Sharing a printer over your home network

Being able to print over a network is especially useful when:

• The kids have laptops but the printer is connected to the desktop. You’re tired of having to plug the printer back in again after they’ve used it.
• Your printer cable is plugged into the back of your computer which is hidden away in a cupboard. It is incredibly difficult to get to when you want to print from another computer.
• To share a printer over your network, you need to have:
• A stable home network (wired or wireless)
• A desktop computer (which must be turned on whenever you want to print)
• Any number of networked computers which you wish to print from

Part 1: Sharing your printer

To network your printer you must first share it from the computer it is connected to. This allows other computers on your network to connect to it.

1. Click on Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes.
2. Right click on the icon for your printer and then left click on Sharing.
   
   
3. If you have not shared a printer before you may receive a warning message on the sharing tab. Click “If you understand the security risks but want to share printers without running the Wizard, click here”. If prompted, click “Just enable printer sharing”.
   
   
4. On the Sharing tab, you will see an option to “Share this printer”. Check this button and specify a name for your printer in the Share name field.
5. Click OK and your printer is now shared!

Part 2: Connecting to your shared printer

To access your shared printer from another computer on your network simply follow the steps below. You only need to do this once on each computer you want to print from.

1. Click on Start > Control Panel > Printers and Faxes
2. Click on Add a Printer in the top left hand side menu
   
   
3. Select “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer” then click Next.
4. Click the Browse for a printer check box and click Next.
5. Browse your workgroup for your printer and highlight the one you would like to use by left clicking it. Press the Next button.
   
   
6. If you are prompted to install a printer driver, click Yes and then Finish.
7. You’re done. When you are trying to print a document, simply select the shared printer from the list of printers in your Print menu and away you go.