Chapter 2: Setting Up and Getting Started
Adding a printer to your network
Instead of plugging a printer into each of your computers, you can add a printer to your network. To add a printer to the network, do one of the following:
•Connect your printer to your networked computer, then share the printer. For information about sharing printers, see “Sharing drives and printers” on page 20.
•Connect your printer to your router or access point if the router or access point includes a USB or parallel port. For more information, see the instructions that came with your router or access point.
•Use a printer that has
•Use a print server.
Sharing resources
With a network, you can share your Internet connection, drives, and printers.
Sharing drives and printers
With a network, you can share drives (for example hard drives and DVD drives) and printers among the computers connected to the network.
Important
To share a printer among the network computers, each computer must have the shared printer’s drivers installed. Follow the instructions included with your printer to install the printer drivers on each computer.
After the drives and printers on each network computer are shared, you can access them as though they were attached directly to your computer. Then you can:
•View a network drive
•Open and copy files stored on other network computers
•Print documents on network printers
Sharing drives or folders
To share drives or folders:
1 Click 
(Start), then click Computer.
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