Does a shared printer require the PC its connected to to be on to print from the other computer?
Well i just created a home network between the PC and the laptop and it’s working great.But i was just wondering if the PC the printer is connected to,is off,can it print from another computer that it’s shared with?
October 21st, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Yes, the PC that the printer is connected needs to be on in order to work. The PC is acting as a print server on your home network.
October 21st, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Yes, unless the printer has a network connection
October 21st, 2010 at 9:45 pm
If the shared printer is directly connected to the printer, then yes it needs to be on.
As an option one day…
There are some printers that will let you connect two PCs directly to them. In my network, my wife’s computer is connected to the HP1215 printer with a parallel cable, and my PC is connected to the same printer through the USB. We both can be connected at the same time and print as needed. There are only a few printers that can do this though.
October 21st, 2010 at 10:26 pm
The short answer is yes.
Now you can make the printer a network printer by purchasing and installing a print server. The printer usb cable plugs into the print server and the print server connects to your LAN. It is given a static IP address on your LAN. All pcs have to be configured for the network printer and identified by its IP address. Details on how to do this are in the literature that comes with print servers.