Cannot connect to a shared printer on the network Windows 11

The computer that has the network printer attached was updated recently, and the second computer on the network can no longer connect. We uninstalled the printer on the 2nd computer and can see the networked printer but when trying to connect we get the message "Windows couldn't connect to the printer. Check the printer name and try again. If this is a network printer, make sure that the printer is turned on, and that the printer address is correct." The printer is turned on and works fine from the other computer. Both computers have been rebooted.

We are at wit's end. We would prefer not to password protect the printer. What else should we be trying?

It's funny when I was working 18 hours per day, I would feverishly work to find a solution to these sorts of issues. Since I was force retired due to disability and recently became retired, I found that racing around always led me around to nowhere. I found myself losing days and weeks getting absolutely nothing accomplished in my life, and for what?! To find the mystery of why Microsoft once again missed the mark of something that should be easy to do? Nah, Once again, I lost a morning or two on this subject and finally kicked myself, found some sort of rig to work and called it a day. There are just so many, too many Microsoft issues and although I will forever be a Microsoft fan to the end, it pains me to see they will just never get it together and and make things work - period. I understand in order to do this, we as individuals would give up a lot of freedoms, but perhaps they'll figure something out to make everyone happy...

After days of trying to get my new Surface running Windows 11 to print to my wireless network printer connected to my Asus desktop running Windows 10, this is what I came up with

NETWORK SHARING AND PRINTING

We have 4 machines:

2 are running Windows 10 and 2 are running 11

Machine       Wiindows     Machine name            Username

Old Surface              10                   Sarah-surface3            saran

Asus Desktop           10                   BuzMachine             Buz                

Lenovo                      11                   Lenovomachine            buztre

New Surface            11                   sarah-2-surface            SARAH-2-SURFACE\trevo

For printing to work there are important considerations. Network and sharing protocols must be uniform and there are a number of places where these parameters are set. You must check that they are consistent. Logiic says that they should be synchronised, but it is not the case!

For Starters:

PRESS WIINDOWS START KEY

PRESS SETTINGS KEY

SELECT NETWORK AND INTERNET

Depending on which machine you are using, you will get one of the two following screens:

In either case, click on the arrowed area. The following screen appears (or something very similar)

MAKE SURE THE “PRIVATE” NETWORK PROFILE IS SELECTED EVEN IF IT TELLS YOU THAT “PUBLIC” IS RECOMMENDED.

The next step seems intuitive, but it is not!

On the MASTER machine (the one connected to the Internet physically)

Press START

Press Settings

Select “Devices”

Select “Printers and Scanners”

Select the Printer you are interested in.

Press MANAGE

Select “Printer Properties”

This screen appears

You are going to access the “Sharing” and “Ports” tabs

Thiis screen appears for the “Sharing” tab

Ensure that the “Share this printer” box is checked!

Click on the “Ports” tab and the following screen appears.

This part is bizarre!

Make sure that the check box for the correct Printer port is checked. This should be automatic but one of the problems networking the new Surface was because the port was not checked..

So far so good. Now we need to check that the MASTER computer is “seeing” the devices on the local network.

Open “File Explorer”

****

Right-click on “Network”. If the universe is unfolding as it should. The following screen should appear.

Under “Computer” there are 4 listed. These are part of the network. This is good.

You should be able to click on any of the computers and see what devices you have access to. If you click on the MASTER (BUZMACHINE) in this case, you will see which printers are networked.

Here is a wrinkle: if you are on a “SLAVE”” computer and you click on one of the computers, you may get an error message. This is one of the totally frustrating things!

Go to SETTINGS on the “Slave Computer”

SYSTEM

NEARBY SHARING

Check the box ”Share content with a nearby device using Bluetooth and Wi-fi”.

You should be good to go now!

I apologize that the fix does not solve the issue. Let's check more options from other experts. Please wait for them to reply here.

Thanks,

Christine

Independent Advisor

Hi DarrellPBM,

I'm Christine, a Windows user like you. I'll do my best to help you.

Looks like you're unable to connect to a Shared Printer. Let me help you with that.

May I know if it's a work or company printer?

May I know when did the issue start? Is there any changes made?

What is the exact error message that you're getting?

Please check and follow the steps from the link below:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sha...

Please let me know the result. I'll be happy to assist you all the way until it's resolved.

Thank you,

Christine L

Independent Advisor