setting up a printer that is on another laptop

my wife and i both have the same HP Laptop. She gets the computer desk and I get the Coffee table. we are both working on a wirless home network supplied by the cable company. she stays connected to the printer all of the time. for me to print i have to move her computer and disconnect the printer and reconnect to my laptop. how do can i use my computer and just share the printer with out having to buy a wireless printer server and connect via blue tooth? the printer does not have wireless and only (at this time) uses USB. i have tried the networking and sharing thing but i am not under a full understanding of this. Any help will be of great assistance.

 

I'll assume you both use XP.

On you wife's computer

1. Go to the printer in "Printers and Faxes ", and right click on its icon.
2. Select "Sharing" from the menu.
3. Enter a share name for the printer ( "OurPrinter" would be fine) and click on OK.

Now you need to know the name of your wife's computer so that you can get to it via the network. To do that, on her PC open a command window (start > run and then enter cmd and click OK) and enter ipconfig /all at the prompt. The computer name is given as the "Host name" at the top of the listing.

Then open "My Computer" on your PC and enter this in the address field:

\\computer_name

Where computer_name is the name of your wife's computer (the host name).

That should open an explorer view showing the folders and printers shared on your wife's PC. The printer should be included here. If you double click on the printers icon, the system should install the printer on your PC!

 

I appreciate the help but we both have VISTA. i am still tinkering with it.

 

Which version?

 

Windows Vista home premium. thanks for helping

 

Then the process should be similar.

Unfortunately Vista annoyed the hell out of me so I only have XP and Linux PC to hand, so can't give a detailed step by step guide.

I believe you should be able to access the other PC by entering \\computer_name in the search box on Vista's start menu. If the printer is being shared, it should then appear in the list of resources and double clicking on it should set it up on you PC just as it would in XP.

If that doesn't get you anywhere, have a look at the MS Technet guide to networking vista.

 

thanks for the help. I will give it a try.

 

I am up and running. I had to go into my wife and I's Norton Anti-virus and Make our computers trusted for each other. Once i did that i was up and running. The steps i used were as follows if anyone else wants to do it.

i have windows vista home premium and the current norton antivirus(i do not use the windows defender for the firewall since norton does it).

1. the computer that has the printer hooked to it via usb cable.
-go to the control panel and click on network and internet then go to network and sharing. Both computers need to be set to Private Network so they can be located on the network map.
-once both computers are on Private network i then went to the Printer Sharing and turned them both on(the only one that has to be on is the computer hooked to the Printer).
-I then turned Password Protected sharing off on the computer that is hooked to the printer(the only sharing our computers do is the printer nothing else. we are also the only 2 computers on our home network).
-next i went to the network map on each computer and got the IPv4 address for each computer so i can then go to norton and allow the firewall to let just our computers trust each other.
-go to Norton Internet Security and click on settings. scroll down to Additional Options in the settings box.
-Go to Internet Security and Firewall options
-Go to Trust Control then to the Trusted tab.
-add the IPv4 address on the computer you want to trust(needs to be done on all computers you want to use the Printer).
-Next i went back to the control panel on the computer not attached to the printer and went to Add Printer.
-it will then ask if you want to add a Local or Network computer, go to the Network computer. once you click this it will begin to search for it. Mostlikley it will not find it. so then you will find printer by name. from here you will type in \\computername\printername\. you need to know the name of the computer and printer name you are connecting to.

that is what i did and it worked. i now do not have to move my laptop and my wifes laptop around just to use the printer. It does take a little longer to print because you are going through the network.

I really appreciate all that has helped me with this.