Connecting to Staff PC Print Shares

Many people have asked me to connect their staff PCs to a print share.  For my TechBits, I just wanted to type up a few words about staff PC-hosted print shares and how you can connect to them on your own.

A print share exists when a local printer, a printer directly connected to a PC by USB or parallel cable, is configured so that users at other PCs can also use the printer.  Just about any laser or inkjet printer can be shared out from one LINK staff PC to other LINK staff PCs.  Unfortunately, library staff does not have privileges to create a print share on their own.  That part needs to be done by Automation staff.  Once the print share has been set up by Automation, you can connect any of your other LINK staff PCs to the share on your own.  The PC that hosts the print share needs to be powered on before you can connect and send print jobs to the printer.

The easiest way to find out if a printer is already shared out is to walk over to the PC that the printer is physically connected to and follow these instructions:

1. Click Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Printers and Faxes
4. If the printer's driver icon has an open hand with the palm facing up, it is shared out

There is more then one way to connect your PC to a print share, but I think this is the easiest:

1. At the PC you want to connect to the share, click Start
2. Click Run
3. In the Open field, enter \\PCNAME where PCNAME is the name of the PC that hosts the print share (not station number)
4. Click OK
5. Double-click the icon for the shared printer
6. After the flashlight disappears, you will have access to the shared printer