How to connect a printer to a computer

There are only two ways to connect the printer to a computer:

1. Local.
   This method involves connecting the printer to a computer via Wi-Fi or USB. In this case, the connection occurs using the driver included with the purchased printer. The driver can also be downloaded from the Internet. As a rule, connecting in this way eliminates any problems with the connected printer, unlike the second method.
2. Network.
   With this method, the printer can be connected to a computer locally and, thanks to the shared access provided, it is also possible to connect this printer to other computers on the local network or to a print server. It is very easy to make a network printer: just connect it to a computer or print server using Wi-Fi, USB or Lan and open access to all users of this network.

Situations often arise when there are fewer printers in an office or home than there are computers on a given network, and when printing documents, additional printer settings are required so that it can print over the network.

An example of the most common situation. There is a printer to which one computer is connected, and printing is required from another over the network. In such cases, there are several options for connecting the printer to a second computer. The simplest ones are the following:

Connect a network printer using a computer

Sometimes, in order for two computers to work with a printer over a network at the same time, additional settings are required (if the “No access” error occurs during setup of a network printer).

Method No. 1

Initially, you should find out the name of the computer (to which the printer is connected). To do this, you need to right-click on the “My Computer” icon. In this menu, select the “Properties” checkbox and in it – a tab called “Computer name”. In Windows7 software, this tab will be the last one in the list of “Properties” marks. You can also get to this menu in another way - by going to the control panel menu, find the “System” icon (“System Properties”).

Having found out the name of the computer we need, we can move on to another computer. In it, click on the “START” button, or you can simply open one of the folders. Next, in the address line (folder address) that appears at the top, you must enter \\computer name. Example: if the computer name is “printserver”, then you need to enter “\\printserver” in the line. After these manipulations, press ENTER. Thus, we get to the remote computer and can see all the network resources available to it. These include a printer that can be installed by simply clicking on it.

If the printer does not appear in the list of available network resources, then you need to open access to it. To do this, go to the computer to which the printer is connected. In it we go to “START”, then selecting the “Printers” tab and in this window that appears we should right-click on the printer that we need. In this menu window, select “Properties”, then find the “Access” tab. In this tab, you need to check the box next to “Share”. Thus, this printer will appear in the list of network resources.

Method number 2

You need to go to the control panel and select the “devices and printers” folder from the proposed menu. Then click “Add a printer” (or in other versions “Add a printer”). In the wizard window that appears for installing new devices, you need to click the “Next” button, then selecting “Connect to a printer” or “Browse printers on the network”, confirming your choice by clicking the “Next” button. A new window that appears will offer a list of devices on the network, where you will need to find the printer you need and confirm its selection by clicking the “Next” button. The process will be completed by the operating system without your further participation.

Note

There are cases (if computers on the network have different versions of Windows) when you may need a printer driver during installation. Such a driver can be taken from the disk that came with the printer, or downloaded from the Internet - from the website of the manufacturer of this printer.

If the printer is connected to the network directly using its own network interface or through a print server, then it is easier to connect such a device using the installation wizard, which, as a rule, comes with the printer (MFP) in the form of a CD.

If it is not possible to use such a disk, then you should use another method. To do this, go to the “Add Printer Wizard” following the instructions in Method 2. Here you should select the “Local printer” checkbox and then “Create a new port”. In this menu, select “Standard TCP/IP port”. The “Add Printer Wizard” will appear on the screen. In the “Printer name/IP address” field, you must enter the IP address of the printer, which is specified in the instructions and settings of the printer itself. Having completed all the steps correctly, the process can be completed with a few clicks of the “Next” button in the windows that appear.

Some printing devices require additional settings, which include TCP/IP port settings.

In the age of digital technology, every apartment has a computer or laptop, and more than one. The time comes when a user thinks about purchasing a printer. A very useful thing that saves time and money; having bought a printer, you no longer need to go to the post office or ask friends to print documents or photographs.

Having two devices, all that remains is to connect the printer over the network, which makes it possible to print from different devices independently. In this article we will tell how to access the printer over local network. To connect a printer over a network, you need to configure the devices to which the printer is connected.

Setting up the computer to which the printer is connected

The printer always comes with a disk with software, simply put, drivers. Having installed the printer in a convenient place, one wire is connected to the power supply, and the other to the computer (to a free USB port). After turning on and connecting the printer to the computer, the device is initialized, after which it is necessary to install drivers from the disk.

