Annoyed with connecting that single printer at your home with different laptops every time you need to take a printout from your own computer? Its time you make a shared network of your computers and share your printer over Windows. Although, it is not a difficult task to share your printer in your network of computers but the question is, is it really a good idea? There are some problems that crop up due to printer sharing, discouraging many people from sharing their printers in a network. Here are some tips which will make printer sharing seamless and not that bad an idea.
Feature your computers with distinct names
When you form a network of your computers, make sure all the computer names are distinct. Same named computers might confuse your common server when you give a print command, resulting in not getting any printout at all. Naming them differently will make printing on a shared network far easier and without any glitches.
Correctly Name the Domain/Workgroup
All Windows computers belong to some domain or workgroup. Home networks work in workgroup while larger networks make use of domains. You must ensure that all your computers in the same network have the same workgroup or domain name.
Turn off the Firewalls
Firewalls meant for internet connections usually interfere in peer-to-peer file sharing on shared networks. These firewalls might also prevent your computers to gain access to the main server. This can cause problems in LAN file sharing as well as shared printing in the network. It is advisable that these firewalls, even third party firewall products, must be temporarily turned off while printing on a shared network.
Install the Right Network Protocol
File sharing on Windows requires a network protocol. At present, TCP/IP is the best network protocol to set up LAN sharing on Windows. Other protocols do not offer many options as TCP/IP does and at times may also create technical difficulties for the shared network, making shared printing a nightmare. It is hence advisable that TCP/IP should be installed before setting up a LAN sharing on Windows.
Unique IP Address for Each Computer
When you use a home network or LAN having a single router or gateway computer, all your computers operate in the same subnet. However, all your computers must have unique IP addresses for the network and printer sharing to work effectively. You should first ensure that the same network mask or subnet mask is set to the same value on all computers. The usual network mask for computers on home networks is “255.255.255.0”. Then you should ensure that all computers possess unique IP addresses. IP address and network mask settings can both be found in the TCP/IP network configuration.
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks: A MUST Install!
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is a Windows network service which helps in creating shared networks for file transfers and printer sharing. You should make sure that File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is installed on all of your computers before setting up a shared network for your computers.
Today’s guest post is submitted by James Hanning. He is a tech aficionado and enjoys writing on different aspects of the tech world. He thinks printer cartridges play an important role in the quality of the documents printed, therefore they should be chosen wisely
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