The easiest way to share a printer on network is connecting it to Wi-Fi.

Once the printer gets connected to Wi-Fi, every other device associated with that particular Wi-Fi can add and use the printer.

All you need to do is go to Windows Settings > Printers & scanners and follow the on-screen instructions to add the printer.

But what if your printer does not have Wi-Fi support?

Worry not! You can still share your printer on network. This is what we call local printer sharing.

In this type of sharing, we connect the printer to one of the networked computer with a USB cable.

After that, we configure a few settings so that other computers on the network can use the printer.

What’s more is that, local sharing also helps fix issues with wireless printers like:

• Printer repeatedly going offline and
• Static IP and dynamic IP address issues.

With that said, let’s see how to locally share a printer on network.

Step 1: Connect Printer to One of the Networked Computers

At first, turn on your printer.

Then, take the printer’s USB cable and use it to connect the printer to one of the networked computers.

This computer will be sharing the printer on the network and we call it host computer.

Note: Always make sure the host computer gets uninterrupted power supply. If the host computer sleeps or shuts down, no other computers on the network can access the printer.

Step 2: Enable Printer Sharing on Host Computer

1. Open Control Panel and go to Network and Internet.
   
2. Choose Network and Sharing Center.
   
3. Change advanced sharing settings.
   
4. Turn on network discovery and file and printer sharing under the Private profile as well as the Guest or Public profile.
   
5. Then, go under All Networks and check these options:
   • Turn on sharing…
   • Use 128-bit encryption…
   • Turn off password protected sharing…
     
6. Finally, save the changes.

After you complete these steps, open Windows Settings and go to Printers & scanners settings. Then,

• From the list of available printers, choose the one that you wish to share on the network.
• Open Printer properties.
  
• Once a small popup window opens, go to the Sharing tab on the top and check Share this printer button.
  
• Give a unique name to your printer that will help identify it on the network.
• Click Apply > OK.

Step 3: Add the Printer to Other Computers on the Network

Once everything is set on the host computer, it’s now time to go to other computers and add the printer.

1. Open Windows Settings first. Then, go to Printers & scanners settings.
2. Click Add device and then, click The printer that I want isn’t listed (Add manually.)
   
3. Proceed with the second option.
   
4. If not enabled already, you might be asked to enable network discovery here. Do it like you did in the host computer.
   
5. Once you are done, you will be presented with a list of computers on the network.
6. Choose the one that is sharing the printer on the network (host computer.)
7. Select the printer.
   
8. Click Next and you are done. You have successfully added the shared printer on the network.

Repeat the same steps on other client computers too if you want to add the printer there.

Note: From what I’ve experienced, there’s 99% chance you’ll face the Windows cannot connect to the printer error on client computer while trying to add the shared printer.

If anything like that happens, here’s my troubleshooting guide to help you fix Windows cannot connect to the printer error.

Please let me know if you need any kind of assistance. I will reply to you ASAP.