It is worth paying attention to the installed operating system and its bit depth. Not all drivers that come with the printer may work with your windows. Included with a modern printer, drivers are suitable for operating systems Windows 7, 8, 10, but there are no drivers for older versions of Windows such as XP. You'll have to change Windows or look for drivers on the Internet.

We open access to the printer on the local network

So the printer is connected to the computer and configured, printing occurs according to the standard scheme. To make the printer accessible over the network, you must do the following.

Go to Start \\ Control Panel \\ Network and Internet \\ Network and Sharing Center \\ Advanced sharing settings.

Here we set everything up as in the pictures below.

After all the parameters are set according to the pictures, go to another section. Start\\Control Panel\\Hardware and Sound\\Devices and Printers

Select your printer and select “ Printer properties»

In the " Access"Put a check mark next to the line " Share this printer»

Be sure to go to the “Security” tab, select the “Everyone” user group and allow printing.

All settings on the computer to which the printer is connected are completed. We recommend that you restart your computer.

We set up the computer from which we will print.

The computer to which the printer is connected is turned on and configured, and the printer is shared over the network. Now we set up another computer from which we will print.

Go to Start\\Control Panel\\Hardware and Sound\\Devices and Printers.

Click on the “Install a printer” button.

After clicking the “Add a printer” button, a window will appear in which we select “Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer.”

Afterwards, the Windows system will automatically begin searching for all available printers on your local network. If the system finds several devices (printers), select the one to which you need to connect. If the computer does not see the printer, check the local network wires and restart the computer to which the printer is connected.

During connection, the system will ask several times about trust in the device and offer to install drivers for it. We agree with everything suggested and click “Next”.

Then the added remote printer will appear in the list from which you can print without any problems.

In this article, we described in detail and step by step how to connect a printer over a network.

If you are interested in connecting the printer via a network cable, then first purchase the appropriate cord, which must be crimped. Try to buy it from a reliable retail outlet, so that after you have connected the MFP to your computer, you will not have any problems transferring data from one device to another. Otherwise, printing may be very slow or may not be reproduced at all. You can also buy a cable and connectors and crimp the cable to the required length yourself.

First stage

• Connect one end of the crimped wire into the printer, and the other directly into the computer system unit. After this, press the button on the office equipment that is responsible for printing the device configuration. Thanks to this, you will receive an IP address printed on a piece of paper.
• Next, you will need to open the Start menu and go to Control Panel. There, open the section with devices and printers that are connected to the computer.
• On the top panel, click on “Add a device”, after which the Printer Installation Wizard window will open in front of you. In it you should select the first item, i.e. “Add a local printer”, next to which it says that this option can only be used if there is no USB printer. Click on “Next”.
• Now a window should open in front of you asking you to select a port for the printer. You should check the second point, i.e. "Create a new port." Select this option from the drop-down list: “Standard TCP/IP Port”. Having solved this problem, click “Next”. In the request that appears, you need to enter the IP address, and then click on “Ok”.
• Then a window will appear prompting you to install the office equipment driver. Specify where to get it from by clicking on the “Browse” button. If necessary, click on “Windows Update”, which will allow the system to download the appropriate software for the printer connected to your computer. But keep in mind that the Internet connection in this case must be active.
• In addition, it is advisable to change the IP from automatic to manual. To do this, you will need to log into the web interface of your printer by first opening any web browser and entering the current IP address of the device there, for example, “http://192.168.1.2/”. Then you should go to the settings (“Printer Settings”) and find the tab with the corresponding item and line. But keep in mind that there is no need to change the IP address itself; the main thing is to change the value “automatic” to “manual”.
• Open the properties of your device and go to the access tab. There you should check the box that implies sharing access to this device.

Second phase

• Most likely, you will probably need to set up the PC from which you will print. Those. If you previously installed a local printer and created a new port, now in the “Devices and Printers” panel, when adding a device, you need to click on the “Add network, wireless...” item. Those. now you connect the network device.
• In the next window, the system will try to search for the necessary equipment on the network, but you don’t have to wait for this procedure to complete and assign it manually.
• The OS will ask you how to find a new printer. You just need to click on “Browse” and select from the list of devices included in the configured network (in your case there will be only one device) and select the one that is physically connected to your PC.
• Having opened the desired computer, you will see the necessary printing office equipment. If Windows itself can find the appropriate drivers, then no more questions will arise and you will see a message that the process has come to an end.

After making the settings, try connecting. In general, a device connected to a computer via a network cable must be visible to the operating system and at the same time be in a fully operational state.

