Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Printing on network?

by vette1234 Apr 3, 2010 3:31AM PDT

I just purchased a new computer running Win 7 Home Premium. The problem I have is getting my Laptop (Win Vista) and my Desktop (Win 7) to share the same printer (HP Officejet 6500). The Win 7 machine will only share with other Win 7 OS. Is there a way to get the two machines to work with each other? The laptop goes though a wireless router and the desktop is wired. If I installed a wireless network adapter on the desktop would that work? The hp printer can be USB or setup for wireless. Right now it is USB because the desktop is not wireless. Does any of this make sense? Thanks for any help

Desktop-Dell Studio XPS 9000 Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Laptop-Toshiba P105-S6187 Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit
Printer-HP Officejet 6500 E709N

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

- Collapse + Expand Details

- Collapse -

Easiest way I've found

by Steven Haninger Apr 3, 2010 4:06AM PDT

Network printers work best if they can connect directly to the router or to a compatible print server that connects to the router or network switch. Printer sharing is full of quirks.Wired is best but wireless will work. With a printer configured this way, you just install the appropriate driver on each PC and point it to the printer port. I can't envision your setup here but if your printer is network ready, this is usually fairly simple. Any more details to offer?

- Collapse -

The clue is the wifi printer.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Apr 3, 2010 5:24AM PDT

That printer is painful to setup but do the wifi setup NEXT TIME.

Your none wifi machine uses the router as it's path to this printer. Think it over until it becomes clear that you don't need wifi on all machines. The wifi in the router provides the connection to your lan.
Bob

Back to Windows 7 forum