Solved: Cannot add printer to wireless home network

Following the procedure given in "Help and Support", I established a home network between my desktop computer and my laptop in the next room. It allows me to access from my laptop files in My Documents of my desktop and also flash drives in the USB ports of my desktop.

I neglected to include, when establishing the network, my printer, which is connected to my desktop for access from my laptop.
I have tried to add it by clicking on "sharing" in the Printers and Faxes area of Control Panel. I selected the printer and in the File pull down, I clicked "sharing". My laptop was booted before I began this effort. I went into the next room to see if the printer was among "My Network Places", but it was not. I rebooted my desktop to see if that effected the sharing of the printer, but it changed nothing.

What must I do to include my printer in the network?

 

This is frustrating! Trust me I know. So the computers are in the same workgroup right? File & Print Sharing added to both the computers and enabled? (look on the Exceptions tab and enable F&P sharing and double check that the firewall isn't enabled) You can access doc's from your Desktop from you laptop. Lets try this first...Have you looked in the Printers folder on the ME machine to see which port the printer is printing to? If it shows anything other then a network location, this may explain the problem. When the printer is added via the Add Printer wizard, you must choose a network printer location, if not a local port may be used.

No luck? Okay next. Follow instructions:

On the laptop, select: Control Panel/ Printers /Add Printer

Choose Add Local Printer. (Yes Local, NOT Network.) Uncheck the box marked "Automatically detect my PnP printer. Click Next:

Select Create a New Port and leave the default in the drop down selection as Local Port. Click Next

In the box asking for a port name type: \\Host name\printer name
DO NOT CLICK OK YET:
You must enter the host name - is the name of the desktop for example User-judf5564 or Home. AND for Printer Name you must type the printer you are referring to OffcPrnt. NOW Click OK

Then a list of printer vendors and models appears. The list looks just like the Windows Add Hardware Dialog. Select your printer manufacturer and printer model from the list. If your particular model wasn't shown click on Windows Update. Wait a while and the list of models will updated.
You can also choose the closest match and just update the driver.

Please try a Test Print and let me know if it works.

 

Thanks, VictoriaiiCE! Will try over the weekend. Have a good one!

 

No Problem! Have a nice weekend and keep me posted

 

To VictoriaiiCE: Good Morning! Your third sentence helped me, "File & Print Sharing added to both the computers and enabled?" I realized I had selected sharing for the printer on MAIN but not on my laptop. Since the printer was part of my MAIN computer, I thought that would be enough. It was not. I went to Printers and Faxes in Control Panel of my laptop and selected sharing for the printer on my MAIN computer, and that did the trick!

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction.

 

You are very welcome Come back anytime