Wireless home network and printers

[QC]

I have 5 computers in the house and already have a decent Netgear wireless router thing. Two of the five are hard wired to the router and the other three are connected via Wireless B and G. I get good reception. My question is about adding printers, I have two, with both hard wired to two separate computers (among the five). What I want to do is be able to access either of those printers from any of my 5 computers. I asked at the local Staples and they say I have to buy a wireless router for each printer. This makes no sense to me as I should be able to go through the netwrok and out to either of the printers. I have loosely tried playing with the Network Wizard which doesn't seem to help much. Thoughts?

 

[Mark42]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

I think you make them shared on the PC's their attached to and you should be able to see them in the network neighborhood from the other PC's. Then select wich one you want to print from.

 

[RichP1269]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

Either share them accross the network or attach the printer you want to a print server. The print server is the easiest route because you do not need to have the computer the printer is hooked to turned on.<br />They make both wired and wireless print servers, just choose the one that best fits into your network.

 

[ndemge]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

Assuming the 2 computers with the printers attached are always on,<br /><br />Simply go to Start, Settings, printers....<br /><br />Right click the printer, and click on sharing, and share it out.<br /><br />On the other 4 computers, have them browse to that computer that has the printer, right click the printer that you should now see as shared, and click "connect" <br /><br />This is for when you are using the same operating system on all the computers.<br /><br />If the computer with the printer is win2k, and the others are XP or 2k, no problem. <br /><br />If one of the computer is win98 or ME, you will need to, on the computer with the printer installed "add additional drivers".. if this fits your situation, I'll go into this further.....<br /><br />The only reason to spend the money for a print server would be if you turn off the computers the printers are connected to.<br /><br />Personally, I never shut down any of my boxes.

 

[QC]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

I leave all of mine running AND have XP on all of them. I'll give that a try. Thanks.

 

[ndemge]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

You get it work'n?

 

[QC]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

No actually. I am having trouble just getting the "Network" to act like one. The destructions that show with the Wireless Network Wizard say to plug a flash drive into the PC, which I have done. Then it says to take that flash drive and plug it into the Wireless access point. I assume that the access point is my router, but it has no USB inputs, so I lose it right there. I think I am going to take some time and use the manual setup feature, but I think I may have other issues. One of the computers (mine) is a work unit that is part of my company's network that I access via a VPN connection. Can that unit be included in my home network?

 

[ndemge]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

put a 2nd network card in the work machine to have it on both networks

 

[Xcusme]

Re: Wireless home network and printers

If you're having trouble getting the network to act like one....you're most definitely going to have connectivity issues with sharing printers or any other resources on your network. Plan on working on just the 2 hard wired computers first, the wireless machines will come later.<br /><br />You didn't mention what operating systems you are running on your machines, it can make a difference as to the steps to be taken to get things singing along.<br /><br />Ideally, after you get everything configured right, you should be able to share files between your computers and all should be able to connect to the Web thru the router (if you have DSL/Broadband Internet). All computers will be able to print to the 2 printers (if the 2 computers they are connected to are turned on).<br /><br />Basics:<br /><br />Use 'straight' thru Cat5 cables, not cross over type cables between the router and the 2 hard wired computers and the router.<br /><br />2 ways to obtain an IP address from your router for each computer in your network.<br />a. Let the router issue IP addresses to your computers ( called DHCP) Dynamic setup<br />b. Manually assign an IP address to each machine yourself. I prefer this method myself. If you DO manually assign IP addresses to each machine, don't use an IP which falls within the DHCP range of the router (see below for more info).<br /><br /><br />All routers can be configured either way. Most come with DHCP turned on by default, and have a specific IP range available to your computers.<br /><br />Example:<br /><br />Linksys router<br />IP of router is 192.168.1.1 ( your Dlink might have an IP of 192.168.0.1)<br /><br />DHCP is enabled and has a range of 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.150 . This is enough IP address for 51 computers.<br /><br />If your computer is setup to 'Obtain an IP address automatically" (This will request an IP address from the DHCP pool of available IP's (192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.150). This first computer will get IP address 192.168.1.100. <br />If you then turn on another computer, it will get the next IP address from the pool ( 192.168.1.101)<br />The third computer will get 192.168.102 and so on......<br /><br />You can check the setting for your computer by clicking on Control Panel, Network icon, Right click on the NIC (network adaptor) and hit properties. Run down to TCP/IP and click on Advanced. This most likely will have "Obtain an IP Address Automatically" already checked, same for DNS boxes. If you were going to manually assign you own IP addresses, click the selection to assign your own and enter the info.<br /><br />Example for first computer:<br /><br />IP 192.168.1.20<br />Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0<br />Gateway: 192.168.1.1 ( this is the router IP address) Tip: Gateway = router<br />DNS: 192.168.1.1 <br /><br />2nd computer same as the first EXCEPT the IP address is different. ( we'll use a spacing of 5 )<br /><br />IP 192.168.1.25<br />Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0<br />Gateway: 192.168.1.1 ( this is the router IP address) Tip: Gateway = router<br />DNS: 192.168.1.1 <br /><br />3rd computer<br /><br />IP 192.168.1.30<br />Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0<br />Gateway: 192.168.1.1 ( this is the router IP address) Tip: Gateway = router<br />DNS: 192.168.1.1<br /><br />You can, of course, make the IP's go in order too..<br /><br />192.168.1.20<br />192.168.1.21<br />192.168.1.22<br />192.168.1.23 etc.<br /><br />You can jump around and assign any number you want , with these EXCEPTIONS:<br /><br />Don't use 192.168.1.1 ( this is the router's IP)<br /><br />Don't assign duplicate IP addresses<br /><br />Don't assign IP addresses within the routers DHCP range ( 192.168.1.100 thru 192.168.1.150)<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Other info:<br /><br />All of your computers should have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 <br /><br />All of your computers should have the same Group name ( default can be 'WORKGROUP' )<br /><br />All of your computers should have File and Print Sharing enabled<br /><br />All of your computers HAVE to have something shared for other computers on your network to 'SEE' the share. For security reasons, don't share the entire C drive. Make a folder called SHARED on each computer and make that one folder shared. <br /><br />Assign a login and password for each computer.<br /><br />Change the default router password!!! Use a STRONG password. <br />Weak password would be 'MyRouter' or "HomeNetwork"<br />Strong password would be $thixisMy*StuffQW@# ( write this down and keep in a safe place!!)<br /><br />Turn on WEPor WPA wireless encryption in the router. Use 128 bit encryption if using only WEP.<br />Change the default SSID (name of the wireless portion of your router) . Leaving the default name of 'default or Linksys' is a dead giveaway that if you didn't bother to change the SSID, you probably did'nt bother to change the routers default password either. Keep the script kiddies outta' you router boy! At least make it harder than leaving your router 'open' for others to use on your dime. <br /><br />This should get you started........There's lots more !!