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Tricks and Tips for Using Your Network Printer

The printing processes in Windows run smoothly and automatically most of the time, even across a network. However, knowing a few tricks makes network printing easier for all the users on your network.
Using a printer shortcut on the desktop

Sometimes you just need a printed copy of an existing document and you don’t want to open the software, open the document, and use the commands that are required to print the document. If you put a shortcut to the printer on your desktop, you can drag documents to the shortcut icon to print them effortlessly. Follow these steps to create a printer shortcut on your desktop:

1. Choose Start –> Settings –> Printers.

The Printers folder opens.

2. Right-drag the printer icon to the desktop.

When you release the right mouse button, a shortcut menu appears.

3. Choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the shortcut menu.

A printer shortcut appears on your desktop.

Using the printer shortcut is easy and timesaving. You can use it whenever you have any folder or window open (such as Windows Explorer, My Computer, or My Documents) that contains document files. Just drag a document file to the printer shortcut on the desktop. That’s all you have to do – Windows does the rest.

If you right-click a document file instead of dragging it to a desktop shortcut, you can choose Print from the shortcut menu that appears. Again, Windows takes care of the rest.
Using separator pages to identify users

If everyone in your household uses the printers, you are likely to experience a lot of printer traffic. It’s less messy if each job comes out of the printer with a form that displays the name of the owner. Luckily, such a form exists in Windows, and it’s called a separator page. A separator page (sometimes called a banner) automatically prints ahead of the first page of each document.

The downside of separator pages is that they can be a huge waste of paper. They work best if most of your print jobs are made up of multiple pages. You may end up spending the money you save on ink purchasing ream after ream of paper. Also, if your household is filled with people who don’t believe that “neatness counts,” you’ll just have one extra piece of paper per print job to get shuffled around in a big ugly pile.
Adding separator pages in Windows 95, 98, and Me

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For a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me print server, go to the computer that has the printer attached to turn on separator pages using these steps:

1. Choose Start –> Settings –> Printers.

The Printers folder opens.

2. Right-click the appropriate printer icon and choose Properties from the shortcut menu that appears.

The printer Properties dialog box opens, with the General tab in the foreground.

3. Click the arrow to the right of the Separator page list box and choose a Separator page type.

The Separator page choices are None, Full, and Simple. Both the Full and Simple separator pages contain the document name, the user name, and the date and time that the document was printed. The Full option uses large, bold type, whereas Simple uses the Courier typeface that’s built into the printer.

4. Click OK.
Adding separator pages in Windows 2000 and Windows XP

If you have a Windows 2000 Professional print server, follow Steps 1 and 2 in the previous section “Adding separator pages in Windows 95, 98, and Me,” and then follow these steps:

1. Click the Advanced tab.

2. Click the Separator Page button.

The Separator Page dialog box appears.

3. Click Browse to select a separator file.

Separator files have the .sep extension. Choose Sysprint.sep for PostScript printers or Pcl.sep for non-PostScript printers.

4. Click OK twice to close the dialog box.
Troubleshooting network printing

Sometimes when you’re printing to a remote printer, you see an error message indicating that there was a problem printing to the port. (The port is the path to the remote computer that has the printer attached.) Before you panic, check the condition of all the hardware.
Check the print server

Computers that have printers attached (called print servers) have to be turned on if you want to print from a remote computer. If the computer is turned off, turn it on.

It doesn’t matter whether you know the logon password for the user name that appears during the logon process; nobody has to be logged on to a computer to use its shared printer. The Windows operating system on that computer simply must be started.
Check the printer

Make sure that the printer is turned on. Check any buttons, indicator lights, or message windows that may be trying to tell you that something is amiss. When the printer’s “ready” light isn’t on, the most common problems are that the printer is out of paper, a paper jam has occurred, or the cartridge is out of toner (or ink).
Check the network cable

If the computer is on and the printer is fine, check the network cable. A cable that isn’t connected properly can’t send data.
Check the Windows XP SP2 Firewall

If a shared printer is on a computer running Windows XP SP2, make sure that the firewall is configured to allow access to the printer by remote computers. Use the following steps to view or change the firewall’s settings:

1. Open the Properties dialog box for the network adapter.

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Click the Settings button.

