How to Share a Printer Over a Wireless Router

Wireless networks make it easy for you to boost your productivity around the office and in the home. One neat thing you can do with a wireless router is to share a printer with other computers on the network. The setup process is easy and only takes a few minutes, and you'll enjoy immediate access to the printer from all of your network's computers.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Connect your printer to one of your network's computers.

2. Make sure the printer's drivers are up-to-date. If they're old, you can download new drivers from the printer manufacturer's website.

3. Launch the Control Panel on the main computer. The easiest way of doing this is by opening the Start Menu and clicking on its shortcut.

4. Open the "Printers" or "Printers and Other Hardware" window.

5. Right-click the printer you want to share over the network and select "Sharing..." from the drop-down menu that appears.

6. Switch to the "Sharing" tab and click on the button labeled "Change sharing options." Then, check the box next to the "Share this printer" option.

7. Create a network name for the printer, and enter it into the appropriate field. Make the name something you'll remember so you know which printer to access.

8. Click "OK" to save the changes and make the printer available over the wireless network.

Tips & Warnings

• Add your printer to your firewall's list of approved devices to make sure it can communicate over the network.

• Vista users will need the login information for a user account on the main computer to access the shared printer.