Question: Creating and Connecting to a Shared Printer Time Required: 10 minutes Objective: Create and connect to a shared printer. Required Tools and Equipment: Net-XX, a computer with a shared printer that all student computers can connect to (or students can connect to each other's shared printers) Description: In this project, you create a shared printer and then connect to it. You don't connect to an actual printer device, but this project walks you through the process of creating a printer, sharing it, and then connecting to a shared printer.
1. If necessary, log on to your computer as Net Admin.
2. Click in the Search text box on the taskbar, type Devices and Printers, and press Enter. Click Add a printer in the Devices and Printers window. Windows searches for devices. Click The printer that I want isn't listed.
3. Click Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings, and then click Next. In the "Choose a printer port" window, leave the default option Use an existing port selected, and then click Next. In the "Install the printer driver" window, normally you select the printer's manufacturer and model, but because there's no physical printer, just accept the default selection, and then click Next.
4. In the "Type a printer name" window, click Next. In the Printer Sharing window, make sure Share this printer so that others on your network can find and use it is selected. For the share name, type My Printer, and then click Next. Click to clear the Set as the default printer check box. If you were actually installing a printer, you would click "Print a test page," but for this project, just click Finish.
5. To connect to a shared printer, ask your instructor whether a printer share is set up, or you can use another student's shared printer. In Windows, you can't connect to your own printer, as you did with the shared folder. Click in the Search text box on the taskbar, type \\computer, and press Enter (replacing computer with the name of the computer sharing the printer, such as net-01 or net-instr).
6. When the window opens, right-click the shared printer and click Connect. In the Devices and Printers window, verify that the printer was created. It's listed as "Printer make and model on computer."
7. Close all open windows.