4. Click the Exceptions tab.

5. Be sure a check mark appears in the File and Printer Sharing option.

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Source : http://tech.yahoo.com/gd/tricks-and-tips-for-using-your-network-printer/
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Adding Wireless to Your Older Laptop

Almost every new laptop now includes a wireless transceiver built in to the motherboard or attached to it through a special port in the case. However, if your older laptop doesn’t include wireless facilities, you can easily upgrade and update.
Holding the card

Check the instruction manual or consult the manufacturer’s telephone support service or Web site to see if your laptop has a built-in compartment for holding a small wireless card. The good news is that this compartment (if your laptop has one) gives you a neat solution to upgrading your computer. The bad news comes in two parts:

    * The wireless card is almost certainly a proprietary part, meaning that you have to purchase the manufacturer’s card at whatever price the manufacturer sets.

    * Some manufacturers don’t encourage users to install cards in this special slot themselves. The manufacturer may have some concern that an improperly installed or poorly shielded card can interfere with other devices that use radio frequencies.

On the transceiving end

You can purchase a PC Card wireless transceiver, if you want to. These devices, which you can get from a number of competing manufacturers, are plug-and-play upgrades to a laptop.

Here are some of the disadvantages of using a PC Card for wireless:

    * Your laptop may have only one or two PC Card slots available, and you may want to use those slots for other things.

To counter this problem, some manufacturers combine a wireless transceiver with a network interface card (NIC) adapter, which lets your computer connect to either a wireless network or a wired Ethernet by using this one card.

    * PC Card wireless transceivers usually include a small antenna that projects from the side of the laptop; you may find the nub of an antenna an unattractive nuisance which you may easily break off, destroying the card or even the PC Card slot itself.

If you plan to use a PC Card wireless adapter, get into the habit of removing the card every time you turn off the machine, before you put the laptop away in its case. You may also want to find a small carrying case for the adapter – a box about the size of a deck of playing cards should fit the bill.
Buddying up to USB

To expand a laptop for wireless capabilities, you can add a device that connects to the USB port. Like PC Card devices, the USB-port approach is a plug-and-play solution. Most USB wireless adapters are about 2 inches long, about two-thirds the size of a tube of lip balm.

Like PC Cards, you can get USB wireless adapters from a number of manufacturers, which helps keep prices down and features improving over time. And although USB devices do project from the side of the laptop (actually sticking out a bit more than PC Cards), they’re less likely to damage the computer if you accidentally dislodge them somehow; the USB port is close to the edge of the case. You still may want to remove and store the little wireless devices when you put the laptop away in a case, though.

You can install USB devices directly in the port on the laptop, or you can attach them to a hub that connects by wire to the computer. Adding a hub lets you use multiple USB devices.

Source : http://tech.yahoo.com/gd/adding-wireless-to-your-older-laptop/153158

Conserving Your Laptop’s Power

You can do certain things to help your laptop’s battery last a bit longer. On the short list, you have computer components that consume a lot of power:

• The hard drive

• The CD/DVD drive

• The floppy drive (if you have one)

• The modem

• The network interface

• The display

Each of the above devices consumes power when you use it. Obviously, by not using those devices or by rationing their use, you can save a modicum of power.

For example, by setting a lower resolution and fewer colors on the display, you cause the computer to use less video resources (though this technique saves only a minor amount of power). For more savings, consider not using the CD/DVD drive, which requires real power to keep it spinning (such as when you’re watching a DVD movie).

But you can really take control by setting various timeouts in the Power Options Properties dialog box, Power Schemes tab, as you can see in Figure 1. Here, you can disable or timeout certain laptop features and help extend battery life in a dramatic way.

readmore ::http://tech.yahoo.com/gd/conserving-your-laptop-s-power/153162;_ylt=Atvjqry2R5vba5id7GI35HoFLZA5