How to Share a Printer With an IP Address, Easy and Fast Tutorial!

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Over the years, Windows has gotten much better about how it handles network printers. But if you want to share the printer over the network, you may still need to do a bit of legwork to get everything up and running. The following is information about the tutorial on How to Share Printers With IP Addresses:

How to Share a Printer With an IP Address

How to Share a Printer With an IP Address First setting up a printer on your network involves two steps. The first step is to connect the printer to the network, and there are three ways to share a printer with an IP address:

1. Connect the printer to the network directly. This is the easiest way to set up a network printer. It doesn't require another PC to be turned on to print (as the method below does), and you don't have to go through the hassle of setting up sharing. And, since most printers made in recent years have a network attached, there's a good chance your printer supports this option.
2. Connect the printer to one of your PCs and share it with the network via Homegroup. If connecting the printer directly to the network is not an option, you can connect it to a PC on the network and share it with the Windows Homegroup. Easy to set up, and optimal for networks consisting mostly of Windows computers. This method, however, requires the connected computer to be up and running in order for you to use the printer.
3. Connect the printer to any of your PCs and share without Homegroup. This is ideal if your network has other computers running different operating systems, if you want more control over file and printer sharing, or if Homegroup isn't working properly. Like the Homegroup method, this requires the connected computer to be up and running in order for you to use the printer.

The second step, once you have connected your printer, will be to connect another PC to the network printer… which really depends on how you connect it. Confused yet? Don't worry. We will cover all of this. 

Update: Microsoft removed the HomeGroup feature from Windows 10 in the April 2018 update. You can still use HomeGroups if you are using Windows 7 or 8, but they are not accessible to computers running Windows 10 (at least with the latest update) unless you also set up sharing traditional files.

Step One How to Share a Printer With an IP Address: Connect Your Printer to the Network

1. First, let's talk about connecting that printer to your network. As we mentioned above, you have three options here. You can connect it directly to a network, you can connect it to a PC and share it through a Homegroup, or you can connect it to a PC and share it without using a Homegroup.
2. Connect Your Printer Directly to the Network
3. Most printers today have a built-in network. Some come with Wi-Fi, some with Ethernet, and many have both options available. Unfortunately, we can't give you precise instructions for getting this done, as how you do it depends on the type of printer you have. If your printer has an LCD screen, chances are you can find the network settings somewhere in the Settings or Tools section of the menu. If your printer doesn't have a display, you may have to rely on a series of physical keystrokes to tell whether the printer should use Wi-Fi or an Ethernet network adapter. Some printers even have a dedicated easy connection button that can set up Wi-Fi for you.
4. If you're having trouble setting up a printer that's directly connected to the network, the manufacturer should have instructions to make that happen. Check the manual that came with your printer or the manufacturer's website for information on connecting it.
5. Share Printer Connected to PC Using Homegroup
6. Sharing printers with Homegroup is very easy. First, of course, you want to make sure that the printer is connected to one of the PCs on the network and set up correctly. If that PC can print to a printer, then you're good to go.
7. Start by running the Homegroup control panel application. Click Start, type “homegroup,” and then click an option or press Enter.
8. What you do next depends on what you see in the Homegroup window. If the PC to which your printer is connected is already part of a Homegroup, you will see something like the following screen. If it shows that you've shared the printer, then you're done. You can skip to step two, where you connect another PC on the network. If you haven't shared the printer, click the “Change what you share with homegroups” link.
9. On the “Printers & Devices” drop-down menu, select the “Shared” option. Click Next and then you can close the Homegroup option and proceed to step two.
10. If there is already a Homegroup created for other PCs on the network, but the PC to which your printer is connected is not a member, the main screen when you start the Homegroup control panel application will look like below. Click the “Join now” button and then click “Next” on the following screen which only tells you a bit about the Homegroup.
11. Set your sharing options, make sure that “Printers and devices” is set to “Shared,” then click “Next.”
12. And finally, if there is no Homegroup at all on your network, you will see something like the following screen when you open the Homegroup control panel window. To create a new homegroup, click the “Create a homegroup” button.
13. The following screen tells you very little about the Homegroup. Go ahead and click “Next.”
14. Select any libraries and folders you want to share with the network from the PC you are on. Make sure you select the “Shared” option for “Printers & Devices.” Click “Next” when you are done making your selections.
15. The final screen shows the password you need for other PCs on your network to connect to the Homegroup. Write it down and click the “Finish” button.

Now that you have your Homegroup set up and your PC is sharing the printer with it, you can skip to step two and get other PCs on the network to connect to the printer.

Share Printer Connected to PC Without Using Homegroup

If you have computers or mobile devices on your network running OS other than Windows 7, 8, or 10 –or you don't want to use Homegroup for some reason – you can always use the sharing tool that has always been part of Windows to share printers with the network. Again, your first step is to make sure the printer is connected to the PC and you can print it.

1. Click Start, type “devices and printers,” then press Enter or click the result.
2. Right-click the printer you want to share with the network and then select “Printer properties”.
3. The “Printer Properties” window shows everything you can configure about the printer. For now, click the “Sharing” tab.
4. You are notified that the printer will be unavailable when your computer sleeps or is turned off. Also, if you use a password-protected share, you are notified that only users on your network with the username and password for this computer can print it. Credentials are a one-time thing you have to enter the first time you connect another PC to the shared printer; You don't have to do it every time you print. If you want, you can make sharing available to guests so a password isn't required, but those settings will also apply to any files you've shared. We recommend that you read about adjusting your network sharing settings before making that decision.
5. To continue, enable the “Share this printer” option and, if you wish, give the printer a friendlier name so that other people on the network can more easily identify the printer.
6. Another option you can set here is whether you want to render the print job on the client computer. If this setting is enabled, all documents to be printed are provided on the computer on which the person is printing. When this setting is disabled, the documents are rendered on the computer on which the printer is attached. If this is a PC that someone is actively using, we recommend enabling this setting so that system performance is not affected every time something is printed.
7. When you're done setting up, go ahead and click “OK.”

