Print from laptop via Wifi to USB printer attached to desktop?
June 10, 2020 7:54 AM Subscribe
I have a wired usb printer attached to a desktop. I'm tired of carting files from the laptop to the desktop when I want to print. It seems like there should be a utility that will send my file from the laptop to the desktop and have the desktop print it. Does this exist? Both computers are windows.
Can confirm that Windows printer sharing will be exactly what you need if you can make it go. If you can't, post back here with a description of where the process appears to be failing and either I or somebody else will tell you where to hit it and with what size hammer.
posted by flabdablet at 8:30 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 8:30 AM on June 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Printer sharing will work great, assuming you're OK with having the desktop turned on whenever you want to print from the laptop.
They do make little devices called "print servers" that allow you to turn a USB printer into a networked (either wired or wireless) printer. But, they're shockingly expensive (like, $50-$100+). This, despite the fact that you can buy a whole mini computer (e.g. Raspberry Pi) for way less than that which can work as a print server.
posted by Betelgeuse at 9:24 AM on June 10, 2020
They do make little devices called "print servers" that allow you to turn a USB printer into a networked (either wired or wireless) printer. But, they're shockingly expensive (like, $50-$100+). This, despite the fact that you can buy a whole mini computer (e.g. Raspberry Pi) for way less than that which can work as a print server.
posted by Betelgeuse at 9:24 AM on June 10, 2020
FWIW, I recently bought a $20 print server, which worked for exactly one print job. Which is better than its warranty replacement did. So I bought a Raspberry Pi and installed print-server software on that, and so far, so good. You need to be comfortable navigating a command line to do this, but it's not that hard.
posted by adamrice at 9:48 AM on June 10, 2020
posted by adamrice at 9:48 AM on June 10, 2020
I had printer sharing working at one point in the past. I forget which version of Windows it was, but pre-Win 7, I think. When I replaced the desktop, I was unable to get sharing to work again. Obviously, I dont know exactly what the problem was, but my suspicion was that I had unwittingly given the new desktop the same name as the Wifi network or some other software object I'd forgotten existed. Or maybe a password that I'd jotted down was no longer correct.
Even when it was working, the sharing setting would come unstuck every now and then, and I'd have to reset it.
If you share the laptop files with the desktop, you can print directly from the laptop while sitting at the desktop.
posted by SemiSalt at 10:33 AM on June 10, 2020
Even when it was working, the sharing setting would come unstuck every now and then, and I'd have to reset it.
If you share the laptop files with the desktop, you can print directly from the laptop while sitting at the desktop.
posted by SemiSalt at 10:33 AM on June 10, 2020
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posted by Alterscape at 8:01 AM on June 10, 2020 [3 favorites]