networking a printer

[Guest]

I am very new at all this, so please be patient. I bought a router to network
my 2 computers. I have cable internet. The internet is working fine on both,
however when I try to network my printer, I can't find that either computer
recognizes the other as being networked. I do not have a floppy unit on my
new computer. (At one point when trying to network the printer it asks to
make a floppy.) I have tried putting in the XP disk. It goes thru all the
motions, but I still can't figure it out. I have looked thru alot of the
other questions here, and still can't get it. Thank you for your help.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I am very new at all this, so please be patient. I bought a router to
network
my 2 computers. I have cable internet. The internet is working fine on
both,
however when I try to network my printer, I can't find that either
computer
recognizes the other as being networked. I do not have a floppy unit on my
new computer. (At one point when trying to network the printer it asks to
make a floppy.) I have tried putting in the XP disk. It goes thru all the
motions, but I still can't figure it out. I have looked thru alot of the
other questions here, and still can't get it. Thank you for your help.

For starters you need to tell us your printer connection. Is it
physically connected to one of the PCs, e.g. with a USB cable?
If so, what's the name of that PC? What's the name of the
other PC? If it is not connected to one of the PCs, is it connected
to the router? Do you have an installation CD for the printer?

 

[Guest]

If your setup is a desktop and a laptop.
Host should be the desktop PC and Guest the laptop.
Install the printer on the Host PC. Then using Control Panel>Network
Setup Wizard, enable File & Printer Sharing and make sure you check the
box to allow others to print to your printers. Next under Start>Settings>
Printers, select the printer, check the box to share the printer and assign
a name. Keep the name short, no blanks, something like Printer2.

You should now be able to add the printer to your Guest PCs using Start>
Control Panel>Printers & Faxes>Add Printer. Check the radio button
"A network printer ..." and then either browse for the printer or enter its
name (using \\PCName\PrinterName) and continue until finished. Ensure
that the firewall on your XP PC is set to allow access to remote printers.
Note: Make sure to include the slashes (\\) in printer name.
If using XP's native firewall ensure that File and Printer Sharing is
enabled and that the box with he same name is checked in the Firewall
exceptions list. The PCName can be found at:

Rightclick My Computer icon on desktop>Properties>Computer Name tab.
It may look something like: "Home-66djksjcpv". Don't type the quotes.
Click "Next" and it should install the printer on the Guest PC when
it finds it.

Note: You can follow the same procedure to get access to
"Files" from one PC to the other.

 

[Mike Cawood, HND BIT]

I am very new at all this, so please be patient. I bought a router to
network
my 2 computers. I have cable internet. The internet is working fine on
both,
however when I try to network my printer, I can't find that either
computer
recognizes the other as being networked. I do not have a floppy unit on my
new computer. (At one point when trying to network the printer it asks to
make a floppy.) I have tried putting in the XP disk. It goes thru all the
motions, but I still can't figure it out. I have looked thru alot of the
other questions here, and still can't get it. Thank you for your help.

I made a mistake with my networked printer in that it didn't work from one
computer.
I found out the the driver software on the computer that the printer was
attached to didn't have that latest software, updating it cured the problem,
so always make sure you have the latest drivers installed.
Regards Mike.

 

[Guest]

My printer is physically connected to computer named DFBZ4SD1, description is
preston & linda. It is connected with a USB cable. I have the set up CD for
the printer. My computers are both connected thru a router. The other
computer name is LINDA-YS03BB2SU and the description is linda.
I have tried using the network wizard, but can't find the printer when I
browse for it on the 2nd computer. Thank you again for your help.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Launch the Control Panel on DFBZ4SD1 and open "Printers".
Now right-click the printer and enable "Sharing".

 

[Guest]

I enabled sharing.. on computer both computers, but still can't find the
printer with the second computer. I tried browsing for it but can't find a
printer.

 

[R. McCarty]

Are both computers members of the same workgroup ? By default
XP uses a workgroup called MSHome. Also you need to verify that
Windows Firewall has an exception set for File and Printer Sharing.
If using a 3rd-Party firewall you need to add your LAN IP range to
it's trusted zone table. (192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 example).

For sharing to work properly you'll need to make sure your accounts
have a password. Null or Empty passwords represents a Security
risk to XP. Best to have one account (w/password) on all computers
to establish a trust relationship.

 

[Langer]

The Printer that is connected to your PC have you just tried to go to
control panel, printers, right click on the printer and click sharing, then
click share this printer, give it a name and ok all screens.

Next go to the other printer and go control panel, printers and add network
printer and walk through the steps, just one more thing to make sure that
both computers are on the same workgroup. right click on my computer,
properties, computer name, change. Make sure both are on the same workgroup
and after applying the setting and a few reboots to sync try adding the
network printer again.

Hope this helps

 

[gmanjoe]

Everyone is giving really good advice here. I was just wondering if you checked the ip address of each machine? although you made sure that they are in the same workgroup, they still need to be able to talk to each other by having similar ip's for instance if computer 1 has ip of 192.168.4.1 and computer 2 has ip of 192.168.5.1 then they cant talk to each other even if in the same router unless you setup a route on the router. the easiest solution to this is the make computer 1 ip of 192.168.4.1 and computer 2 ip to 192.168.4.2 this will enable them to talk to each other.
To check the ip,
click start, click control panel, double click network connections, you should see one that says local area connection, right click it and choose properties, in the box that pops up, scroll down through the list and you will see Internet Protocol, click it once to highlight it and then click the properties button, if it says use the following and has some numbers in it, write them down and compare to the other pc, if it says obtain automatically, your router is handling the ip address and it should be fine, Check the other pc's ip address and see if it is set for auto. if this is the case then the ip is not part of your issue.
CHECK FOR PC TO PC COMMUNICATION.
click start, click run, type cmd, press enter, in the black box that comes up type ipconfig, write down the info and doe the same on machine 2. go back to machine 1 and click start, click run, type cmd, press enter, type ping 192.168.4.1 (192.168.4.1 replace with the ip of the other machine) if it comes back saying no reply your machines can't talk to each other

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I enabled sharing.. on computer both computers, but still can't find the
printer with the second computer. I tried browsing for it but can't find a
printer.

Have you installed it (software installation, not hardware) on the
second computer as a networked printer?