How can I connect my printer wireless?

How do I set up my shared lan network so a wireless printer can connect to it?

• I have one laptop running windows XP wired to a router. I set this computer up to share internet over it's wifi so that other computers may connect to it and use the internet, I.have the all of the default web protocals set to share (HTTP, FTP, etc), but i still can't get any action from the printer, It recognizes the network but cannot connect to it. Do i need to set up an IPP connection, and if so how? Thanks :D

• Answer:

  There are several methods of adding a printer to a wireless network: Printer sharing from a computer Adding a wired print server Adding a wireless print server Printer Sharing from a Computer The least expensive solution is to add a local printer to one of the computers on your wireless LAN and then enable printer sharing on that computer. This is a good solution if at least one of the computers on your wireless LAN is a desktop or server PC. This approach requires you to locate your printer next to the computer you use as a print server. To share a printer in Microsoft Windows: Click the Start button Click the Control Panel menu option Click the Printers and Faxes icon Select the printer you want to share Click the File menu Click the Sharing menu item Wired Print Servers Another alternative is to purchase a dedicated network print server, plug it into an Ethernet port on your WAP (Wireless Access Point) and connect a printer to it. This approach does not rely on a desktop or server PC. The downsides to this approach are cost and the fact that you have to locate your printer next to your Wireless Access Point (WAP). Wireless Print Servers A third approach is to purchase a dedicated wireless network print server, connect it directly to youe wireless network, and then connect a printer to it. This approach also does not rely on a desktop or server PC. This approach does not require you to locate your printer near to one of your computers or network devices. The only downside to this approach is cost. METHOD = 2. All you have to do is click on view network computers then go up one level to see all availible work groups, and volia, you can access all shared folders. There is a way to do this with vista I do know that for a fact, you can share to selected groups, and allow cirtain groups to view files, other groups (i.e. management or whatever) to edit files etc. It is infact a real pain in the *** to setup correctly. I believe that it is also possible on XP but I'm not 100 on that. One of the things that you could do is set up a few FTP networks on the computers sharing the files, rather then using windows filesharing, you could use password protected FTP servers, that would stop the other company from viewing your files and if they do the same, stop you from viewing their files. Also with the FTP you could change it so only select users can access the files in a few ways [1st] filtering using user names and passwords [2nd] if you have fixed IP addresses then you can allow access to only PCs with xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx address [3rd] if you have dynamic IP addresses then you can filter using MAC addresses. though I'm not too sure on how to get 2 and 3 working or even if it's possible (i took a guess but whatever, i'm sure atleast one server program will have those abilities). Ofcourse the best policy is to not share the internet and just get them to speak to your ISP to see why their area is not covered when your right next door.