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HowTo: Sharing a Printer on Home Network

Aug 2, 2007 How To

It is wise for homes to keep one central printer for all its printing needs. For that purpose, a printer should be connected to any computer on the network which should be religiously turned on while the printer is being used.

Here’s a brief on sharing your printer on a home network:

Enabling Printer Sharing

1. Open the Properties dialog box for your network connection in Control Panel.

Choose Start –> Control Panel and click Network and Internet Connections. Click Network Connections, right-click the Local Area Connection icon, and choose Properties.

The Local Area Connection Properties dialog box opens.

2. Enable file and printer sharing.

Click the File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks check box to put a check mark in the check box. Then click OK. You do not have to restart the computer.

Sharing the Printer

1. Open the Printers folder.

2. Right-click the icon for the printer you want to share and choose Sharing from the shortcut menu that appears.

3. Select the option to share the printer.

4. Type a name for the printer in the Share Name text box.

5. Click OK.

There are other ways of sharing a printer on a network. A more professional approach would be to go for a network printer hooked on to a router. This is a common of printer sharing in companies.

Our world is tending towards wireless gadgets. There are plenty of wireless printers in the market. Any computer enabled with Bluetooth can access a wireless printer. Honestly, wireless printers are an easier and better option for sharing on home networks.