Add a Network printer to Windows Vista and Windows XP

Now days the average household has more than one computer and share available resources over a home network. No-ones wants their house cluttered up with unnecessary office equipment, and this is exactly the reason why we need to use a network printer. For example if you have three computers on your home network you would only need one printer for them all. Windows XP and Vista allow you to use computer hardware that is connected to another computer on your Network. Here's how to add a Network Printer.

To add a network printer we need:

A printer that is already installed on one computer in your home or office network. Install a New Printer
You need to know the actual computer name that the printer is installed on. How to find the Computer Name?
Printer Sharing has to be enabled. (Go to Control Panel>Printers Settings Icon>right click on the printer icon and choose sharing. Also create a simple name for your printer here.) Make printer sharing enabled.
The name of you shared printer. It usually is the brand of the printer which could be cannon bj3000, however I like to rename it just printer. Here is the share name of the printer.

Now to add a network printer:

Go to the control panel which can be found by clicking the start button.
In the left bar click on switch to classic view.
Then click on the Printer and Faxes Icon.
Choose to Add Printer in the left sidebar.
A dialog box will appear. You can choose to add a network Printer. Then ask the computer to find it. If it does find it your done.
When the computer does not find your network printer manually type it in yourself.

find a network printer

I have written \\server\printer$ then I pressed Next. Server is the name of the computer that has the printer installed on it, and Printer$ is the name I gave my printer when I enabled sharing.

Then it will ask me to enter the user name and password for the computer that has the printer I want to access.
Windows Vista came up with this warning below and I pressed Install driver.

network printer

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More Windows Vista Tips

If the printer has a network port

Plug it into the network.
Determine how to print a configuration page
Connect to the printers webpage by typing the IP address into the address bar in Internet Explorer
Set it’s IP address to a available value between 1 and 10
On your computer, go to add a printer, when it asks if it’s local or network, chose local
On the select port screen, choose create new port, TCP/IP Port
Type in the new IP address of the printer. (Eg. 192.168.0.1)
Choose a driver or choose have disk to select a driver
Follow the prompts

About the Author

Mitz Pantic wrote this article and others for http://www.tips4pc.com Browse Tips4pc.com for more articles that are written in an easy to understand interface and FREE computer help.

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