Let's say there is a small office and several computers connected to the local network, there is no server, but there is one printer for the whole office. Now the task is to make sure that all computers have access to the printer, that is, they can print through it. This means that we will need to install a network printer and configure it. There are three ways to accomplish the task.
Instructions
Step 1
Connect the printer to a computer on the network and share. The simplest way, but it has a significant drawback: if the computer to which our printer is connected does not work, then other computers will not be able to print through it. And if the PC also breaks down, you will have to reconfigure and reinstall the drivers, which by that time may have already been lost.
Step 2
Connect the printer via the print server to the network. In this case, the printer only needs to be configured once. It will appear in the print server as a separate node. Each computer will print independently.
Step 3
If your network printer has a built-in print server, you can configure it in the same way as in case number two. You just need to configure the printer itself, and not some separate device.
Step 4
Let's assume that the printer is already connected to one of the PCs. The operating system will be considered Windows XP. Let's start setting up sharing. First, go to the "Control Panel" and there, in the "Printers and Faxes" item, click on the PCM icon of the installed printer. Select the "Properties" item in the drop-down menu. Now let's switch to the "Access" tab and click on the "Share the printer" button. Give the printer a name and click OK. A holding hand icon should appear on the printer icon. This means that the printer setup was successful.
Step 5
Now we connect the printer to other PCs and configure it. In "Printers and Faxes" we need to start the printer connection wizard and instruct the wizard to install the printer.
Step 6
Next, we select the overview of printers - the system will search for it itself. If the required network printer was not found by the system, we will connect it manually. In the name of the printer, we need to enter: / Computer_name / Printer_Name (the first is the name of the computer, the second is the name of the printer). You can specify the IP of the computer instead of its name. Next, the drivers will be installed, and the wizard will complete the installation by prompting you to print a test (test) page.
Step 7
In the case of a connection via a print server, the actions are the same, only in the wizard we need to select the last item and enter the path to the printer. A set with a network printer or a print server may include special additional programs that can also be used.
