Hi guys,

I have a desktop comp. that's connected to the internet through my linksys router(model BEFSR41). This desktop is also connected to a printer.

I have a laptop with WI-FI built in that I would like to share the desktop printer with. I'm able to do this with no problems if I wire the laptop into the router but I want to be able to access the printer wirelessy from the laptop.

When searching for the printer on the network I'm using the desktop's IP address followed by the printer name (ie..\\ipaddress\printername) but it won't pop up. I'm wondering if the router needs to be set up in a certain way to allow this network share. Can someone give me a few pointers if they've dealt with this sort of thing before?

Thanks,
David

Routers usually don't filter traffic between the wireless and wired LAN.

Maybe you have some firewall software active on your laptop and you have set it to trust traffic on the ethernet adapter but not on the wireless adapter?

From what I've seen, the only Firewalls I'm dealing with are the Windows XP firewalls and those are set to allow printer sharing in their exceptions tab. The wireless network adapter(on the laptop) does not have its own individual Firewall. And, from what I know about my router, it won't just let anyone off the internet use my printer. It has to somehow be set to allow someone from the outside(from the internet) to get through to use the printer that my desktop is connected to. In other words, my laptop is not part of my desktop's LAN.

Where do you connect with the WIFi? Do you have an access point? Or a separate wireless internet account?

I'm having the same problem I have the same linksys router and a printer connected to my desktop computer but I cannot connect to the printer from my wireless laptop.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

It's a completely different problem..

You have to set up Windows file and printer sharing.

most new (cheap) printers use software to drive them
you can't see them on net cause there is no built in software
you got to get a printer server