Printing
 

I have a PC with printer, scanner and everything else in the office and a laptop without printer in the room next door next door. Both connect to the internet using my wifi system.

On the rare occasions I need to print something from the laptop I send it by e-mail as an attachment to the main PC. *send* from laptop, *receive* on PC, *print*. It works.

Is there any even simpler way of "remote printing" (other than via the giggle cloud) I should be aware of ?

Windows printer sharing: Share a printer

Ere yes, as previous post. Modern wifi enabled printers make things even easier.

It can get a bit confusing if the windows versions are different
What are they and what printer are you trying to use?

As per my post yesterday, I couldn't get the remote computers printing without going the Workgroup route. Spent ages going over and over the menus in the above link.

Is having the same PC 'name' on more than one computer, the issue? It didn't work until I modified the names.


Are there disadvantages to setting up Workgroups just for printing?

"Is having the same PC 'name' on more than one computer, the issue?"

that will cause a lot of confusion, not just for printing

A pal sent me this link. Seems rather complicated. Just posted to show the variance in ways/answers.

How do I make one computer print to another computer? - Yahoo! Answers


He talks of installing the required printer on the remote machine. Why would you do this if it's only ever to be remote?

I made a point of ridding the remote machines of all printers not directly attached. Occam's razor, and all that.




:suspect:

I would assume it's because the computer sending the job to the printer has to generate the correct instructions/data for the printer that will produce the output - the computer hosting the printer is only acting as a network connection rather than processing the document.

Rivits

you need the correct drivers installed on all the computers which are going to print to he printer. Each PC directly addresses the printer, even if its attached to another machine so each has to have drivers
In a network where all machines have the same operating system its relatively easy to pick up machines over the network and map them, though in XP (for instance) it can take some time for them to appear on the network
However when you get mixed windows versions involved, things become tricky as some combinations of operating system will require you to either install the printer as a LOCAL printer, printing to a newly created local TCP/IP port, while others will insist on you creating a network TCP/IP port. Its completely irrational and non-intuitive
Even worse, some newer printer drivers for Vista or Win7 actually use Apple's Bonjour print networking services - which to all appearances starts making mysterious hidden networks-within-networks to create connections

In a mixed network its always easier if the printer is attached to a Win7 or Vista PC - not an XP one. That way you can usually map the printer across the network. Do it the other way and then you have to start creating the fake TCP/IP ports I mentioned above

As I mentioned, I set up a Workgroup. I don't know if this makes any difference, because I certainly 'Removed Devices' - the existing HP Jet 4s - for both remotes, and I've just looked in Devices and Printers, and it's showing HP Laserjet 4 on Rivets-PC1 only.

PC1 is the one with the parallel port.

In a fit of . . . determination, on the laptop I removed everything before asking it to 'Add a Network Wireless or Bluetooth Printer.' In each case, it took a moment to search then showed PC1 which has become a kind of printer hub. Once it did that, it worked straight away.

(While I was making the error of using the same 'name' for the computers, it would not offer the other computer as a contender to highlight.)

Prior to this, my wife has often set up her computers to use the printers in my den. I'm almost certain we did not set up a Workgroup, so no doubt we would have had to have the printer installed on the remote units to do it by another method.



:suspect:

"As I mentioned, I set up a Workgroup"
Any machine from XP or earlier is automatically assigned to a Workgroupd - either "WORKGROUP" OR "MSHOME" depending on how the machine is set up. You can override this and use another workgroup name if you wish.
You can network multiple workgroups together if you like, as long at they have the compatible IP address ranges and subnet masks. Doing so complicates things and makes network discovery slower, but its not essential.
On a pure Vista or Win7 network, workgroup names become almost irrelevant as TCP/IP is the predominant way of finding a networked machine. There are workgroup names buried down in the system, but they are fairly irrelevant

Setting up the laptop in the way you have, suggests that its running WindowsXP. Its found the machine across the network and installed a driver from the preinstalled windows collection. You'll sometimes find that XP will do this automatically without any user intervention.
However if the laptop had Win Vista or Win7 installed that would not have worked - you would have to use the TCP/IP port creation method I mentioned earlier. What usually happens otherwise is it connects for that session, and then loses the connection on reboot

Oooerrrr. I'm off to get the laptop out and try it again. It's on Vista.:ooh:


I was just thinking about the password one of them issued. I can't remember which machine I was on when it happened. But it gave me the same one on two separate occasions. 1a6sA5VT9E I had never seen this happen before.

I have not made use of it.

Laptop tested, and it seems to print okay. Vista Printers showing the same, HP etc., Rivets-PC1 - but this time it is the only item listed as I'd dispensed with the others yesterday.