printer sharing???

[briannaplaysbassyea]

first, i'm 15. i make this disclaimer a lot cuz people will over-explain things with HUGE words i don't understand, so this is so you know you need to dumb things down a bit.

second, my parents really can't help me. i was blessed with the nerdiness/tech geek abilities in my family. they actually come to me when the computers broken XD



okay, so the thing is, i want to use their printer. instead of getting out my crappy 256mb flash drive (need a bigger one) and running across the house to their printer. and also because i'm lazy and its kinda cool.

we're on a wireless network. we have a small house, and from my room to theirs i get 3-4/5 bars of signal. so connection, not a problem. we both have vista. i have vista home premium 32 bit, and they have home basic 64 bit.

i went to microsoft.com hoping to get some directions. FAIL. their directions are unhelpful to me. always have been. i proceeded to go to yahoo answers. FAIL. then i remembered why i answer more questions there then ask them.

but what i got so far, using Microsoft is: turned on the sharing for the printer in their room, created password for my computer and theirs, and i attempted to find the printer on my network. FAIL. tried to "find" it using the finder thing. FAIL. tried too look for it manually. FAIL.

please ignore my lack of ability to draw with a mouse. the reason i censor my parent computer is cuz it had our last name on it. as well as first.


so yeah, what am i doing wrong???

please assume that i'm missing steps. cuz i probably am.

 

[KSoD]

Well the first thing you have to do is make sure that the printer can even be shared over the network. That would be done via your parents PC. Make sure that they allow access to the printer. Also you will most likely have to install the Drivers on your PC as well.

 

[Lexluethar]

As Mak said first share the printer on your parents computer. Open the printer area and right click the printer, then click share.

After that go to your computer and click printer sharing on. You can change that setting in your first picture by clicking the right arrow and enabling sharing.

Next step is the tricky one in which you find the printer shared. On your computer:

Click the Windows icon in the bottom left.
Click control pannel.
Double click printers.
Click add printer.
Then click network printer.
There should be your printer.
Click next.
Vista should connect and automatically install the drivers needed.

Note that if this is a multi function printer you won't be able to scan/fax/etc unless you install the drivers from the manufacturer. Also if you can't see the device when you click 'add network printer' ensure it is shared, and if it is restart both computers and try again.