clueless on wireless

Question

I am usually very good with computers, but the networking and wireless stuff has got me stumped so if anyone can offer me some help I would greatly appreciate it.

I have a desktop computer that is wired to a printer, a modem, and a wireless router. My husband has a laptop that he connects to the internet wirelessly through the wireless router. Somehow I got all that to work fine, but now he wants to use my printer wirelessly from his laptop. How can we do that? Do I need to buy anything else or can we get it to work through the wireless rounter and desktop pc that we already have? I have gone through dell's learning pages on networking, but I just don't understand. I'm afraid I must be getting old.

The computers are both dell as is the printer. The wireless rounter is netgear and the modem is a speedstream.

kikomatsing · Answer

no need to buy any devices... just make sure the printer sharing is enabled on your desktop in w/c your printer is connected... once it is shared make sure also that your desktop and laptop is on the same workgroup/network name... once you obtain all in your desktop, go to your laptop then access your desktop... double click the icon for printer and see if the printer on the desktop is shared the drivers will be installed automatically then you try printing..

jmwills · Answer

If the print fails, more than likley you have a third party firewall running.  Sharing a printer is like sharing files.  Remember permisisons and firewalls for home networks.

mom2four · Answer

Wow!  Now I really feel clueless and I'm wondering how I ever got the wireless router to work.  I've tried multiple ways to create a network, but I can't seem to get it.  The directions on my pc tell me to save the info to a flash drive then plug it into the router and then into the laptop, but my router doesn't have a USB port.  All the directions I find for a wireless network are for instances when both computers are wireless.  My desktop is NOT wireless and is connected with an ethernet cable.  The laptop is wireless through a netgear wireless router.  I've tried and tried this for 2 days and I'm still clueless as to how this works.  Don't know if there's any helping me or not, but I would love for someone to try.  Thanks!

mom2four · Answer

Okay, so I can't get the network set up right.  I use the 'network setup wizard' and when I put the info on the flash drive and put it in the laptop I always get an error that says 'Cannot complete the network setup wizard An error occurred during configuration of the network on this computer.  You can configure your network manually, or you can run the wizard again with different settings.'  I've tried different settings and always get the same thing.  I don't know how to do it manually.  Now how do I do it?  Does it matter that my desktop runs Windows XP and the laptop is Vista?

jmwills · Answer

http://willsit.com/resources.aspxXP:Setup:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/setup/default.mspxhttp://www.pcworld.com/video/id,368-page,1-bid,0/video.htmlhttp://www.practicallynetworked.com/howto/http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/default.mspxConnection Issues:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/maintain/troubleshoot.mspxFile Sharing:http://www.theeldergeek.com/quick_guide_to_simple_file_sharing.htmSecurity:http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Security.htmlVista Networking:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905087.aspxStay away from the wizard and do it manually

mom2four · Answer

Thank you so much to everyone!  We finally figured it out and then it turns out that we have to turn off the virus protection on both pcs to get it to work.  I DO NOT want to do that so we're looking for another solution.  Thanks again!

jmwills · Answer

Define 'turn off virus protection'.  I've never seen that happen but are you talking about anohter feature within a 'suite' of applications such as from Norton or Mcafee?  The firewall applications within the suite might block an outbound connection or prohibit file sharing if not properly configured.

mom2four · Answer

The dell technician checked all the settings and said that we have to turn of McAfee all together on both machines for the file and printer sharing to work.  Still looking for another option as that is NOT an option for us.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

clueless on wireless

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