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I have a wireless network and would like to be able to print from my laptop using the printer that is connected to my pc

Hello Birkdale and welcome to PCHF.

Go to your desktop computer and navigate to control panel>printers then right click on the printer you want to use and choose "sharing".

Now in the window that opens check the box that says sharing for that printer.

Your post says you have a wireless network but does that mean you are simply connected to the internet via wireless or you have your computers already networked?

If you don't have a home network set up yet you need to do that and you can do it using the network setup wizard in "My Network Places".

Basically each computer has to belong to the same workgroup name which you get to choose and in the process you also enable "file and printer sharing".

Once you've done that or if you already have you simply go to control panel on the laptop and under printers use the add printer wizard.

It will do a search for any available printers on your network and you simple choose the printer in question after which it will install drivers for it.

*Note my instructions are based on how I did it using XP Pro operating system so if you have Vista I assume it would be very similar steps but perhaps someone else could chime in and confirm that.

Thank you very much for your response. I have followed the wizard instructions for setting up a home network etc and copied these to my laptop. (I presume at some point during this I would need to have my laptop connected somehow to my base computer - is this right? If so how do I do this and what cable do I use?) I got to the 'specify printer' I tried to search for an available printer there I came to a halt - it couldn't find a printer - is this because the laptop is not physically connected to the computer?

When searching for a printer, you will need to "browse" your home network, locate the other computer's name, expand the + sign and its shared printer should be there for selecting.

In most cases home networks are set up using a router (wireless router is often best when laptops are involved) with the individual computers either directly wired into it or connected by wireless which on a desktop means having a wireless card installed or on a laptop most newer ones have that capability built in and if it's an older one add on cards can be obtained.

If you don't have a router then the only other way you'd succeed in creating a home network would be to have two network cards in your main computer (the one you have the printer attached to) one which would be for internet and the other to connect another computer through it.

Personally I feel the router method is best simply because it adds another layer of security and doesn't cut into the performance of the desktop since connecting through it means it has to do more functions.

It looks like I have successfully created a home network and shared my printer. On both the base computer and laptop it shows the printer is online and ready but will not print now on either my laptop or base computer!

Reboot everything.