How do I share my local printer with a windows PC?

Ok, I'm good with Windows stuff, I have to admit, but I wanted to try
my hand at Linux (WHICH I LOVE BY THE WAY!!) so I went out and got
the most similar thing to WIndows I could find to help me
transition...Linspire 5.0. I have installed this on my desktop
computer which is directly (hardwire)connected to my wireless router.
Also my home printer, an HP 6200 officejet is directly connected via
USB to this Linux desktop. What I want to do is find a way to share
that printer over my wireless network with my wife's Windows based
laptop so that she can print without having to unplug and re-plug the
printer everytime. This worked well when I had Windows on my desktop
but I can't seem to get it to work now with Linspire. Any ideas?????
And since I am REALLY NEW to Linux, if you could explain it as if I
am new to computers in general that would be great!! Thanks!!!

wolfendoc wrote:

> Ok, I'm good with Windows stuff, I have to admit, but I wanted to try
> my hand at Linux (WHICH I LOVE BY THE WAY!!) so I went out and got
> the most similar thing to WIndows I could find to help me
> transition...Linspire 5.0. I have installed this on my desktop
> computer which is directly (hardwire)connected to my wireless router.
> Also my home printer, an HP 6200 officejet is directly connected via
> USB to this Linux desktop. What I want to do is find a way to share
> that printer over my wireless network with my wife's Windows based
> laptop so that she can print without having to unplug and re-plug the
> printer everytime. This worked well when I had Windows on my desktop
> but I can't seem to get it to work now with Linspire. Any ideas?????
> And since I am REALLY NEW to Linux, if you could explain it as if I
> am new to computers in general that would be great!! Thanks!!!
First thing I would try is to install/enable Samba, a free windows
networking facility for Linux. Within it you can define the printer as a
shared printer and your wife's PC should be able to find it and use it
effortlessly. The 2nd approach is to purchase an inexpensive small print
server device to drive the printer and both PC's will see it and will be
able to print to it independently.

Good luck.

BTW - Linspire should be able to install/work with Samba virtually
automatically.

Bob

wolfendoc wrote:

> Ok, I'm good with Windows stuff, I have to admit, but I wanted to try
> my hand at Linux (WHICH I LOVE BY THE WAY!!) so I went out and got
> the most similar thing to WIndows I could find to help me
> transition...Linspire 5.0. I have installed this on my desktop
> computer which is directly (hardwire)connected to my wireless router.
> Also my home printer, an HP 6200 officejet is directly connected via
> USB to this Linux desktop. What I want to do is find a way to share
> that printer over my wireless network with my wife's Windows based
> laptop so that she can print without having to unplug and re-plug the
> printer everytime. This worked well when I had Windows on my desktop
> but I can't seem to get it to work now with Linspire. Any ideas?????
> And since I am REALLY NEW to Linux, if you could explain it as if I
> am new to computers in general that would be great!! Thanks!!!

Assuming you are running CUPS on your linux machine, called xyz say,
You should be able to print from the Windows machine
by accessing CUPS on Linux through IE (or firefox) at http://xyz:631/
and setting the appropriate printer data.
At least that is the first step.

If you can print a CUPS Test Page from the Windows machine
you are in business;
you then have to specify (on the Windows box)
that your printer is at xyz port 631.



--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland