How to share network printers with Mac OS X

Especially when we are in a work environment, it is rare to find printers associated with each computer. In most cases, moreover, one of the two parts does not allow to connect using the Bluetooth connection.

Let’s see how to connect a PC to another on which it is already set and connected to the printer, so you can share the printer to use it from any computer on the network. The operating system used in the guide is Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, but the procedure is nearly the same for other versions of Mac OS X.

• First, you must specify that the computers in order to share the associated printer settings, must necessarily be connected to the same network, either Wi-Fi or LAN. Otherwise, you can connect the two terminals via an Ethernet cable. It is also good to know that both devices must be turned on and operational, otherwise the share will not go through.
• In case you do not display the shared printer from other computers on your network, go to Network and then click Advanced. Click WINS, and set the name of the working group, for example, ” workgroup “, which must be the same for all computers on the network. I remember that this step is only necessary if you want to use the printer shared by operating systems other than Mac OS X.
• Prepare your computer to share the printer settings, click on the Apple logo in the upper left-hand bar. Select ” Preferences ” and open the icon called ” Printers and Faxes “. Select the printer you want to share on the network and check the option ” Share this printer on the network. ” After that, go to Sharing and check Printer Sharing.
• Then choose printers to share in the network. The creation of a workgroup to share the printer will also serve to other operations that require the synchronization of two or more devices, such as sharing of documents or the shutdown of the terminals from a fixed location.
• In short, all useful functions if you are in a work environment and want to make you more productive. If the firewall is enabled, you may encounter problems, since for security reasons are prevented access to the printer. To disable the Security menu and then navigate into Firewall entry. If you do not want to completely disable the firewall, you can simply choose to add to its exceptions printer sharing.