TechDish: Easy Home Networking Tips - File and Printer Sharing

Posted on: Fri, 04/30/2010 - 12:18 — us104_techdish

Today on TechDish we're going to show you how you can set up folder and printer sharing on your home network. As scary as that may sound—it's not! With a little bit of time, and help from our easy tutorial, you'll have sharing set up in no time!

Why would I want to share my folders or printer(s)?

If you have more than one computer in your home, and have had to email files to yourself to get them from one computer to another, this tutorial is for you. Just think…a world where you can print direct from your couch, desk, kitchen—wherever you and your laptop might be in your home! No more unplugging the printer from one computer to plug it into the next. No more using flash drives or emailing yourself to transfer your files. Sounds great, right? Read on…

Prerequisites

To set up folder and/or printer sharing, you will need all of the following:

• A home network managed by a router (can be wired, wireless, or both)
• More than one computer, connected to the network
• A printer, connected to one of the computers

Caveats

Did you know? You do not need an active internet connection for your file and printer sharing to work!

We've talked before about the importance of setting up security on your wireless network—when you start sharing files and printers on your network, this becomes much more critical. Unless you want your shared files and printers to be freely accessible, lock down that wireless connection. Remember, anyone connecting to your wireless network will be able to access your shared items!

Enough talk, let's have the tutorials!

• File and printer sharing for Windows XP

• File and printer sharing for Windows Vista

  …Coming Soon!

• File and printer sharing for Windows 7

  …Coming Soon!