Last week I showed you how to connect a shared printer as a network device. If you have an existing printer that is not network capable, you can still share it on your network by creating a workgroup and sharing the printer resource to that workgroup.
The first thing to do is to get your entire network on the same logical network or "workgroup". A workgroup is a set of computers on your network that form a community. In a business, one workgroup might be Finance, and another Human Resources. They would not normally share data or printers between them. In the case of a home or small office, just put all the PCs in one workgroup.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has changed the default workgroup name - in Windows 95/98 it was "WORKGROUP", in Windows ME and XP it became "MSHOME" and in Vista it went back to "WORKGROUP". Go figure.
In Windows XP use the network setup wizard. Go to Start / Control Panel and select Network Connections. In that window, click on "Setup a home or small office network". Click Next a couple of times, and then when prompted for "Select A Connection Method" check Other - this is important as the default is not correct for standard home or small office installations. Then select "This computer connects to the Internet directly…"
In the next window, type in the name and description of your PC; the next window asks you to enter a workgroup name - the name is not important as long as it is the same for all PCs in your workgroup. Finally, turn on File and Printer Sharing, and then click through to finish. You will have to reboot.
In Vista it's a bit easier as Vista does more automatic network detection than XP does. But you still have to name your workgroup. Go to Start / Control Panel and select System. In the Computer Name section, click Change and you will see a popup window that will allow you to change your workgroup name. Then go to Start / Network and click on the "Network and Sharing Center" button. Scroll down and make sure that Printer Sharing is turned on.
Do this procedure for all PCs on your network that are going to share the printer.
Now that you have a workgroup established, you are ready to actually share the printer resource. In printer sharing, one PC (the host) actually has the printer attached to it via USB or an old-style parallel cable. To share that printer, on the host PC go to Start / Printers, right click on the printer in question and select Sharing. Pick a share name for the printer and then click OK.
On all the other PCs, go to Start / Printers and click on Add New Printer. Indicate that it is a Network printer, and then follow the directions. You will be able to browse the network and in the network PC and printer list you should see the printer you named in the step above. Select it and answer any other questions. This will automatically install the printer driver from the host PC and configure it on each remote PC. At this point, you should be able to print from the remote PC to the printer on the host PC.
This works well with minimal impact on the host PC, but the only major disadvantage is that the host PC must always be turned on and running if the remote PC wants to use the printer.
One issue in printer or file sharing is that if you have a software firewall running it may block network access. You need to set up your firewall to allow it; unfortunately covering this for all the various software firewalls out there is beyond the scope of this column.
As I said last week, this isn't too easy the first time you try. But once you get the hang of it, it will be easy the next time!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)