Sharing a Local Printer

Any Windows XP Professional computer can share its printer with other network users. While printer sharing may be discouraged on many enterprise networks where dedicated printer servers usually manage network printers, printer sharing is often used on small networks. When a computer running Windows XP Professional is set up to share a locally connected printer, it acts like a print server by accepting print jobs from network computers and then spooling them on the computer's local hard drive.

Note 

In order to share local printers, drives, and folders with other computers on a network, the Windows XP File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks service must be installed. For information about this service and how to install it, refer to Chapter 18, "LAN Configuration."

The Windows XP Professional Add Printer Wizard offers to set up a local printer as a shared resource when it is first installed. However, Windows XP Professional can be set up to share a local printer at any time, as outlined in the following procedure.

Note 

In order to share a network printer, it must first be installed. For detailed instructions on how to install a local printer, refer to "Printer Installation" in Chapter 5, "Printer and Fax Administration."

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel. The Windows XP Control Panel appears.

2. Click on Printers and Other Hardware. The Printers and Other Hardware dialog appears.

3. Click on Printers and Faxes. The Printers and Faxes folder appears.

4. Right-click on the printer that is to be shared and select Sharing.

5. The printer's property dialog appears. The Sharing property sheet is automatically displayed.

6. Select the Share this printer option and then type a description for the printer, as shown in Figure 19.3.

   
   Figure 19.3: Sharing a local printer over the network

7. Optionally, click on Additional Drivers to select and store printer software drivers for other operating systems on the network that may be used to connect to the printer, as shown in Figure 19.4. This allows Windows XP Professional to automatically download the appropriate printer driver to network computers that connect to the shared printer.

   
   Figure 19.4: Configuring Windows XP Professional to store printer drivers for other Windows operating systems

8. Select each operating system that may be used to connect to the printer and click on OK.

9. Supply the location of the printer software driver for each Microsoft operating system when prompted and click on OK.

10. A list of printers appears. Select the printer being shared and click on OK.

11. Click on Close.

12. If the name assigned to the shared printer exceeds eight characters, a prompt will appear warning that computers running MS-DOS will not be able to connect to it. Click on Yes if there are no MS-DOS computers on the network that will need to access the printer.