How Do I Setup My Printer On A Wireless Network?

I just setup a wireless network in my apt. How do I enable my HP laptop (with wireless NIC card) to see the shared printer and disks on that network?

• Answer:

  In order for all computers to share each others resources (i.e. drives, peripherals etc) all computers must be on the same workgroup. To change your workgroup do the following: Click Start, right click on "My Computer" and select "Properties". Click the "Computer Name" tab and then click change. Now pick a name to use as your workgroup on your computers and change all names to this. You will have to restart in order for the changes to become effective. Also, since you are using a wireless adapter I'm assuming you have a wireless network router. Now for your wireless card to connect to your other computer and/or internet, you must set your wireless card's WEP Key to match the key on your router. This is a 10 digit alpha-numeric key that you can either choose yourself or let one be assigned for you. Either way the key on your router and on your wireless network card must match. To change the key on your router, see your router's installation manuals or installation CD for further info, since all wireless drivers are not the same, I cannot help you with specifics here. Now using the above selected WEP key, you must enter the same on the wireless card. This is done in one of two ways. First is enter it into any wireless management software that you are using that was supplied by the manufacturer of the card. Otherwise, you would use Windows Zero Point Configuration. This is done by clicking: Start -> Control Panel -> Network Connections This will list all your current connections and their current status. Select your wireless connection and right click on it and select properties. Select the "wireless networks" tab. The available and wirless network boxes should be blank if you haven't done any of this before. Press the "ADD" button under Preferred Networks. Enter the network name you selected previously for all your computers. Select data encryption and enter your WEP key into the network key field and confirm in next field. Finally, press ok and your wireless card is now set up. This will bring you back to the wireless network tabs and show your newly connected network under the Preferred network tab. Press ok to save and continue. If all goes well, windows should alert of a new network connection and attempt to connect automatically. Make sure you have Simple File Sharing selected on all computers connected to your network. This makes networking your resources easier. To turn this on right click on my computer icon on your desktop and select 'explore'. This will open your my computer folder. Next select: Tools -> Folder Options. Go to the 'view' tab and scroll to the bottom and see if "use simple file sharing" is selected. If not, select this and press OK. Check this on all computers connected to your network. Next, you will need to select what folders and/or drives to allow to be shared. This is done by right clicking on the folder or drive and and selecting the shared tab. I'm not at my networked computers to verify this name but its something close to that. There is a step by step setup for this here: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxppntsh.html I hope this helps, if you need more help let me know!