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I have an old Thompson ST780i WL router and Speedport W 724V Type Ci that I don't use any more.

How would I connect a laptop and I desk pc, let's call them A and B, to a printer (C) in a small network?

The current situation is that A and B are via Wifi connected to a third router D, which is out of this story. I have no physical line access to it. If the printer had Wifi connection ability I guess that the story would be over very quickly once I connect C to a network that A and B are on.

For now, A and B are connected to a C with a line cable, one at each time, so I need to unplug A and plug B and vice versa, which is annoying.

Could I use Thompson or Speedport to create a separate network and connect via ethernet A and B so the can print at the same time not dealing with cables anymore?

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    Connect the printer permanently to the desktop, then share it. It will then be accessible from the laptop whenever the desktop is running. How you do this depends on your OS.
    – AFH
    Oct 22, 2018 at 16:47
  • You can get more useful answers/comments if you can indicate what OS your computers are running. Oct 22, 2018 at 17:05
  • thank you; I was able to solve challenge I was facing with sharing printer.
    – MiniBug
    Oct 25, 2018 at 10:48
  • If what we posted wasn't the solution you used, go ahead and post what you did to solve your problem as the answer, and then mark it as such. This will help others who experience the same issue find the solution here. Oct 25, 2018 at 15:34

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Sharing printers is pretty standard and supported by all modern OSes. If your printer lacks a dedicated network jack, this is the best solution and will work so long as the computer the printer is connected is powered on.

Alternatively, if your printer has a dedicated network jack you simply plug the printer into the same router the other computers are on and configure according to its instructions.

Regarding wireless printers: They're a pain and often deceptive. Most inexpensive "wireless" printers do not connect to an existing wireless network, but instead broadcast their own wireless network which the computer must connect to in order to print. For those that do connect to the existing wireless network, when they are asleep they are usually no longer connected and so have to be manually woken up in order to connect to the wireless network, appear online, and then actually receive documents and print. I have, personally, found wireless printers not worth the effort.

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  • If the printer is connected via USB and shared across the network but you still can't find it, use the PC that it's connected to as the print server. If you're running on Windows, the "Add a Printer" menu has an options to query by server (should be the 2nd option), requiring \\[PrintServerName]\[PrinterName]. Oct 22, 2018 at 17:23
  • thank you; I was able to solve the challenge I was facing with sharing printer.
    – MiniBug
    Oct 25, 2018 at 10:48

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