# My laptop can't find my network printer - how do I open its eyes?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-cant-find-my-network-printer-how-do-i-open-its-eyes/637133
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 8, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-cant-find-my-network-printer-how-do-i-open-its-eyes/637133 "2012-10-08T21:24:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-cant-find-my-network-printer-how-do-i-open-its-eyes/637133/21 "2012-10-09T20:02:29Z")
> [@CC](#):
>
> Jesus, you guys - I was just confessing to my own ignorance, not suggesting that there be a test before you purchase the thing. Jeez.
Touch of a sore spot…I get customers calling back pissed off because they cant figure out how to make their 12 year old printer to work and wonder where the floppy drive is so they can load the DOS program that they run their whole business on.
and this is apparently my fault even though they never mentioned anything beyond I want a computer.
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### Author:  [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-cant-find-my-network-printer-how-do-i-open-its-eyes/637133/22 "2012-10-09T21:13:57Z")
Here’s the way I would do it. On your laptop, click Start -\> Run and then type in “\_desktopname or IP address_” and hit OK. A window should come up showing the folders and printers being shared from the desktop. You should be able to double click the printer and then it should map the printer on your laptop.
This gets harder when they OSes are different because you would be using different drivers, but since both machines are XP, you should be OK.
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### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-cant-find-my-network-printer-how-do-i-open-its-eyes/637133/23 "2012-10-09T22:36:14Z")
> [@Aestivalis](#):
>
> Here’s the way I would do it. On your laptop, click Start -\> Run and then type in “\_desktopname or IP address_” and hit OK. A window should come up showing the folders and printers being shared from the desktop. You should be able to double click the printer and then it should map the printer on your laptop…
Boy, this sounded promising, but when I typed in the IP address of my desktop and hit OK, I got a message saying, “No network provider accepted the given network path.” I double checked the IP address by going to a number of sites that will report to you what your IP address is. (I don’t know another way to determine that.) But thanks.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-cant-find-my-network-printer-how-do-i-open-its-eyes/637133/24 "2012-10-09T22:49:10Z")
> [@CC](#):
>
> Boy, this sounded promising, but when I typed in the IP address of my desktop and hit OK, I got a message saying, “No network provider accepted the given network path.” I double checked the IP address by going to a number of sites that will report to you what your IP address is. (I don’t know another way to determine that.) But thanks.
you would need to go to the desktop
Start
run
cmd
a black dos prompt box will pop up
type ipconfig
the ip address of your machine will be there
the way you are doing it give your internet ip, not your machine IP address on your network
your interent ip might be 66.123.145.77
the address of your router is probably 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.254, or 10.1.10.1
your machines would have addresses with a higher number for the last digit.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-cant-find-my-network-printer-how-do-i-open-its-eyes/637133/25 "2012-10-09T22:55:57Z")
If you would like I can do a remote session with you and see if its something I can fix quickly. No charge, but tips highly encouraged 😃
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