Printer sharing on home network

teachm · Aug 23, 2009

We have a home network. The main computer is XP Pro and the printer is connected directly to it but we had it setup by a computer guy and he set it up as a network printer. We have a lap top with Vista Home Premium and we loaded the printer drivers and went thru everything the instructions said and it shows the printer as either off-line (for the fax option) or otherwise as an error. The main computer shows printer sharing enabled and the printer too. What else can we do?

ASUS · Aug 23, 2009

Check firewall settings

plodr · Aug 24, 2009

I found this for a network where a printer is attached to an XP computer and a Vista computer can not print to it.

Go to Control Panel. Choose printer. Then choose Add Printer.
Choose Add a local printer. Click on Create a new port. The default in the drop down box is Local Port.
A dialogue box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \\computer name\printer name.
Click to expand...

Note that the computer name and printer name is case sensitive.
So if the XP computer is called tweekie and the printer is HPdeskjet
you'd type
\\tweekie\HPdeskjet

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Printer sharing on home network

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ASUS MajorGeek

plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member