How to share a printer in a LAN in the XP System

Step 1: connect the printer to the host, power on the printer, go to the printer and fax folder through the control panel of the host, right-click the blank area, select the Add Printer command to open the Add Printer wizard window. Select "local printer connected to this computer" and check the "automatically detect and install plug-and-play printer" check box.

Step 2: At this time, the host will detect the new printer, and soon you will find the connected printer, as prompted, put the drive CD attached to the printer into the optical drive, after the driver of the printer is installed, the printer icon will appear in the "printer and fax" folder.

Step 3: Right-click the newly installed printer icon, select the share command, open the printer Properties dialog box, switch to the share tab, and select share this printer ", enter the name to be shared in the "Share Name" input box, such as compaqij. Click "OK" to complete sharing settings.

2. Configure the network protocol

To ensure smooth printer sharing, we must install the "file and printer sharing protocol" on both the host and client ".

Right-click "Network neighbors" on the desktop, select the "properties" command, go to the "Network Connections" folder, right-click the "local connection" icon, and select the "properties" command, if "file and printer sharing for Microsoft Network" is not found in the "use projects for this connection" list on the "General" tab, click the "Install" button, in the displayed dialog box, select "service", click "add", and select "file and printer sharing" in the "select Network Service" window ", click OK.

3. Client installation and configuration

Now, all the work on the host has been completed. We need to configure the client that needs to share the printer. We assume that the client is also a Windows XP operating system. Print Drivers must be installed on every computer in the network that wants to use a shared printer.

Step 1: Click Start → settings → printer and fax to start the Add Printer wizard and select the Network Printer option.

Step 2: On the "specify printer" page, you can add network printers. If you do not know the specific path of the network printer, you can select "Browse printer" to find the printer shared by the LAN in the same working group. The computer with the printer installed, select the printer and click "OK". If you already know the network path of the printer, you can use the "Universal Naming Convention" (UNC) to access network resources) format: Enter the network path of the shared printer, for example \ James \ compaqij (James is the host user name), and click "Next ".

Step 3: Enter the printer name again. After Entering the name, click "Next" and then press "finish, finally, we can see that the shared printer icon has appeared in the "printer and fax" folder of the client. Our network printer has been installed here.