I need help hooking up my printer to my laptop.

I need help hooking up a home printer so all computers in the house can use it. Help?

• I am not computer savvy...but I try if you walk me through it. We have a desktop with a router-Belkin and the cable modem-Arris in the basement.The router was purchased a laptop & I just hooked up an ethernet cord to the router for the old computer, Can the laptop and old computer use the printer. It is hooked up to the new computer. It is showing up on both new computers control panel.

• Answer:

  (I'm assuming that you're using Windows.) If your printer has a built-in wireless network card, then the printer can be configured to be part of your wireless network. You need to read the printer's manual to see how to configure it so that the printer can communicate with your wireless router. If your printer doesn't have wireless networking ability, you can buy a device called a 'wireless printer server.' You connect the printer's USB cable to the printer server and then configure the printer server to access your network. Any computer that connects to your network can then access the printer. Note: If your printer is a multi-function printer, the printer server may not support all of the functions, such as remote scanning and copying. Buy the wireless printer server from a place that will allow you to return the product for a refund easily because not every printer server device is compatible with all printers. Printer manufacturers may also sell printer servers for some of their products, so check your printer manufacturer's web site too. Another solution is to enable network File & Printer sharing on all the computers on your network. The downside to this is that the computer that the printer is physically connected to (via USB cable) must have Windows up & running in order for another computer to be able to access the printer. If both computers can see the printer already, then you already have File & Printer sharing already enabled. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/maintain/printers.mspx http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000710.htm http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1596 (Just do an internet search on something like, 'sharing a printer windows' or something like that to find more links.)