Network printer

[mejohnjr]

I bought my wife a Inspiron 910 mini 9 netbook. She loves it. I have other computers in my house set to share a network printer but I can't get the netbook to "see" it. How do I set this up?

[shadowpr]

Are you using XP?

Is the printer connected to the router?

If so, you should be able to go to control panel > Printers > add new printer and point it to the ip of the printer. (The printer should be set to a static ip)

[mejohnjr]

Originally Posted by shadowpr Are you using XP? Is the printer connected to the router? If so, you should be able to go to control panel > Printers > add new printer and point it to the ip of the printer. (The printer should be set to a static ip)

The printer is not on a print server...it is attached to my desktop and is shared on the network

[shadowpr]

Does the laptop see the desktop?

Did you turn on file sharing?

Have you turned off any firewalls you have?

[Panama Red]

Did you run the networking wizard on the notebook and put it in the same Workgroup as the rest of the computers?

[mejohnjr]

Yes to the above questions. I am now having issues with all the computers connecting to the printer...I need to investigate

[shadowpr]

What printer is it?

Have you investigated trying to setup a print server to make things easier?

[Force Flow]

shadow...if the computer is going to be on all the time, a print server isn't entirely necessary. I have a USB printer attached to my main rig, and the other workstations can print to it.

The basic procedure:

1) if you have the firewall enabled, allow the file & print sharing exception
2) can each computer access the other by visiting the IP address or computer name? \\my-computer-name or \\192.168.x.x
3) Share the printer on the workstation it's plugged in to (right click on the printer > properties > sharing
4) From the remote computer, go ahead and add a new network printer, and when it asks for a computer name, type in the name of the computer with the printer attached: \\thecomputerwithprinter The printer name should automatically appear. Hit next, and it will ask to install the drivers


If you need clarification on where things are located or a better step-by-step procedure, feel free to ask.

[mejohnjr]

Force Flow, that is exactly the way I have it set up.

My problem is when I try to set up the new PC I get an error message stating: Windows cannot connect to the printer. Either the printer was typed incorrectly, or the specified printer has lost its connection to the server. For more information, click Help.

[Force Flow]

What OS is on each machine?

[mejohnjr]

Originally Posted by Force Flow What OS is on each machine?

Vista on 2
XP on 2
OSX on 2

I set up the print server since I lost capability to share....

[glc]

Please post the printer model.

With that OS mix, a print server appliance that uses standard TCP/IP printing is strongly advised.

[mejohnjr]

Originally Posted by glc Please post the printer model. With that OS mix, a print server appliance that uses standard TCP/IP printing is strongly advised.

I fixed it with a print server