[SOLVED] Laptop Cannot Find Shared Printer

[Agent_471]

Hello experts!

I have a small home network consisting of a

1. Desktop PC (Windows 10) - with a printer installed
2. Laptop PC (Windows 10)
3. Home DVR System for CC cameras
4. Bunch of phones that connect to the wifi

My network setup is as follows:

1. Got 2 routers - one main router (MR) and a secondary router (SR). Connection between MR and SR is a LAN port to LAN port connection. SR has DHCP turned off.
2. Desktop is connected to SR with a Ethernet cable
3. When using laptop in office room I connect via laptop's LAN connection which is an ethernet cable drawn from SR. But when I use the laptop in other rooms I connect via Wifi from the MR. I have to restart my laptop pc every time I change from the LAN to wifi and vice versa.

Problem is:
Whenever I want to print using the shared printer of the desktop it says printer is 'offline' (although desktop and printer both is turned on). Opened up the network settings and it shows that my laptop's LAN connection is called "Ethernet 3" whereas the desktop's LAN connection is being called "Ethernet 2". Is this the reason why I am unable to connect to the printer? How can this be solved? I would like to be able to use the shared printer from laptop regardless of whether I am using the LAN or Wifi.

Please help.

 

[kanewolf]

Hello experts!

I have a small home network consisting of a

1. Desktop PC (Windows 10) - with a printer installed
2. Laptop PC (Windows 10)
3. Home DVR System for CC cameras
4. Bunch of phones that connect to the wifi

My network setup is as follows:

1. Got 2 routers - one main router (MR) and a secondary router (SR). Connection between MR and SR is a LAN port to LAN port connection. SR has DHCP turned off.
2. Desktop is connected to SR with a Ethernet cable
3. When using laptop in office room I connect via laptop's LAN connection which is an ethernet cable drawn from SR. But when I use the laptop in other rooms I connect via Wifi from the MR. I have to restart my laptop pc every time I change from the LAN to wifi and vice versa.

Problem is:
Whenever I want to print using the shared printer of the desktop it says printer is 'offline' (although desktop and printer both is turned on). Opened up the network settings and it shows that my laptop's LAN connection is called "Ethernet 3" whereas the desktop's LAN connection is being called "Ethernet 2". Is this the reason why I am unable to connect to the printer? How can this be solved? I would like to be able to use the shared printer from laptop regardless of whether I am using the LAN or Wifi.

Please help.

The name of the network isn't important. What is important is the IP addresses.
On the computer that CAN access the printer, open a CMD.EXE window and run "ipconfig.exe /all" You should see a line that says "IPv4 Address" and ends with "(preferred)". The first THREE sets of digits are important. On the PC that can't get to the printer do the same thing. Compare the first three sets of digits. They should be the same. If not, then you need to figure out why.

 

[Agent_471]

Hi Kanewolf

Thanks for your reply. I checked the IPv4 address. The first 3 sets are same for both the pcs.

 

[kanewolf]

Hi Kanewolf

Thanks for your reply. I checked the IPv4 address. The first 3 sets are same for both the pcs.

It may be that the laptop has the network that won't print defined as "public" and printer/file sharing is disabled. See this for how to check/change -- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/an...nge-network-settings-from-public-to-priv.html

 

[Agent_471]

Thanks. Solved