icon. If your computer is already configured to work with a network printer, an icon for the network printer appears in the Printers folder see the icon in
the margin. You can tell a network printer from a local printer by the shape of the printer icon. Network printer icons have a pipe attached to the bottom
of the printer.
If you don’t have a network printer configured for your computer, you can add one by using the Add Printer wizard. Just follow these steps:
1. Open the Add a Printer icon in the Printers folder to start the Add Printer wizard.
The wizard asks whether you want to add a local or a network printer.
2. Choose Network.
The wizard asks you to specify a printer.
3. Choose the Browse option and click the Next button.
A dialog box similar to the one in Figure 3-2 appears, showing the com- puters and shared resources available in My Network Places. Sniff around
in this dialog box until you find the printer you want to use from your computer.
4. Click the name of the printer you want to use.
If you can’t find the printer you want to use, ask your network adminis- trator for the printer’s UNC path, which is the name used to identify the
printer on the network. Then, instead of browsing for the printer, type the printer’s UNC path when the Add Printer wizard asks you to specify
a printer.
Figure 3-2:
The Add Printer
wizard wants to
know which network
printer you want to use.
39
Chapter 3: Using a Network Printer
5. Click OK to return to the Add Printer wizard.
The wizard copies the correct printer driver for the network printer to your computer.
6. If your operating system asks you to insert your Windows CD-ROM so Windows can locate the driver files, do so.
In some cases, you may have to insert the driver disk that came with the printer. Typically, however, Windows copies the driver files directly from
the server computer that the printer is attached to, so you won’t have to bother with the Windows CD or the printer’s driver disks.
7. Designate a default printer.
To get you started, the Add Printer wizard asks whether you want to designate the currently highlighted printer as your default printer. You
have two options: • Check Yes if this is the printer you expect to use most of the
time. • Check No if for example you have a local printer that you use
most of the time and are just creating a connection to a network printer that you will use only on special occasions.
8. Click Next to continue and finish the wizard.
Many network printers, especially newer ones, are connected directly to the network via a built-in Ethernet card. Setting up these printers can be tricky.
You may need to ask the network administrator for help setting up this type of printer. Some printers that are connected directly to the network have
their own Web address, such as Printer.CleaverFamily.com. If that’s the case, you can often set up the printer in a click or two: Use your Web browser
to go to the printer’s Web page, and then click a link that lets you install the printer.
Using a Network Printer
After you have installed the network printer in Windows, printing to the network printer is a snap. You can print to the network printer from any
Windows program by using the File➪Print command to summon the Print dialog box. For example, Figure 3-3 shows the Print dialog box for WordPad —
the free text-editing program that comes with Windows. The available print- ers are listed near the top of this dialog box. Choose the network printer
from this list and then click OK to print your document. That’s all there is to it
40
Part I: Getting Started with Networking
Playing with the Print Queue
After you send your document to a network printer, you usually don’t have to worry about it. You just go to the network printer, and — voilà — your printed
document is waiting for you.
That’s what happens in the ideal world. In the real world where you and I live, all sorts of things can happen to your print job between the time you send it
to the network printer and the time it actually prints:
⻬ You discover that someone else already sent a 50-trillion-page report ahead of you that isn’t expected to finish printing until the national debt
is completely paid off. ⻬ The price of framis valves suddenly goes up 2 each, rendering foolish
the recommendations you made in your report. ⻬ Your boss calls and tells you that his brother-in-law will be attending the
meeting, so won’t you please print an extra copy of the proposal for him. Oh, and a photocopy won’t do. Originals only, please.
⻬ You decide to take lunch, so you don’t want the output to print until you get back.
Fortunately, your print job isn’t totally beyond your control just because you’ve already sent it to the network printer. You can easily change the status
of jobs that you’ve already sent. You can change the order in which jobs print, hold a job so that it won’t print until you say so, or cancel a job altogether.
You can probably make your network print jobs do other tricks, too — such as shake hands, roll over, and play dead. But the basic tricks — hold, cancel,
and change the print order — are enough to get you started.
Figure 3-3:
A typical Print dialog
box.
41
Chapter 3: Using a Network Printer
