Windows 10: Unable to Access Shared Printer on Network

Hello, I'm having trouble accessing a shared printer on my home network from my Windows 11 laptop. The printer is connected to another computer on the network, and sharing is enabled, but I can't seem to connect to it. Whenever I try to add the printer, I receive an error message saying "Windows cannot connect to the printer." Can someone please help me troubleshoot this issue and access the shared printer?

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Home Network and shared printer access problems

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



We understand your concern, as you are having issue with accessing the files and printer within the network and in order to get clarity and to assist you accordingly, please reply with the answers to the questions below.

• What is the error message you get, while accessing the file or the Printer using Windows 7 PC?
  
• Are you aware of any recent changes on the PC, prior to this issue?
  

Meanwhile, we would suggest you to perform all the steps in all the PC that are connected in the network as suggested by Roohi Taj on January 8th, 2019
in this
post.



As an additional information please refer the below articles:

File sharing over a network in Windows 10

Share files in File Explorer



We await your response.



Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Win10 computer suddenly unable to access printer on home wifi

For some reason, the printer lasted less than 24 hours printing correctly, and now I again can't fix it, even by doing what "worked" before (Comment #6 upthread).

Regarding the static IP suggestion:

1. The printer is connected via USB to a Windows 7 computer on the home network. It's not on the network by IP address. Here is a screenshot of the printer port properties.
   
   
2. Although there ARE "headaches" as is said above, the vast majority of the other computers on the home wifi network, NEVER have had a problem printing to it. And this applies to computers that have run XP, Win7, Win10, and MacOS. For the most part until now, it's included the particular Win10 computer in question.
3. If I still might be able to give it a static IP address, will this affect the other computers that have been able to print to it fine using printer name?

 

Cannot access network shared printer

A USB server looks promising: How to Share a USB Printer: 10 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow