. I have confirmed that the network names are the same. One problem I do have is that I'm using a company laptop, and i don't believe I have acces to temporarily disable firewalls. Could you provide instructions on how to do this and/or is there another thing that can be tried to get this fixed? Thanks Andy
Posted by:
bob g
17 Oct 2009
I was trying to get my wife's wireless laptop to print off my office printer..I tried for about two hours with no luck. Searched google and found your site..great site by the way!
Well your instructions on how to use my desktop's printer via the wireless router from her laptop worked as far as seeing the printer on my desktop but would not print a testpage, even though it showed up on her taskbar print que..Hmm I thought..its gotta be the port.
So I spent around 3 hours looking in the routers setup for IP info and finally when I was about to quit, I tried changing the port from TCP/IP to USB001 and BAM - the darn thing shot out 4 test pages..I then printed an image from her laptop and walla..thanks to you I got it working
Bottom line: If the printer is connected to the desktop via usb cable select the USB001 port. If its connected to the back of the router select the tcp/ip port and so on. Hope this helps someone.
Posted by:
Angiee
20 Oct 2009
I have tried for many days to add my printer , which is connected to desktop computer, in the ways you provided above in order to have it print wireless documents from my laptop. I do not know but i may have added and changed things around too much that your simple instructions just do not work. It only works if i physically have to go to my desktop computer detach the USB connected printer and connect it to laptop. ITS getting really annoying. PLEASE help.
Posted by:
Dale
30 Oct 2009
I get this error message when I try to add a printer to my notebook so that I can print wireless to my desktop's printer:
Windows cannot connect to the printer. The printer driver is not compatible with a policy enabled on your computer that blocks NT 4.0 drivers.
I think it is because I have XP Pro on my desktop and Vista Home Premium on my notebook. What do you think?
EDITOR'S NOTE: See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931719
Posted by:
Gail
11 Nov 2009
I follow the instructions but when I choose the printer on my laptop and hit "next" I get the following error msg:
windows cannot connect to the printer. access is denied.
HELP