Nowadays, you can often observe a situation where some of the computers in the office are still running Windows XP (because their hardware is not powerful enough to install newer operating systems), and some are more recent computers running Windows 7 or Windows 8 Just imagine: we have 2 computers - one on Windows XP and one on Windows 7. A printer is connected to each computer via USB. And we need it to be possible to print from every computer to any printer. If both computers were running an identical OS, then connecting the printer would be more than simple. But when the OSs are different, it's easy “connect” printer It won't always be possible.

In this article I will teach you how to correctly connect a printer over a network when the local computer and a remote computer with the desired printer are running under different OS.

So, we have 2 computers: one with Windows XP (comp1), the second with Windows 7 (comp2).
One printer is connected to each computer via USB and drivers for local printing are installed. Those. so far every computer Maybe print to your printer, but can't print to someone else's printer over the network.

Step 1. Setting up computer No. 1. As always, the first step is to share the printer for the network, i.e. Sharing the printer.

For Windows XP: click Start -> Control Panel -> Printers and faxes-> right-click on the desired printer -> select Sharing -> ... and set a network name for our printer.

(For Windows 7(8), in this case you need to perform the following steps: click Start -> Control Panel -> Devices and Printers-> right-click on the desired printer -> select Printer properties-> Access tab -> set a network name for our printer.)

Also, for Windows 7 and 8, you need to check whether sharing is enabled on the computer.

Step 2. Let's go to computer No. 2. We go from it to computer No. 1 over the network and check whether the printer open to the network is visible. To do this, type \\comp1 in Explorer and press Enter.

We see that the desired printer on computer No. 1 is open to the network. But since our computers are running different OSes, we won't click Connect because we'll likely end up with the print service (spooler.exe) crashing:

We'll just leave this window open so we can see the printer's network name.

Step 3. Download the driver for computer OS No. 2 from the official website of the printer manufacturer. In our case, this is a Windows 7 driver for the HP LaserJet 1020 printer.

Right-click on the downloaded file and select Extract to folder hp-lj-1020-xp.

The trick is that instead of an exe file, we now have a folder with unpacked drivers, which we can point to to the installation wizard so that it can take drivers for the OS we need from there.

Step 4. Manually add a network printer to computer No. 2. To do this in the window Printers and faxes for (Windows XP) or Devices and Printers(for Windows 7 (8)) click:
Installing the Printer -> Local printer(in XP, immediately uncheck Automatic detection of PnP printer) -> set the selector to position Create a new port-> in the drop-down menu select Local Port -> in the window Enter port name manually enter the full address of the printer we need from computer No. 1:

\\comp1\HP1020 (letter by letter, including spaces, if any!)

and press OK

The system creates a new local port.

-> click OK -> select the driver we need from the list -> Next -> select a name for the network printer, under which it will be displayed on computer No. 2 (for example HP1020 ) -> Next -> select No printer sharing (for Windows 7.8). -> Next -> if necessary, check or uncheck...Default -> Done.

Printer added!

In the same way, you can add a printer from computer No. 2 to computer No. 1. In this case, we need to download the driver for HP LaserJet 1005 MFP under Windows XP and add the printer to computer No. 1 via Local Port.

Updated – 2017-02-16

How do I set up printer sharing? Until you know what a local network is, you don’t seem to really feel the inconvenience of working without it. But when you already know its advantages, you want to use them to the fullest. And it is right!

It’s stupid to rush around with a flash drive from computer to computer, which are located a couple of meters from each other. And in order to go online, wait your turn while other household members have had enough of playing there. Try and touch them during the game.

They will hiss so much that you will forget why you needed the Internet. Here you won’t regret a couple of hundred rubles, just to have your own personal access to the vastness of the World Wide Web, and go about your business without disturbing anyone.

We have already configured and created a network common to all computers, now it’s time to set up a shared printer.

How to set up printer sharing

On the computer to which the printer is connected, open a window Printers and faxes (Start - Settings - Printers and Faxes) . A window will open Printers and faxes . Right-click on the connected printer icon. From the drop down menu select General access… .

In the newly opened window on the tab Access set the switch to the inscription Share this printer . Don't touch anything else. Click on the button Apply And OK .

Now your printer icon will look like this. A small shared image will appear on it.

• We go to another computer to which we need to connect the printer via the network.
• Open the folder network (or by icon network on the desktop, or through Start – Settings – Control Panel – Network Connections – Network Neighborhood – Show workgroup computers.

• In the next window, select the icon of the computer on which the printer is installed and open it by double-clicking.
• In the new window, click on the printer icon again.

An entry like this will appear asking you whether to install the necessary drivers. Feel free to press the button Yes .

Eventually this window will appear.