Printer Sharing and a Wireless Laptop

[John Thomas Smith]

Recently changed from dialup to dsl modem for 2 desktop PC's
running WinXP... dsl modem supplied by telco has 1 out, so
bought a linksys 4 port router to connect to the 1 out of
dsl modem, then PC's connected to 2 ports... all works well

Now, have ordered a laptop for wife... have telco instructions
on how to activate the 802.11b/g wireless in their modem, and
the HP laptop website says there is a "wireless wizard" on the
HP laptop to make it work with the wireless dsl modem I have

One thing I am NOT clear about is printer sharing and how I do
the setup so she may click "print" on the laptop and have it
work with the printer connected to her desktop

I know I have to go on her desktop and enable printer sharing,
and I then "should" be able to create a "printer connection"
on the laptop, and tell it to use a shared printer instead of
installing a printer driver on the laptop... is that correct?

BUT... when I connected her computer to the router for a dsl
connection, I do not remember ever indicating anywhere that a
NETWORK connection was being made, unless that is the default
for what I did and I just did not know that

Is there anything I've missed?

John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

 

[Evolution54]

Recently changed from dialup to dsl modem for 2 desktop PC's
running WinXP... dsl modem supplied by telco has 1 out, so
bought a linksys 4 port router to connect to the 1 out of
dsl modem, then PC's connected to 2 ports... all works well

Now, have ordered a laptop for wife... have telco instructions
on how to activate the 802.11b/g wireless in their modem, and
the HP laptop website says there is a "wireless wizard" on the
HP laptop to make it work with the wireless dsl modem I have

One thing I am NOT clear about is printer sharing and how I do
the setup so she may click "print" on the laptop and have it
work with the printer connected to her desktop

I know I have to go on her desktop and enable printer sharing,
and I then "should" be able to create a "printer connection"
on the laptop, aed printer instend tell it to use a sharad of
installing a printer driver on the laptop... is that correct?

BUT... when I connected her computer to the router for a dsl
connection, I do not remember ever indicating anywhere that a
NETWORK connection was being made, unless that is the default
for what I did and I just did not know that

Is there anything I've missed?

John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

Let me see if I have all the facts here:

-You have two computers hooked up to a Linksys router connected with a
DSL connection.
-You got a laptop with a wireless NIC
-You want your wireless laptop to be able to print to the printer,
which is connected to one of the desktop PCs

Its pretty much simple stuff. Have your laptop join in on the same
Workgroup as the other two PCs, which also should be under the same
workgroup name. With that done, your three computers should be on the
same network and can share files and printers with each other. You
should also make a user account on the PC which has the printer
installed to match with the user account your wife uses on her laptop.
For example, if you wife has an account name of laptopuser and her
password was laptop, create an account in the PC with that exact same
information. Also, in order for her laptop to be able to print to the
printer, the PC with the printer installed must also be logged on
because this is a workgroup and you probably don't have a printer
server installed.

However, I am not sure of your comments in your last paragraph about
plugging in her laptop to the router. Also, is it your DSL modem having
the wireless capabilities or your Linksys router because I have not
heard of a cable/dsl modem with wireless capabilities. But maybe thats
just my lack of knowledge. Usually, your DSL modem connects to the
Linksys router, which also acts as a Wireless Router, if you brought
the correct type of course. Good luck.

 

[John Thomas Smith]

One thing I am NOT clear about is printer sharing and how I do
the setup so she may click "print" on the laptop and have it
work with the printer connected to her desktop

Found a reference site with articles and pictures
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article64-page1.php

Tip #2 talks about turning off Window's built-in firewall,
since it does not customize well, just blocks everything

Wife's computer came bundled with Norton Internet Security,
which does have an option to allow file/printer sharing

My computer uses the free Sygate Personal Firewall, which
also allows customizing to allow file/printer sharing
(Sygate was bought by Symantec, no more free software!)
(But, for now, the product is still on a download site)
http://www.simtel.com/product.download.mirrors.php?id=53687

Following the steps in the article, and configuring both
firewall products to allow file/printer sharing, now lets
me print to Canon 4200 printer on wife's computer, which
was a "test" so I will know how to configure her laptop
(when it arrives) to do wireless printing

John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

 

[John Thomas Smith]

Its pretty much simple stuff.

I found a good instruction site, and have posted the link
in another response on this thread

The only minor glitch was getting the firewalls configured

However, I am not sure of your comments in your last paragraph about
plugging in her laptop to the router. Also, is it your DSL modem having
the wireless capabilities or your Linksys router because I have not
heard of a cable/dsl modem with wireless capabilities. But maybe thats
just my lack of knowledge. Usually, your DSL modem connects to the
Linksys router, which also acts as a Wireless Router, if you brought
the correct type of course. Good luck.

I guess I wasn't clear... the laptop will be wireless only

The dsl modem provided by my telco (Qwest) has a wireless antenna
and ONE wired connection, so I found a linksys router with one in
and 4 wired outputs for the 2 desktop computers

Laptop is due to arrive today, so should have everything set up
and wife's software installed by the end of the weekend

John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

 

[Evolution54]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005, (e-mail address removed) wrote:
One thing I am NOT clear about is printer sharing and how I do
the setup so she may click "print" on the laptop and have it
work with the printer connected to her desktop

Found a reference site with articles and pictures
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article64-page1.php

Tip #2 talks about turning off Window's built-in firewall,
since it does not customize well, just blocks everything

Wife's computer came bundled with Norton Internet Security,
which does have an option to allow file/printer sharing

My computer uses the free Sygate Personal Firewall, which
also allows customizing to allow file/printer sharing
(Sygate was bought by Symantec, no more free software!)
(But, for now, the product is still on a download site)
http://www.simtel.com/product.download.mirrors.php?id=53687

Following the steps in the article, and configuring both
firewall products to allow file/printer sharing, now lets
me print to Canon 4200 printer on wife's computer, which
was a "test" so I will know how to configure her laptop
(when it arrives) to do wireless printing

John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

Hello again

That was idiotic of me. Posting an article would have explained it
better. But glad you took the time to do some research on it. Anyways,
I think you are pretty much set to go with the printer sharing.
Basically, the only thing you might take notice on is just making sure
every computer is joined in on the same Workgroup and that the computer
with the printer installled on must be logged on to be able to have
other computers print to it.

I basically use the Windows built in Firewall at work because we can't
use other programs that are not licensed. We have 20 computers hooked
up in a workgroup (big pain!) and is using the Norton Antivirus and
Windows Firewall. Basically, you could set up File and Print Sharing on
there as well. Just have to go to the Exceptions tab. The only thing I
don't like about it is that I believe it only blocks incoming traffic,
and not outgoing so that is a issue right there. Anyways, another free
firewall to try would be Zone Alarm. Quite popular I must say.

Good luck with your project!