Re: Sharing a printer
- From: Lem <lemp40@unknownhost>
- Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:59:26 -0400
gstick wrote:
"Malke" wrote:
gstick wrote:You mention an IP Range. It seems that I have a single IP for both computers. I not sure that I understand the "Range" part.
My H-P printer is plugged into the new computer using Windows XP. IHere are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may look daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions below systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting up your sharing.
followed the network process as carefully as I could but I am still unable
to share files and to use the printer on the old computer.
What is the best source of instructions? Has anyone entered and overcome
a glitch or two?
Any help will be appreciated.
For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see caveat in Item A below).
Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.
A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.
B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.
C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this:
XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) - http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).
E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder. See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.
F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected locally to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go to the printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the correct operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The printer should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not, install the drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances, certain printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside of this response.
Malke
--
MS-MVP Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic! http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ
For Malke
Malke assumed that you have a local network that you are using to share an Internet connection and that you wanted to use that network to share files and a printer.
So, the first question is -- how are you computers connected to each other and to the Internet?
On the assumption that you in fact do have a router that connects to the Internet and that your computers then connect to the router (either wired or wireless), then if you think that you have one IP for multiple computers then you probably are using a website tool such as http://whatismyip.com/ That shows the your public IP address -- the one that the rest of the world sees. All communications from the Internet go to that IP address, which is your router.
The router then -- surprise -- routes the traffic to each of your computers. In order to know which of your computers gets which Internet communication, your router assigns unique *local* IP addresses to each of your computers. Typically, the router will choose addresses to assign in a range, which you can set on the router. Usually, this information is displayed on the router's status page. Read your router manual.
If you want to know what IP address the router has assigned to a given computer, open a Command Prompt window (Start>Run type cmd [click OK]) and type
ipconfig/all [press Enter]
When you are done with the Command Prompt window, type Exit [press Enter] to close it.
If you don't have a router, please answer the question above.
--
Lem -- MS-MVP
Apollo 11 - 40 years ago: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/index.html
.
- References:
- Sharing a printer
- From: gstick
- Re: Sharing a printer
- From: Malke
- Re: Sharing a printer
- From: gstick
- Sharing a printer
- Prev by Date: Re: Sharing a printer
- Next by Date: Re: USB to Ethernet switchover curiodity
- Previous by thread: Re: Sharing a printer
- Next by thread: Re: Sharing a printer
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
