I don't even know if I am putting this in the right forum,but here goes. I am a novice at this, so if I use the wrong terminology, don't "hit" me too hard. My question is in two parts: 1. I have a desk top computer connected to high speed internet using a Actiontec M1000 modem I have Qwest as my provider). I have an HP Deskjet F4235 attached to this pc with a usb cable. I got a wifi adapter to put on top of my modem so I could access it using my laptop that is elsewhere in the house. I want to be able to print to the printer on the pc from my laptop. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate on my desk top and Windows XP Pro on my laptop. A person at work (not a paid IT person) said to be sure that my printer was set up as being "shared" and told me how to do this---it was already set up. He said then go into my laptop , open the printer folder, hit Add printer, select network option and it should auto-detect the printer. This did not work. He then said to go to the desk top and bring up the command prompt and type "net view penny-pc" (penny-pc is the name of my desk top). This I did and it showed the printer as being shared. He said then to try the same command from my laptop and I should see it. I did this and get the two line message "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied." What now? (remember I am a really big novice, so please explain in simple terms---sorry). I understand that both the desktop computer and printer must be on to do this and that the desktop can't be in sleep mode. 2. Sometime in the future I may want to be able to access the printer from my laptop without having to have the desktop printer it is connected to hooked up. How can this be done? Does it cost an arm and a leg or can it be done relatively cheaply? Will it affect the ability for the laptop to use the printer? Thanks in advance for your input.

Hi David,1.You need to confirm that you are sharing the printer with everyone (under control panel Devices and printers)Next you should create a user on the win 7 the same as the user you use to login on the laptop (same user name and password)2. You can pickup a USB print server for $50.00USDor so you plug it into your router and you plug in your USB printer and it is shared on your network.The better deal is to grab a NAS (Network Attached Storage) box, you can get a BUFFALO 500gb linkstation live sata multimedia nas for 140.00 USDAnd it will act as print server AND media server. Money well spent.Edit: The easy way to install the printer is to just type in the UNC path in the search box like this \\penny-pc when it opens find the printer, highlite it and right click it.click connect answer the popups. chances are good it will install it for you.

Okay, I created a logon identical to the one I have on my laptop and using the same password. I went out on the desktop and highlighted the computer that I am trying to connect to and at the bottom of the display it shows an icon of two people and when I hover over that icon it says "Sharing state: this is a shared device." I then went to my laptop to add the printer. I am running xp on my laptop. I click on add printer. It gives me an option to add a network printer. I click on that. It, after a few steps, comes up with a tree showing PENNY-PC as the bottom of the tree which is my desk top computer. It says above to click on the printer that is showing and then "next". There are no printers showing under "PENNY-PC." I highlight PENNY-PC and still nothing. I then tried the "addition" you made to your comment. I clicked on add a network printer. It then came up with a page asking if I wanted to browse for a printer or go to a specific printer (or something of the sort)---I checked this and entered in the box \\penny-pc and clicked next. It asked me for my "Windows Live" logon for the network and password (ie: davidwpenny@q.com and the password). I entered this and hit "logon". It did something for a short period of time and came back with an error message "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation could not be completed." I verified that the printer was turned on and even printed a document from my desk top to make sure it was working. I then thought well maybe I need to enter the printer name---so I went back to my laptop and repeated the whole process but entered in the field "\\penny-pc\HP Deskjet F4200 series". It again asked me to logon---I did so and got the same thing. What am I doing wrong?