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Setting Up for Shared Printing
Point and Print
Peer-to-Peer
You can share your printer on the network using the Drivers and Utilities CD that shipped with your printer, or using Microsoft® point and print or peer-to-peer method. However, if you use one of the Microsoft methods, features such as the Status Monitor and other printer utilities will not be available.
To share a locally-attached printer on the network, you need to share the printer, and then install the shared printer on network clients:
For Windows® XP, Windows Server® 2003, and Windows 2000:
- Click start® Printers and Faxes (Printers for Windows 2000).
- Right-click the printer icon and select Properties.
- From the Sharing tab, check the Share this printer (Share as for Windows
2000) check box, and then type a name in the Share name (Share as for
Windows 2000) text box.
- Click Additional Drivers and select the operating systems of all network
clients printing to this printer.
- Click OK.
If you are missing files, you will be prompted to insert the server operating system CD.
For Windows Vista®:
- Click Start® Control Panel® Hardware and Sound® Printers.
- Right-click the printer icon and select Sharing.
- Click Change sharing options button.
- The dialog box displaying "Windows needs your permission to continue"
appears.
- Click Continue button.
- Check the Share this printer check box, and then type a name in the Share
name text box.
- Click Additional Drivers and select the operating systems of all network
clients printing to this printer.
- Click OK.
For Windows Server 2008:
- Click Start® Control Panel® Printers.
- Right-click the printer icon and select Sharing.
- Check the Share this printer check box, and then type a name in the Share
name text box.
- Click Additional Drivers and select the operating systems of all network
clients printing to this printer.
- Click OK.
To check that the printer is successfully shared:
- Ensure that the printer object in the Printers or Printers and Faxes folder is shared. A icon of sharing is shown underneath the printer icon.
- Browse Network or My Network Places. Find the host name of the server and look for the shared name you assigned to the printer.
Now that the printer is shared, you can install the printer on the network clients using the point and print method or the peer-to-peer method.
Point and Print
This method is usually the best use of system resources. The server handles driver modifications and print job processing. This lets network clients return to their programs much faster.
If you use the point and print method, a subset of driver information is copied from the server to the client computer. This is just enough information to send a print job to the printer.
For Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000:
- Click start®My Network Places.
For Windows 2000: Double-click My Network Places.
For Windows Server 2003: Click Start®All Programs®Accessories® Windows Explorer®My Network Places.
- Locate the host name of the server computer, and then double-click the
host name.
- Right-click the shared printer name, and then click Connect.
Wait for the driver information to copy from the server computer to the client computer, and for a new printer object to be added to the Printers and Faxes (Printers for Windows 2000) folder. The copy time varies, based on network traffic and other factors.
Close My Network Places.
- Print a test page to verify installation.
- Click start® Printers and Faxes (Printers for Windows 2000).
- Select the printer you just created.
- Click File® Properties.
- From the General tab, click Print Test Page.
When a test page prints successfully, installation is complete.
For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008:
- Click Start® Network.
- Locate the host name of the server computer, and then double-click the
host name.
- Right-click the shared printer name, and then click Connect.
- Click Install driver.
- Click Continue in User Account Control dialog box (You can skip this
step in Windows Server 2008).
- Wait for the driver information to copy from the server computer to the
client computer, and for a new printer object to be added to the Printers
folder. The time this takes varies, based on network traffic and other
factors.
- Print a test page to verify installation.
- Click Start® Control Panel® Hardware and Sound® Printers (Start®
Control Panel® Printers for Windows Server 2008).
- Right-click the printer you just created and select Properties.
- From the General tab, click Print Test Page.
When a test page prints successfully, installation is complete.
Peer-to-Peer
If you use the peer-to-peer method, the printer driver is fully installed on each client computer. Network clients retain control of driver modifications. The client computer handles the print job processing.
For Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000:
- Click start® Printers and Faxes (Printers for Windows 2000).
- Click Add a Printer to launch the Add Printer wizard.
- Click Next.
- Select A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer, and
then click Next (For Windows 2000, select the network printer from the
Shared printers list). If the printer is not listed, type in the path of the
printer in the text box.
For example: \\<server host name>\<shared printer name>
The server host name is the name of the server computer that identifies it to the network. The shared printer name is the name assigned during the server installation process.
- Click Browse for a printer, and then click Next (For Windows 2000, click
OK).
If this is a new printer, you may be prompted to install a printer driver. If no system driver is available, then you will need to provide the path to the available drivers.
- Select whether you want this printer to be the default printer for the
client, click Next, and then click Finish (For Windows 2000, click Finish).
- Print a test page to verify installation:
- Click start® Settings® Printers and Faxes (Printers for Windows
2000).
- Select the printer you just created.
- Click File® Properties.
- From the General tab, click Print Test Page.
When a test page prints successfully, installation is complete.
For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008:
- Click Start® Control Panel® Hardware and Sound® Printers (Start®
Control Panel® Printers for Windows Server 2008).
- Click Add a Printer to launch the Add Printer wizard.
- Select Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer, and then click Next.
If the printer is listed, select the printer and click Next, or select The
printer that I want isn't listed and type in the path of the printer in the
Select a shared printer by name text box and click Next.
For example: \\<server host name>\<shared printer name>
The server host name is the name of the server computer that identifies it to the network. The shared printer name is the name assigned during the server installation process.
- If this is a new printer, you may be prompted to install a printer driver. If
no system driver is available, then you will need to provide the path to the
available drivers.
- Select whether you want this printer to be the default printer for the
client, click Next.
- If you want to verify installation then click Print a test page.
- Click Finish.
When a test page prints successfully, installation is complete.
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