Share and Share Alike
After I installed my new printer on the computer, I wanted to use it from
other computers. I even wanted to print from my laptop computer, sitting on
the patio, connecting to the network with a wireless NIC. Before I could do
that, I had to share the printer. Windows XP doesn't automatically share
printers, which is a good thing when you don't want to share your toys.
To share the printer, I opened the Printers and Faxes folder on the computer
that was connected to my printer.
To open the Printers and Faxes folder
• Click Start and then click Control Panel.
• Click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes.
• In the Printers and Faxes folder, I clicked the printer's icon and, in the
tasks pane, I clicked Share This Printer.
• I opened the printer's Properties dialog box, and clicked on the Sharing
tab.
• I clicked Share Name, and then clicked OK.
That's it—the printer was immediately available for other computers to use.
Now that I had a network printer, I was ready to connect to it and print
from other computers on the network.
To connect to the printer
• I opened Control Panel, and clicked Printers and Other Hardware.
• I clicked Add a Printer.
• Instead of adding a local printer, though, I clicked Printer Connection
and then browsed the network for the printer.
The whole process took less than a minute before I was printing to the
network printer as though it was connected to the computer.
