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.

I have setup a network printer and can print from my laptop, but it does not work when the network computer has gone into standby. Is there a way to take the network computer out of standby with my wireless laptop?

EDITOR'S NOTE: A feature called "Wake on LAN" may need to

be enabled in the motherboard's BIOS. Or you might twiddle with the Power Mangement settings in the Control Panel.

My network computer is on Windows XP home, but my laptop is on Mac OS X. I can't figure out how to find the "shared" printer on my laptop...it's not under "Add Printer" in Word.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Is the laptop part of (connected to) the network? Did you specify the printer as "shared" on the Windows machine?

My home network computer has the printer attached, when I'm at home I also have my work laptop and I'd like to print from my laptop to the printer that's attached to my home PC via the network, but my Laptop can't be in the same workgroup as my home PC because my laptop is in a work domain and my home PC isn't. Is there any way around this, other than disconnecting my laptop from my work domain?

Hello - I followed all the steps in your article; read all comments and tried some of those suggestions; still can't print wirelessly from laptop to network printer.

Wireless desktop pc can print to the printer; desktop host pc is USB2 direct connected to printer; network allows laptop to login; laptop finds network. Host runs McAfee/Zone Alarm; corp. laptop runs McAfee Enterprise. Suggestions welcome!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Did you try removing the ZoneAlarm software? I'll bet that's the roadblock. Software firewalls add very little value.

Followup to previously posted comment--when I Browse For Printer, my network printer does not show under the network name under Microsoft Windows Network in the Shared Printers List. The network name matches my host network name, and an account with my corp laptop ID is defined on the host. Printer drivers were locally installed on the laptop from CD, but I have tried to define the printer as a network printer. Laptop is XP Pro, Host is XP Home. Both are current on Service Packs. Looking for a simple answer!

Thanks for the great article. I have two laptops (one with XP Pro and one with XP Home) and one desktop (with XP Pro). My printer is connected to the desktop. I was able to follow this procedure on the laptop with XP Pro and set up the printer with no problem.

On the laptop with XP Home, the printer did not show up in My Network Places when I browsed for it. To successfully add the printer I had to enter the complete path name of the printer (ie \\Name of Desktop\Full Name of Printer) to get this to work. By Full Name of Printer I mean the name of the printer that shows up on the desktop computer when you look at the Printers Folder - not the Share Name that shows up when you Share the printer.

I set up printer sharing on a XP Notebook, the printer is recognized by a Powerbook over a wireless network but when printing the document is 25% size. Could you walk me through the correct steps since output depends on what canon model I select in the Info window of the shared printer in Macs Printer Setup.

I added a network printer to my wireless laptop. The printer is shared and is attached to a desktop that has a wireless router. Everything installed correctly. I can see the printer icon on my laptop but when I print a test page from the laptop, I keep getting the windows error message "windows has encountered a problem and needs to close...etc.".

I have read all the questions and still have a very basic question: I have a wireless laptop and just bought a wireless ready printer. The printer and laptop don't talk. Do I need to set up a network with a router? The laptop recognizes the printer is there, but the printer won't recognize a print command from the laptop.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like you do need a router.

i have been for a while now trying to link my apple laptop to my windows xp pc to print wirelessly from my laptop. i have been told that the printer needs to be connected to the router,not the pc, but there is not a usb port on the router. i came across your site and it says nothing about this. is there any help you can offer to remedy this issue?

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you want to print wirelessly, you should connect to the router wirelessly, not with Ethernet or USB cables. Does your router have wireless capability? It should have an antenna if so. If not, you'll need a cabled connection.