Laptop to printer?

renegade

Is there any way I can get my printer to work from my lap top, my printer is in the living room attached to my desk top pc?
It may seem obvious to you peeps on here but it isn't to me.Thanks to all who reply.

aerostar

Assuming you are connected via wireless to your broadband modem and both machines running the same operating system.

This is XP but should also work W7

desktop ....select control panel, printers, right click on your printer select sharing, share the printer.

On the laptop, select control panel, then printers, then add printer, select network printer/printer shared on another computer, then browse for printer, and hopefully under network you should see the printer on the desktop, select that and it should download the printer drivers from the desktop to your laptop.

It is possible that when you have shared the desktop printer, give it a couple of minutes, when you then select printers on the laptop, it MAY already be listed.

The above is from memory, but I think you should get the idea.

Note you can ONLY use the printer when the desktop is ON.

macman

Which OS are you running on each machine? With a common OS you should be fine. With 2 different OS's it will work in theory, but can be a pig to do in practice. I once struggled for hours to get a laptop running XP to print to a USB-attached PC running Vista. It worked eventually, but I'm still not sure to this day quite how I actually did it.

grumpycrab

Probably easier to take a USB stick to the dekstop computer :-)
OR buy one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-Network-USB-Hub-F5L009-share-pinter-used-/390304483769?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5adff5c9b9
and connect your printer to your router; then you won't need to switch your desktop on to print. (Q. How near is your modem/router to your desktop/printer?).

chrisw

I spent ages trying to get it to work with my Windows 7 laptop and XP desktop. I gave up in the end and just take my laptop to the printer, unplug the printer USB from the desktop and plug it in my laptop. Also saves having to have the desktop switched on.

renegade

grumpycrab wrote: »

Probably easier to take a USB stick to the dekstop computer :-)
OR buy one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-Network-USB-Hub-F5L009-share-pinter-used-/390304483769?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5adff5c9b9
and connect your printer to your router; then you won't need to switch your desktop on to print. (Q. How near is your modem/router to your desktop/printer?).

The Hub is on my desk the printer is under the desk.

renegade

macman wrote: »

Which OS are you running on each machine? With a common OS you should be fine. With 2 different OS's it will work in theory, but can be a pig to do in practice. I once struggled for hours to get a laptop running XP to print to a USB-attached PC running Vista. It worked eventually, but I'm still not sure to this day quite how I actually did it.

Vista on both.

macman

Then it should be relatively simple, you just need to network the 2 together and copy the printer driver over to the laptop,

grumpycrab

renegade wrote: »

The Hub is on my desk the printer is under the desk.

Then 1. put this on your desk http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-Network-USB-Hub-F5L009-share-pinter-used-/390304483769?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5adff5c9b9
2. unplug the printer from your desktop PC and plug it into the Belkin (USB port)
3. connect the Belkin to your Hub (ethernet or LAN cable supplied with the Belkin)

You will then be able to print from your laptop without switching your dekstop PC on.