Windows 7 / Networking

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Sharing printers on a home network

There are several reasons to connect and share printers on a home network. You can print to a network printer from any computer on the network, place your printer anyplace you have wired or wireless access in your house, and reduce printer ink and paper costs by using fewer printers.

As you've seen previously in this tutorial, there are several ways to connect a computer to a network, wired and wirelessly. It's the same with printers, except there a few more options. The following list describes the more typical ways of connecting a printer to a network:

• A connection to a network computer: Attach a printer to a computer on the network, install the printer on that computer, and then share the printer through your HomeGroup settings. You can do this with any printer that attaches to your computer with a cable.
• A connection directly to your router: If you have a printer that is wired-network ready, you can connect an Ethernet cable from the router to the printer. The only limit on placement of the printer is how long you want to run the cable from the router to the printer.
• A wireless connection to your network: If you have a printer that is wireless-network ready, you can place the printer anyplace within range of your wireless network.
• Through a network-attached storage (NAS) device on your network: A NAS is an external hard drive that attaches directly to your network, usually via an Ethernet cable. Some NAS devices have one or more USB ports, which you can plug your printer into directly.

Choosing which printers to attach to your network

Have you ever wanted to print a photo, only to realize that the photo printer is attached to another computer, not the one you are using? Or most of the time you need only plain black-and-white printing, but the color printer is more convenient (and more costly) because it is attached to the main family computer everybody uses? If you want to use the right printer for the job, either you have to copy the files to the computer that has the printer you want, and print from there, or you have to physically move the printer from the other computer to the computer you are now using. These are great reasons to put your printers on a network.

Printers are cheap. Sometimes computer retailers practically give them away when you buy a computer. Printer ink is expensive, especially color. So having the right printer available can save you money, especially if most of the time you need only black-and-white printing.

The following sections describe the most common types of printers used at home.

Color printers

Color printers usually have separate cartridges for the three primary colors and a separate cartridge for black ink. Most of these printers today use inkjet technology, but some now use laser cartridges, which previously were available for only black-and-white printing. Usually you replace the color cartridges as a set, and the black cartridge separately. Color printers are versatile, because they can print in colors or black-and-white, and can be used for everything from a plain document to a high-quality glossy photo, comparable to what you would get if you took your photos into the drug store for printing.

All-in-one printers

All-in-one printers are usually color printers with a scanner and fax built in. These are handy because most allow you to use them as a straight copier, the scanner allows you to digitize photos or documents from a hard copy, and you can use the scanner to send a page as a fax.

Though you can share an all-in-one printer on your home network, with some models you cannot share the scanner or fax features. To use those features, you must use them from the computer that is attached to the all-in-one.

Photo printers

What makes photo printers different from regular color printers is that they are designed to print a little finer detail, and often have optional printer cartridges designed especially for photos. They also usually include camera card slots so that you can plug your camera's memory card directly into the printer, and select which photos to print without ever connecting to a computer. Some offer a small screen to help you locate, crop, and edit the photos before printing. Many regular color printers now offer memory card slots. The paper input tray can accommodate paper from standard size 8 1/2x11 inches down to 4x6-inch photographs.

Personal photo printers

These printers are much smaller, sometimes about 2/3 the size of a shoe box or tissue box. Their main purpose is to print photos from digital cameras, and they are usually limited to printing 4x6-inch photographs. Because these printers are so small, they are very portable. Some offer rechargeable battery options. With this portability, and the capability to download and print directly from the camera or memory card, you can use these much like people used Polaroid cameras to print out pictures on the spur of the moment at parties and gettogethers.

Black-and-white (monochrome) laser printers

These printers use a single black-ink laser cartridge, and the technology is similar to that used in copying machines. Monochrome laser printers will save you huge amounts in printing costs. They print faster than the inkjet color printers, and the ink does not smear on the paper as it does for the first few minutes after inkjet printing. A single cartridge for a laser printer costs more than color printer cartridges, but it lasts two to three times longer.

Recommendations

There is no perfect printer or one-size-fits-all solution for you or your home network, but the following tips, along with the preceding descriptions of the printer types, should help you choose. Don't rush right out and buy a printer or printers based on these recommendations.

• Use a black-and-white printer whenever possible. On every computer, make this your default printer. Otherwise, when people print something, they may not take the extra step to select the black-andwhite printer if a color printer is your default printer. Black-and-white laser printers may cost more up front, but if you do any amount of printing, it will pay for itself in a year or so.
• Use your local drug store or camera store for printing large quantities of photos, if not all photos. Studies have shown that printing photos from your home computer costs about the same or more than the regular price of ordering prints from your local drug store or camera store.
• If you must have a color printer, most all-in-one printers offer nearly all the features and quality of a color photo printer.
• If you receive a "free" printer when you buy your computer, and you already have printers you use and like better, consider using the free printer only until the ink needs replacing. Then compare the ink replacement costs of your old and new printers and decide which one makes more sense to keep.
• If you do decide to buy a new printer, consider one that offers wired/wireless network connections.