NA Printer sharing

[Let'sgoflying!]

I have a desktop connected to a printer at work.

Some days I bring a laptop to work and want to use the desktop computer's printer.

The desktop has no modem
The wire connection between desktop and printer is inaccessible
They both have a USB port

The easiest thing for me would be to plug the laptop into the desktop with a USB-USB cable. But if I do that, will I be able to access the printer through this cable?

OR
Can a printer cable be Y-ed? Ie out of printer to a Y, each leg of the Y goes to a different computer.

 

[Bob Noel]

what OS?

 

[mjburian]

Assuming they're both on a network, you can share the printer on the desktop and print (via the network) from the laptop. That's how I've got it set up at my house.

On the desktop:
Right-click on the printer and go to Properties. On the Sharing tab, select "Share this printer" and give the printer a name. Click OK to close the window. Also, determine the IP address of the desktop PC (Start > Run... type CMD and hit enter... type ipconfig and note the IP address)

On the laptop:
Add a new printer, and select "network printer" instead of "local printer". I can't remember what the options are at the next step, but I always choose the last one (something to do with "over the internet or on a local network"). The name of the printer you want to connect to would be

\\{Desktop IP Address}\{Name you gave the printer when you shared it}

For instance, it could be something like \\192.168.123.34\OfficePrinter

Hope this helps.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

One important addition to Marty's instructions, unless you really want to aggravate yourself with how to do a network login... when you share the printer, give "Everyone" permissions to print... to do this, on the Security tab of the printer sharing dialog, add "Everyone" (without the quote, just enter the 'catch-all' username of 'everyone') rights to submit and print jobs.

EDIT: OK, some IT sites say granting "Everyone" rights to a printer share is a security risk: http://www.tcd.ie/ITSecurity/guidelines/printer.php

You didn't say if this printer is connected to the computer via a USB cable or via a parallel LPT1-style cable. Do you know which it has? If you use a USB printer, then a USB Print Server (like this one or this one is the easy solution to this problem.

You plug this box into your network router, and plug your printer into the box. Any computer on your network can see the printer. This has the added benefit that the computer your printer is currently plugged into doesn't have to be powered up for you to print.

Also, do you plug into your network with your laptop, or access your office network via WiFi?