Installing a network printer

[Tony Luxton]

Hello group, thanks for reading. I have a desktop machine and a laptop,
both running XP Home (read on), connected wirelessly to a router. The
desktop has an HP Deskjet 3845 printer attached which is shared, and I
can print from the lappy. So far, so good.

My GF has a Windows 7 laptop, and can join the network, but cannot
install the printer. If she tries, Windows 7 finds the printer, but says
it can't find a driver. It installs fine as a local printer, however,
but we don't want to get into cable-swapping activities if we can avoid it.

The HP site doesn't have a downloadable driver, and merely says that
Windows 7 has a built-in one for the printer, which is true, but it
can't find it when trying to install a
"printer-connected-to-another-computer-on-the-network".

How can she use my printer as I can on my lappy?

TIA Tony

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Hello group, thanks for reading. I have a desktop machine and a laptop,
both running XP Home (read on), connected wirelessly to a router. The
desktop has an HP Deskjet 3845 printer attached which is shared, and I
can print from the lappy. So far, so good.

My GF has a Windows 7 laptop, and can join the network, but cannot
install the printer. If she tries, Windows 7 finds the printer, but says
it can't find a driver. It installs fine as a local printer, however,
but we don't want to get into cable-swapping activities if we can avoid it.

The HP site doesn't have a downloadable driver, and merely says that
Windows 7 has a built-in one for the printer, which is true, but it
can't find it when trying to install a
"printer-connected-to-another-computer-on-the-network".

How can she use my printer as I can on my lappy?

TIA Tony

One possibility is to swap the cables once.

Plug the printer into the new computer, install it and make sure it
works, then plug it into the original place again.

Go back the Win 7 computer and in setup, try to change the port from the
USB to the shared port.

The above is not guaranteed, but it's how I recall the process to work.

 

[Tony Luxton]

One possibility is to swap the cables once.

Plug the printer into the new computer, install it and make sure it
works, then plug it into the original place again.

Go back the Win 7 computer and in setup, try to change the port from the
USB to the shared port.

The above is not guaranteed, but it's how I recall the process to work.

Hi Gene, thanks for your reply. Actually, after some head-scratching, I
got it working in the meantime, and the way I did it sounds not a
million miles away from your idea.

I installed the printer as a local printer on the Win7 machine, went
into its properties and changed the port to LPT1. I then used the *net
use* command (on the Win7 machine) to map LPT1 to the share, like this:

net use lpt1 \\hostcomputername\printersharename /persistent:yes

It certainly works, but it seems a bit of a kludgy way of doing it -
doing it on my own (WinXP) lappy was a breeze. Any thoughts?

regards Tony


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[Char Jackson]

Hi Gene, thanks for your reply. Actually, after some head-scratching, I
got it working in the meantime, and the way I did it sounds not a
million miles away from your idea.

I installed the printer as a local printer on the Win7 machine, went
into its properties and changed the port to LPT1. I then used the *net
use* command (on the Win7 machine) to map LPT1 to the share, like this:

net use lpt1 \\hostcomputername\printersharename /persistent:yes

It certainly works, but it seems a bit of a kludgy way of doing it -
doing it on my own (WinXP) lappy was a breeze. Any thoughts?

On my Epson printers, when I open Properties I see a Sharing tab. A
few clicks later I have the equivalent of your 'net use' command
above. In other words, it seems unlikely to me that you had to drop to
a command prompt to accomplish that, but at least you resolved it.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Hi Gene, thanks for your reply. Actually, after some head-scratching, I
got it working in the meantime, and the way I did it sounds not a
million miles away from your idea.

I installed the printer as a local printer on the Win7 machine, went
into its properties and changed the port to LPT1. I then used the *net
use* command (on the Win7 machine) to map LPT1 to the share, like this:

net use lpt1 \\hostcomputername\printersharename /persistent:yes

It certainly works, but it seems a bit of a kludgy way of doing it -
doing it on my own (WinXP) lappy was a breeze. Any thoughts?

regards Tony


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I never share printers or internet connection via a computer, so I have
no really relevant experience.

It's pretty easy via a router - but I did it so long ago that I don't
have clear-cut memories to report to you.

Well, not quite so. I set up my networked printer on a netbook just a
couple of days ago. It was very hard until I realized I was running the
wrong download from the printer maker Then it all happened
automatically and quickly, and I never had to connect the printer to the
computer via USB.

The particular printer can be run from either an Ethernet connection or
a USB connection. I connect it to the router via Ethernet; the netbook
is connected wirelessly.