When asking yourself how to keep your shared printers secure, the main thing you have to do is to create a password so that only you and those others you choose, can share the network and use the printer.

Wireless networks are superb for convenience, but you also have to bear in mind that a wireless network is inherently a vulnerable hole in your system which can potentially be hacked by a cyber criminal, or penetrated by a virus.

But which one of us would want to do away with the great benefits of using a wireless network to link a number of computers with a single printer. It’s easy and versatile, but, you have to be protected and that means creating the necessary password controls.

Now, let’s take a quick look at the sort of method you can employ to protect your network and allow you to freely share the printer across your network. This is an illustrative example (from Microsoft) and it will differ across the various operating systems.

Firstly comes the actual connection itself.

The printer will be attached to a particular computer and you must first log onto that. So first click the Start button, click Network and Internet and Network and Sharing Center, which opens up the feature. Look out for the arrow (pointing downwards) button next to Printer Sharing. Once you’ve found that, firstly click on Turn On Printer Sharing and then press Apply.

Right, secondly, here comes the important step which will keep your network secure when accessing a single printer from a number of computers.

Click the downward arrow that sits alongside the words Password Protected – you will be prompted to create a password – click apply and there you are, you have a password protected network as regards the use of the printers.

Now anyone wishing to use a printer on such a network would have to have a user account and password. This ensures that no-one can access to the printer, who shouldn’t be using it.