Now that you have shared the printer, other PCs on your network should be able to connect to it. So, you are ready to move on to the second step How to Share Printer With Ip Address.

Step Two How to Share Printer With Ip Address : Connect to your Printer from any PC on Network

1. Now that your printer is connected to the network using one of the methods above, it is time to turn your attention to the second part of the process: connecting another PC on the network to that printer. How you do it really depends on whether you use Homegroup or not.
2. Connect to Printers Shared by PCs Using Homegroups
3. This is probably the easiest step in this whole tutorial. If you have a printer connected to a PC and that PC is sharing the printer as part of a Homegroup, all you have to do is make sure that other PCs on the network also join the Homegroup. You can use the same process we did in Step One to get them to join. When PCs are part of the same Homegroup, Windows will automatically connect to all shared printers from other PCs. They will just appear in your Devices and Printers window automatically and any PC in the Homegroup can print them. Very simple.

Connecting to a Printer Without Using a Homegroup

1. If your printer is directly connected to the network, or shared from a PC without using a Homegroup, you will have to do more work to connect it from other PCs on the network. Nonetheless, it's still pretty easy. Click Start, type “devices and printers,” then press Enter or click the result.
2. The Devices and Printers window displays a collection of devices on your PC. Click the “Add printer” link to start adding your network printer.
3. Windows will perform a quick scan of your network to find devices that are not installed on your PC and display them in the “Add device” window. Chances are high that you'll see your printer in the list, whether it's directly connected to the network or shared from another PC. If you see the printer you are looking for, then your job becomes very easy. Click the printer you want to install. Windows will handle the installation, download drivers if needed, and ask you to provide a name for the printer. That's all you have to do.
4. If you don't see the printer you want to install – and you are sure it is properly connected to the network – click the “The printer I want is not listed” link. The next window will give you several options to help you find it:
5. My printer is a little older. If you select this option, Windows will perform a more thorough scan of your network for printers. However, in our experience, it's rare to find anything that hasn't been found during the initial scan. It's a fairly easy option to try, but it might take a few minutes.
6. Select printers divided by name. If the network computer is shared from other PCs, this is the best option for finding it. If you know the exact network names of computers and printers, you can type them here. Or you can click the “Browse” button to look through the PCs on your network that have sharing enabled and see if you can find the printer that way.
7. Add printer using TCP/IP address or hostname. If your printer is directly connected to the network and you know its IP address, this is probably the simplest and surest option. Most network printers have a function that allows you to specify their IP address. If your printer has an LCD screen, you may be able to find the IP address by scrolling through the printer settings. For printers without a display, you can usually perform some sequence of keystrokes that will print the settings for you. If all else fails, you can always use an IP scanning app like Wireless Network Watcher to find devices on your network. See the last section of this guide for more information on how to do this.
8. Add a Bluetooth, wireless, or network discoverable printer. If you select this option, Windows will scan for these types of devices. Again, we rarely see it pick up a device it didn't find during the initial scan. But, it might still be worth a try.
9. Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings. This option can help you add printers if none of them work. This is mostly for configuring local printers by specifying the proper port information, but there is one specific setting that can help with network printers if you know the model. When prompted to specify a port, you can select the Windows Self Discovery option, which is listed at the bottom of the available ports as “WSD” followed by a series of numbers and letters. When you select it, Windows will ask you to specify the model so that it can install the driver. Once done, Windows will then monitor the network for that printer. This is a big mistake, but worth a try if all else fails.
10. You'll find all of these options fairly straightforward and featuring a short wizard to guide you through the process. Since TCP/IP is the surest way to add a printer, we'll continue with that as our example. Select “Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname” and then click “Next.”
11. Type the IP address for the printer into the “Host name or IP address” box. Make sure the “Request printer and select drivers to use automatically” checkbox is selected and then click “Next.”
12. Type a new name for the printer if the default name doesn't suit you and then click “Next.”
13. Choose whether to set the new printer as the default, print a test page if you want to make sure everything works, and then click “Done” when you are done.

Hopefully you won't have to bother with most of this stuff. If your network printer is properly connected to the network, most likely Windows will pick it up yes and install it for you right away. And if your network is mostly Windows machines and you use Homegroup to share files and printers, things should also happen mostly automatically. If not – or if you have a more complicated setup – at least you know you have a few options.

Type in the password for the Homegroup and then click “Next.” If you don't know the password, open one of the other PCs on the network that is already a member of the Homegroup, launch the Homegroup control panel app, and you can look for it there.

If you connect from another PC to which you have signed using the same Microsoft account as a PC that is already a member of the Homegroup, Windows 8 and 10 will not ask for your password. Instead, Windows will give you the authorization automatically. On the final screen, click the “Finish” button and then you can proceed to step two and get another PC on the network connected to the printer.

Those are tips and tutorials on how to share a printer with an IP address. Hopefully the information on How to Share a Printer With an IP Address can be useful and can help solve your problem. Good luck!!