Archive: Business & Technology

Dr. Digit 'Splains It AllDr. Digit 'Splains It All

No doubt your parents taught you to share.  Sharing is good, even when you are computer equipment.  Sharing a printer makes a lot of sense if you have more than one computer.  Sometimes it even makes sense to share a keyboard, monitor and mouse.  Other times it makes sense to share files.  Sharing generally means you have set up a network, which generally means you have more than one person using more than one computer somewhere in your home or business. 

This week I'm going to talk about sharing printers.  We share a printer at our house.  The printer sits next to my computer, but my wife can print coupons from Borders on it from her computer, and the kids can print homework on it as well.  The first few times they did this after I got it set up I nearly hit the ceiling.  There I was, intently staring at my screen, completely absorbed in whatever I was working on.  All of a sudden the trusty old ink-jet started printing something with the chug-chug noise it makes and paper slowly making its way along the rollers.  Yipe!  They had to scrape me off the ceiling!

Now that I'm (sort of) used to it, the benefits of the arrangement are more evident.  The biggest benefit is that we only need one printer.  That means we only need cartridges and ink for the one printer, and we always know where to find them.  It also means that the person who knows how to maintain the printer can do so from the comfort of his own office.

The downside is that others who print on it have to come here to get their stuff.  That can be a nuisance if they are printing something they have to see and then adjust, but since we also share files on our network they can work on my computer the few times they need to.  And there's that ceiling thing...

When you set up a printer on your computer there are three elements.  The first is, of course, the printer.  Then you have the program you are using, whether it be a word processor, spreadsheet or drawing program.  You don't deal directly with the third one, which is called a "driver."  Drivers are little pieces of software that are specific to a specific piece of hardware.  Each printer has its own driver.  Drivers get data from your computer programs and translate it into something your hardware can understand so that when you print that picture of Aunt Bessie that you see on the screen, Aunt Bessie is the one you see in the print-out.

The reason drivers are used is simple:  if your word processor had to be able to talk intelligently to every possible printer ever made past, present and future, it would be such a huge program that your hard drive would fill up.  Not to mention that future printers wouldn't work -- you'd have to get a whole new word processor.  Multiply that by all the programs you have that print and you begin to see the problem.

As a result, these programs are written to send a common stream of data to whichever driver happens to be installed.  The driver just has the software for one printer, so it doesn't take much space on your hard drive.  And all the programs that print can send their data to this one driver -- you don't need separate ones for your spreadsheet and your photo printing software and your data base and your Web browser.

From the computer's point of view, it has to think there is a printer attached to it, and it has to have the right driver set up to talk to the printer.  If you have one computer you probably plug your printer directly into it, either using the parallel port or a USB port.  On a network you can do it this way, but when Junior wants to print his homework from upstairs it will only work if your computer is also turned on.

On a network you need to set up the driver on each computer.  But the actual printer can either be on one computer or on a print server.  A print server is a computer that you attach your printer to, but without the computer.  Actually it is just a box that is assigned its own address so the computers on the network can find printers plugged into it.  And if Junior wants to print his homework it doesn't matter if you turned your computer off, because the server lets any computer print -- it's plugged directly into the network, not into any one computer.

How do you share a printer?  First you have to have file and print sharing enabled.  In Windows this is done by going to "My Network Places" (or "Network Neighborhood" on older systems).  Right click and find the link for your network.  In XP it will be "Network Bridge."  Right click that and a list of network services will be shown.  If one of them is "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" you are all set.  If not press the Install button and install it.

That simply enables sharing.  It doesn't actually share something.  So the next step is to set up your printer so other computers can share it.  In Control Panel go to "Printers and Faxes" and right click the printer you want to share, then choose "Sharing" from the menu.  Click "Share this Printer" and give it a name that everyone will understand.  "Family Printer" is a good name.

Now go to your other computer and make sure sharing is turned on.  Install the printer in the same way you did on the first computer.  That installs the driver.  Do not print a test page at this point, because #2 computer doesn't actually know where the printer is at this point.

Once the printer is set up you should see it in "Printers and Faxes" and if you right click and pick "Properties" the printer's setup window will pop up.  Choose the "Ports" tab and pick the name you set up for sharing on the original computer.  Click OK to accept your settings and try printing a test page.  If all is well, it should work.

Using a print server is a little trickier, because you have to set up a unique IP address for it (the manual will tell you how, optimistically speaking).  Print servers can sometimes handle more than one printer, so it may need you to set up one port or another before any of your computers can find your printer.  Generally it's worth the extra setup.

What we have learned in this discussion is that your parents were right: sharing IS good.  It can save you money and supplies, making networking more affordable.  As long as you don't end up splattered on the ceiling...

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