How to Share a Printer attached to your computer?

If you have a printer attached to your computer, you can share it with anyone in your home. Wireless or cables. It doesn’t matter what type of printer it is, as long as the printer is installed on your computer and directly attached with a USB, cable or other type of printer cable.

Some printers are connected directly to the wireless router and configured so that other computers can print directly to the printer without going through another computer. My printer (brother) was setup this way but it drinks ink like a Hummer and the ink is so expensive that I decided to use my 5 yrs old HP Laserjet 1200 series that I was keeping in storage. It prints black only but this is all I need and the toner has never ran out for five years now.

But I can only connect it to my PC using a USB cable because it didn’t have a network cable input connector (5 yr old printer) for my wireless router and I got 6 computers in the house which may want printer access so I decided to share this HP LaserJet 1200 series printer through my main computer. All my computers are running Windows Vista so I didn’t test this in Windows XP.

Here are the steps To share a printer attached to your computer:

1. Open Network and Sharing Center by clicking the Start button, then click Control Panel, click Network and Internet, and then click Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click the arrow button next to Printer sharing to expand the section, click Turn on printer sharing, and then click Apply. Your printer is now shared on the network. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.(I didn’t get this prompt).
3. If you are using a computer connected to a workgroup, click the arrow button next to Password protected sharing to expand this section, and then check to see if password-protected sharing is turned on or off. Turn this off if you want anyone on your home network to be able to access the printer you are sharing.
   To change this setting, select the option you prefer, and then click Apply. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. (I didn’t put any password for easy access).

Here are the steps To print using a shared printer connected to another computer:

1. You must know the name of the computer that has the printer attached to it. If you don’t know this name, ask someone who uses that computer, or go to the other computer yourself and look it up. Here’s how. Click the Start button and type Welcome Center in the Search Box. The computer name will show in the popup window along with other details.
2. Going back to the other computer, click the Start button, and then, in the Search box, type \\ followed by the name of the computer with the shared printer you want to use (for example, \\mylaptop).
3. Press ENTER.
4. If Windows can find the computer on the network, a folder will open for the computer. Double-click Printers. If any shared printers are connected to this computer, they will appear here. If you don’t see the shared printer you want to use, ask a person who uses that computer if the printer is connected, turned on, and shared with other users on the network.
5. Double-click the printer. Windows will automatically add the printer to your computer and install the printer driver. When the process is complete, click Next.
6. The printer should appear in your Printers folder. You can select this printer when you want to print a document or other type of file.