Printers with Wireless Networking

• Some printers have a built-in wireless card similar to the card in your laptop. These printers can be configured for network access. In some cases, you will need to plug the printer in to your laptop's USB port to configure the printer to connect to the network. Once the printer is configured, it will automatically connect to your wireless network. Once connected, you can configure your laptop's printer driver to send print jobs to the networked printer.
  
  

Printers with Wired Networking

• Many printers now have built-in wired networking. Your laptop accesses the network via a wireless network hub. Most wireless network access points are either plugged in to a networking switch or hub, or are built in to an existing switch or hub. To connect a wired printer to your network, plug it in to an open Ethernet port on your hub. Once connected to your network via a networking cable, you can configure your laptop to send print jobs to your networked printer.
  
  

Network Print Servers

• If your printer doesn't have built-in networking, you will need a print server. There are a couple of ways to put a print server on your network. One is to buy a dedicated device designed to operate only as a print server. The other is to configure an existing desktop computer on your network to act as a print server.
  
  To install a specialized print server device, plug the device in to your network, usually via a network cable. Plug the printer in to the device and configure the device according to the documentation.
  
  Using a desktop computer already on your network is easy. If you are running Windows, install the printer and driver on the computer that will act as a print sever as if you would be primarily printing from that computer. The next step is to share the printer. To share the printer, once the printer is installed go to the Windows printer settings area of the Control Panel. Right click on the printer to be shared. Select "Share" and give the printer a network name. You can then browse to the printer from your laptop or manually configure the printer driver to access the shared printer connected to the second computer.