Networking a Printer

[bouter]

I recently purchased an HP Deskjet 5440 and am trying to find a way to access it wirelessly from my laptop (running Win XP Pro). FYI.....this laptop connects wirelessly through a Linksys router flawlessly. The attempts I have made to print from my laptop to the afroementioned printer include: (1) trying to find a print server that supports the HP Deskjet 5440.....I have had zero luck....HP tech support states that no print server will work with it...but I have learned that tech support can often be wrong.....Netgear, D-Link and Linksys all say that they have not tested this printer.....they suggest that I should purchase one of their print servers and "try it out". I had no luck trying this approach with a Hawking print server I already had. I do not know how to intelligently identify a print server to "try out" that has the "best chance" of working (2) I have attempted to use the Win XP Network Setup Wizard and try to access the printer through my desktop (running Win XP Home) by setting up a home network...but my laptop is from my employer and when I try to set it up on a home network, it states that I cannot do this since the laptop is part of a domain. Any thoughts or suggestions.....if this is a lost cause, please let me know this as well. Thanks.

[TheNNS]

You can share your printer from the desktop, probably the best option. Right click on the printer and click share. Easy as that. If you wan to be part of your home network, then you must be part of a workgroup, not a domain. Go to your desktop and right click my computer. Go to the name tab and it'll tell you your workgroup name. Then repeat the same process for your laptop, but this time click change. Then click on the workgroup bullet and change the name to whatever it was on the desktop computer. Now when you print, choose "HP Deskjet 5440 on ...." whatever your desktop's name is.

Reply if you have anymore questions, problems, comments, etc.

[bouter]

Thank you for your response. I was not aware of this option.

I tried this....It will work, but would require changing settings and performing a restart each time I change locations.....unless I am misunderstanding the situation (and I fully and freely admit I could be clueless here)

When I tried to do this on my laptop w/ Win XP Pro, I found that I have the option of EITHER being part of the domain (which I need to keep for the office) or part of a workgroup (which I could use at home as you suggest). I cannot, however, have both settings active. In order to switch, I have to start the laptop, switch from the domain setting to the Workgroup setting and then restart the PC. To switch this setting, you have to restart (or so the dialogue box states). So whenever I go to my office or to my home I would have to start, switch and restart...which would be twice a day.

I sincerley appreciate your time and input on this topic but I do not think that this option will work for me.

Please let me know if I am "missing the boat" here.

Thanks again.

[TheNNS]

windows asks you to restart for anything and everything. One thing you could do would be to ignore this message. Just never restart and I don't think you'll have a problem. Another thing, if you're desktop is running xp pro, you could set it to the same domain as your laptop's.