Printer/File Sharing via Wireless network.

[Bungleau]

Hmmm... I'm not *completely* sure what you're referring to, Philip, but the challenge with using a shared printer instead of a networked printer is not that a computer has to be on, but that the *right* computer has to be on. In my house, that may or may not be the case. By having it networked, I never have to worry if the right one is on; it always is.

As well, I've run into issues with print drivers. Trying to print to my HP 842C (shared on my Win98 machine) from my Win2K machine was a nightmare... the drivers weren't completely compatible, and the work I had to go through was ridiculous. Putting in the print server was a piece of cake, and eliminated those cross-OS issues.

So, even though you *can* share a printer, my experience is that it's far easier to network it.

On the topic of wireless security, remember that just like locks on a house, it's there to keep honest people honest. A real crook would not be deterred by the locks on your house, and someone who wants to break into your network will do so. It doesn't mean that you leave the thing wide open, but that you protect it adequately and have good plans to restrict what someone might do once they get in.

[philip]

Originally posted by Bungleau: Hmmm... I'm not *completely* sure what you're referring to, Philip, but the challenge with using a shared printer instead of a networked printer is not that a computer has to be on, but that the *right* computer has to be on. In my house, that may or may not be the case. By having it networked, I never have to worry if the right one is on; it always is.

Yeah that's what I meant, that both were on. But I agree it's easier if that's not sure or doesn't happen alot.

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

hey folks. I had another go at it today, and got it to work. I first made the machines ping each other, and found that interestingly enough, the wifi machine could print the ethernet, but not vice versa. That was rather strange, so I fiddled with some settings. My router was also configured properly, so I quit Norton and Norton Auto Detect, and then added it. Then all of my network printers showed up. Norton (even though off) promptly came up with a warning about how network printers can contain viruses, and after telling it yes, I did want to continue, it seemed to work fine. I printed a test page and it worked fine, so then I printed a test page with Norton back on, and it worked fine. So it seems to have automatically confgured on Norton.

Problem solved [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

Kewl! Sometimes you just need a little time away to get everything back to rights [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Cloudbringer]

Ross, that's great. And thanks for bringing this one back up, I was looking for it the other day!