How to share a printer with multiple computers

 

Author: famous sci-tech Bureau Source: site original hits: updated on:

Whether in the office or in the home, it is unlikely that every computer will be equipped with a printer. At this time, the sharing of printing will have to be faced. Print Sharing can be said to be the most common peripheral Sharing Solution in the LAN environment, because the implementation is very simple, users do not need to have too much computer knowledge to do it. Now let's take a look at how to achieve Print Sharing in the XP operating system.
Low cost shared printing Solution
Suitable environment: for LAN users who want to save costs, we can share the printer at a low cost without adding any devices.
1. Configure the printer host
First, we need to configure the printer on the host. For the time being, we call the computer directly connected to the printer "host", while other computers in the LAN that need to share the printer with the host are called "clients ".
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.
Tip: If you want other versions of the operating system in the LAN to share the host printer, you no longer need to find the driver, on the host, we can pre-install the drivers corresponding to these different versions of the selected operating system. Just click "other drivers" and select the corresponding operating system version, click OK.

2. Configure the 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 "connection" folder, right-click the "local connection" icon, and select the "properties" command, if Microsoft file and printer sharing is not found in the "this connection uses the following items" list on the "General" tab, click the "Install" button, in the displayed dialog box, select "service", click "add", select "file and printer sharing" in the "Select Service" window, and 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 an XP operating system. The print driver must be installed on each computer that wants to use a shared printer.
Step 1: Click Start → settings → printer and fax to start the Add Printer wizard and select the printer option.
Step 2: On the "specify printer" page, you can add printers in several ways. If you do not know the specific path of the 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 printer path, you can enter the path of the shared printer in the "Universal Naming Convention" (UNC) format for resource access, for example, "// James/compaqij" (James is the host user name), and then click "Next ".
Step 3: Enter the printer name again. After Entering the name, click "Next" and then press "finish". If the shared password is set for the host, enter the password here. Finally, we can see that the shared printer icon has appeared in the "printer and fax" folder of the client, and our printer has been installed here.
4. Make the printer safer
Even so far, illegal users in the LAN may also take advantage of the shared printer, resulting in a "Soaring printing cost ". To prevent unauthorized users from sharing printers at will, it is necessary to restrict the use of printer objects by setting account permissions. Set the Security Attribute of the printer installed on the host to specify that only a valid account can use the shared printer.
Step 1: In the "printers and faxes" folder of the host, right-click the shared printer icon and choose "properties" from the context menu, in the shared printer Property setting box that appears, switch to the "Security" tab.
Step 2: Select "everyone" in the "name" list on the "option settings" page that is opened later, select "print" in the corresponding "permission" list as "deny", so that no user can access the shared printer at will.
Step 3: click "add" to import the valid account that can use the shared printer to the "name" list, and then select the imported legal account, select "allow" for the printing permission.
Repeat Step 3 to import all the other valid accounts that need to use the shared printer, set their print permission to "allow", and then click "OK.
Tip: if the "Security" tab cannot be found, you can choose "Tools> Folder Options> View" on the folder menu bar to cancel "use simple file sharing.
High-efficiency Shared printing Solution
Suitable for the environment: enterprise users can use an efficient method to use the printer server, and the printer no longer needs to be installed on a computer, instead, it can be directly connected to the LAN or even shared by other users on the Internet. At this time, the printer is no longer a PC peripheral, but as an independent node to achieve high-speed print output.
A print server can be seen as a server. It refers to a node with a fixed address and providing services to users. It is an important part of resource sharing. Print Servers are generally divided into two types: internal and external. The built-in printing server is similar to the NIC and has the characteristics of small size and small space occupation, without external power supply. The disadvantage is that the installation is not as convenient as that of the external printing server. Once the system of the printing server is paralyzed, the printing will stop. The external printing server is easy to install and does not occupy system resources and is easy to manage. The cost is usually higher than that of the built-in printing server.
1. Print Server Settings
The installation of the printer server is different from that of a printer.
Step 1: hardware connection. If the printer is an external printer server, plug the network cable into the corresponding interface of the printer server, and use a parallel printing cable to connect the parallel port of the printer to the parallel port of the printer (if the printer is a USB interface, connect to the USB interface), and then connect to print the power of the server. If it is a built-in printing server, the connection is more convenient. You only need to remove the layout of the built-in printing server installed on the printer, insert the built-in printing server, and screw the fixed screw, then print the server and connect it.
Step 2: select the communication protocol and set the IP address. As a product, both external and built-in printing servers must select the corresponding communication protocol for support. Currently, most operating systems support the TCP/IP protocol. Therefore, the TCP/IP protocol is generally used for communication. The IP address of the print server is configured in one management process. Different brands of products have different management options, which are randomly included when purchasing the print server. The management of the print server can generally be done through the Web. For specific methods, please follow the instructions.
Tip: print that the IP address of the server must be in the same CIDR block as the IP address of the computer to be shared in the LAN. If the CIDR block is not the same, you must change it in management.
Step 3: Install the printer on the server. At this point, the print server has been successfully installed, but to print it, You must select a computer in the LAN for installation, in order to set its sharing properties. In the company's Lan, it is best to select a server for installation. In this way, the printer settings have been completed.
Step 4: Share the printer. Now, we can install the printer on a computer in the LAN. If the communication is normal, we can find the corresponding shared printer name in the shared printer list, and then install it.
2. Purchase of print servers
Compared with the traditional scheme of using computer hosts as the printing server, the advantage of using a dedicated printing server is mainly reflected in the cost. Although the printing server is expensive, however, it is cost-effective for thousands of PCs. The advantage of the high-end printing server is that the provided printing monitoring function and the matching and coordination capabilities with high-speed printers can greatly improve work efficiency. For our general family users, there is no need to consider buying a printing server.