Printer sharing on a home network

[antiguru]

I'm at the edge of my knowledge of networks. Can anyone help please? I have set up wireless access to the internet (Netgear DG834GT) at home for desktop and 2 laptops. I'm trying to set up my network so that all 3 machines can use the printer connected to the desktop. I've tried all the wizards/troubleshooting guides but I'm still stuck. Any ideas?

[vehelpfulguy]

I did this at home a few months ago but cannot remmeber the details.

If you have XP go into the XP help and type "sharing a printer" and you get loads of hits. Have a look at them.

One thing I remember, you need the printer drivers on each machine.

[vehelpfulguy]

Note the desktop PC will have to be on for people to print.

If you buy a printer that is network ready then you can plug it straight into the router and the desktop PC will not need to be on to print.

The lexmark E102n black and white LASER printer is network ready and is under �100 pounds.

http://www.lexmark.co.uk/uncomplicate/product/ home/410/0,7044,252735_450282_610616730_en_0_1 ,00.html

[antiguru]

Thanks vehelpfulguy. I knew the desktop would need to be on to print. That�s OK. I�ve scoured the help guide and it wasn�t any. I don�t really want to buy a new printer as the one I�ve got is nearly new and quite expensive. Do you think I need any additional hardware to set up a network to share the printer?

[Kerplunk]

Setup you network using the home network setup wizard. Make sure you choose "Enable file and printer sharing". Right click the printer on you PC that it is attached to and share it. Browse to the pc accross the network from one of your other machines and double click the shared printer.

[antiguru]

It�s the home network bit I�m stuck on. Can�t get the wizard to show me a usable LAN connection.

[vehelpfulguy]

Have you made sure the PCs and laptops can "see" each other.

Can they "ping" each other?

Can you share a folder between them for example ?

If you can get folder sharing to work then printing across the machines should follow on from that.

Ensure each firewall on each machine allows the others through.

Make sure you have a shared folder on each machine.

Set each machine to be part of the same workgroup.

Set up a common userid and password on each machine (even if you do not log on as them).

[Kerplunk]

The wizard will not show you a useable LAN it will show you all disconnected adapters. Just choose to ignore these.

[antiguru]

Thanks to you both. I've managed to get it working by getting the IP address (which I needed to ping anyway) and using it to find the printer through the add printer function. I'm setting a workgroup up now and my best guess is that a firewall was up and running and I missed it. Many thanks for your help.

AG