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I had to play dumb when my wife asked me, "Honey can I print on your printer through the network?"

I know there is a wireless and wired print hub or server available for this system, NetGear. But I don't know beans about networking.

If you followed the Wireless Router Thread, you know my computer is hardwired to the wireless Router, my son has a wireless adapter, and my wife has a laptop which came with wireless.

My wife wants to be able to print from her laptop. How do you do that? TIA.

If you are with window, you have to enable printer sharing on the computer that has the printer connected to it.
Then the wireless should be able to install it as a network printer.

You've probably figured out that your computer (the one with the printer attached to it) has to be powered up and on the network to allow others to use the printer.
There are 'network printers' available ($$) which would plug into your router and 'think for themselves', but these are not the usual home printer, at least not around my place!
John

Aha, two ways to skin the cat. Yeah, it'd be good if it could think for itself. We just wanted my wife to be able to print withou having to drag the printer out and change cables each time.

I think as little as she prints, we'll just thumbdrive it to my computer, or she could email it as an attachment through the wireless? That would work.

Still a hassle.

Thanks guys, food for thought, James

Okay, I haven't done it yet, but have read and re-read your comments. So apparently I can enable Windows to recognize my printer as a network printer. So what do I do on my wife's computer to recognize a network computer? tia

James-
As I recall, on your computer go to Start:Settings:Printers (or equivalent depending on how you have XP set up). Right-click on your printer and bring up the Properties window. The Sharing tab will let you share the printer on the network.
Once your wife's computer is up and talking to the network (share a test folder on to the network and she should 'see' it), she can just go to Settings:Printers: Add Printer and your shared printer should be in the list.
It's like most computer stuff- a pain and totally illogical the first time, after that easy.
Ask away if you run into snags.
John

You can also buy a network print server, which is a small module that takes the place of a PC so your PC doesn't have to be on for another PC to access your printer.

I just bought one of these -- a four port job (three USBs and one parallel). It took a call to their tech support folks and some tweaking but I finally got my HP Laserjet working reliably (the lone parallel port), but I haven't had a bit of luck getting my USB Lexmark inkjet to work. Turns out that the Lexmark is one of their "unsupported" printers. Grrrr . . .

So, if you elect to go with a print server module, make sure you can take it back to the seller if your printer is "unsupported."

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

aha, I know so little about this. Each time I nearly get it, I have to get up and leave. So maybe a more opportune time I can get this working on the network alone.

Today, my wife emailed her document to her address, then pulled it up on my computer and printed. She's so smart. And pretty.