Here are some more information for Share Printer:

Once you've installed a printer, it's easy to share it. If you've decided to attach the printer to a WLAN client and share it that way, consult your operating system's help files for directions for sharing the printer. If you are using Windows XP, do the following to add a printer to the network:

1. Left-click the Start button; the Start menu will appear.

2. Left-dick the Control Panel icon; the Control Panels folder will open.

3. Left-click the Printers and Other Hardware icon.

4. Under the Pick a Task heading, left-dick Add Printer.

5. The Add Printer wizard will launch. Follow the steps to install a local printer attached to your machine.

6. During the printer install, you can choose to share the printer and assign it a network name.

If you want to share a printer that you've installed previously, open the Printers and Faxes control panel and do the following:

1. Right-click your printer's icon.

2. Choose Sharing.

3. Assign the printer a network name.

To share printers you need to have the Fife and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks network component installed. This component is usually installed and enabled by default. If you have disabled it you need to reactivate it before you can share a printer.

After the printer is shared or after it is available via a wireless print server or adapter, each client computer must install the remote printer to use it. For Windows clients, follow the procedure for installing a printer but select network printer instead of local printer in the Add Printer wizard. A list of available network printers will appear. Select the printer that you wish to install from the list. If Windows has a driver for the printer it installs it; otherwise, it will prompt you for a disk.

Troubleshooting your WLAN

If you start to notice problems after you have your WLAN up and running, there could be a number of different causes. The problem could be due to RF interference, power outages, or configuration errors. Identifying problems on a WLAN can be frustrating for home users. Professionals have a number of high-tech tools available that can help them detect interference or analyze traffic on a network. These tools are very expensive and beyond the budget and technical expertise of most home users.

You also can use wireless sniffers like Nets tumbler or Ethereal to help determine WLAN signal strength and detect RF interference. Sniffers also can detect if there are any nearby WLANs that might be affecting your network's performance.

Before you try to troubleshoot a problem, make sure that there really is one in the first place. If you think that something is affecting the speed of your WLAN, remember that in the real world you are likely to get actual throughput equal to less than half the advertised speed of your Wi-Fi gear. The speed drops off even further as you move clients away from your access point.

Try the following steps if you are experiencing problems with throughput:

- Try changing the channel on your access point. There may be interference or traffic on the channel you are currently using.

- Try relocating your access point or the clients.

- Check antenna connections and location.

If for some reason your access point or adapters stop working, check the following:

- Check to see that everything has power. It's easy to inadvertently unplug an AP.

- Make sure USB adapters are still connected to your USB port or hub.

- Check to make sure that none of the configurations has been changed.

Sometimes all you have to do is reboot equipment to get everything working again. Recently I was without power for about week, due to wildfires in Southern California. After the electric company restored the power, nothing wanted to work right. If you experience a loss of power, check the following:

- Check to see if your surge protectors have tripped. Often an electrical surge precedes a power outage.

- Check antenna connections for static charge. Use the technique to discharge static.

- Make sure that no settings have changed or been erased.

In my case, my antenna connections and the cable between my satellite dish and router had built up a static charge that was interfering with the RF signals. When there is no power to any of your equipment, external antennas can collect a static charge. After a power outage you also can try turning all of your devices off and then rebooting them in this order:

1. Broadband router

2. Access points

3. WLAN clients (PCs, printers)

Sometimes all you need to do is to give everything a chance to reboot and the clients will recognize the access points.

Patrick Smith is a NYC native who not only does landscaping but has reviewed under cabinet microwaves for http://www.undercabinetmicrowave.net.

Can I Share The Printers With Other Residents?

Now that you have installed computers in every room in your home, office or building, you should probably have thought of setting up a printer for each computer. Having a printer for each computer terminal in any workspace could well be as impractical as it is expensive. It would be far more sensible if a printer is stationed in a room or row of computers. Since the running cost of printers is something that can easily mount up over time, then wiring up a printer to a number of computer units by way of a network (wireless or otherwise) sounds a good way to go.

Similar to internet connection, printing utilities may also be shared in a network of computers. With a home computer network, residents can share broadband to facilitate convenient file sharing. This system is equally useful to sharing printers. Say, you have more than one printer for different purposes, like laser printers for text and inkjet printers for photos; you can arrange a setup in which all the computers in the room or office will have access to all printers. To do that, there are certain requirements that must be met.

If you wanted to setup a network to allow all your computers to gain access to your printers, you need to have a home network, printer units and print server if your printer is network-capable. In creating a home network, some chooses to create a workgroup, which basically is a local system of connection in which all the computers in your home or office are connected to one another. You may either use your Windows operating system setup or a network setup program disk in completing this step. Creating a workgroup, enables your computer to begin conveniently sharing files within the network.

Network printer application requires a print server. The print server will be responsible in managing the documents to be printed, which is transmitted via the network cable. In networking terms, the print server is a program that arbitrates the print data from a multiple computer units to the specified printer unit.

To connect the printer to the network, you can physically connect it to the main computer or the computer that actually runs the network operating system. All print jobs will be submitted by from the computer to the print server software on the network's file server. The printer must be located near the fileserver. This kind of setup is commonly used in small workgroup or small office networks.

The ease of enabling printer sharing would depend on the hardware you are using. If you have a network printer, then setting up tasks will be simpler. All you need to do is follow the instructions that came with the printer. If your printer is network-capable, using a print server to connect to your router's Ethernet port and your printer is highly recommended and extremely important to ensure smooth printer sharing and printing operations. If you happen to be unable to find a compatible print server, you can always use a third-party print server with any printer, provided that the devices share either a USB or parallel port connection. If you are using a WiFi network, you can also use a wireless print server, which usually connects via USB or parallel port to your printer and your router.

About the Author

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For a wide range of printers and products by brand, he recommends Printware Ltd, a leading provider of Colour Laser Multifunction Printers.

How do I share a printer that is connected to my PC running XP and my laptop running Vista?

I can find my printer from my laptop but I keep getting an error message that says "Access is denied" I installed the updated Vista driver on both. I turned off both firewalls and tried to share it but it is still happening. I have the printer set up to be shared. Oh BTW, my printer is a Lexmark x6170. Any help is appreciated!

Try downloading Network Magic

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