How to Find and Add a Printer on Your Wireless Home Network Computer

In Windows XP and Vista, adding a printer to your home wireless network is supposed to be an easy process. But, as I found while trying to set up my own home network, it's not always so easy. If your wireless computer is not able to find your printer, you will need to manually add the printer. In this article I will show you how to get your wireless computer to find and add your network printer.

First you need to have a printer already successfully installed on one of your computers. Make sure your printer is turned on and the printer is working properly.

In order to manually add a printer to your wireless computer, you will need to find out the name of the computer which already has the printer installed. To find the name of your main computer press both the Windows key (the key on the lower left of your keyboard that has the Windows logo and Start on it) and the Pause Break key which is located at the top right on your keyboard. Pressing both of these keys at the same time will bring up a System Properties screen.

On the System Properties screen, select the Computer Name tab. You will see a box that says Full Computer Name. Carefully write down your computer's name. You will need this information later in the process.

Next, you need to make sure your printer has printer sharing enabled on your main computer. Go to Start, the Control Panel, then click on the Printer setting icon. Once you have reached the list of printers on your computer, right click on the printer you would like to share on the network and select Sharing.

When the printer's properties screen comes up, select share this printer. Next write down the name of the printer that is listed in the share name box. In my network my printer's name is CanoniP4200. You may also choose to change your printer's name if you would like it to be something that is easier to identify later on.

Now go to your wireless computer and click on start and control panel. Click on the printer icon and then click on Add Printer. A box will come up asking if you want to add a local computer or a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer. Choose the Add a network printer option.

If the computer is unable to find your printer click on The printer that I want isn't listed. That will bring up the Find a printer by name or TCP/IP address screen. Click on Select a shared printer by name.

You will now need your computer name (which you wrote down earlier) and the printer's official name (which you also wrote down.)

In the box type:

\\yourcomputername\yourprintername

Just replace "yourcomputername" and "yourprintername" with the information you wrote down earlier and hit next.

It should now say the computer is connecting to the printer. A box will appear that asks if you want to install the driver. Click on Install driver. The next box will ask if you want the printer to be your default printer. If so, check the box, if not leave it unchecked. Click Next and then click on Print a Test Page. Hopefully you will hear your printer come to life and print the page.

If you are still having troubles setting up your printer, you may want to check your virus protection programs to make sure they aren't protecting the network by blocking access to your printer.