Let's talk about sharing a USB scanner over network, either LAN or Internet. I will borrow an example from my recent guide on sharing a USB printer: there are two Windows PCs — one is in my home office upstairs, the other one is in a room downstairs, they both need to be able to connect and scan documents over network.
The PC upstairs has Lexmark 3500-4500 Series scanner connected to it via a USB cable. I have a Wi-Fi router and wireless network, and I am to figure out various ways of sharing the scanner.
The easiest way would be to use FlexiHub - a software that lets you access and share remote USB devices over IP. Continue reading to find out how to share scanner on the network with FlexiHub's help.
USB Network Gate is a software that helps you share and access USB devices as if they were directly connected to your machine. The way it works is pretty similar to FlexiHub.
Windows offers a built-in functionality to share a scanner with other computers or set it up as a wireless scanner on your network.
Step 1
Plug in your scanner’s USB cable to a computer connected to the network or to the USB port of a router or modem. Follow the instructions to install the scanner, if it has not been done before. You can refer to the installation instructions specific to your scanner model or Microsoft guide.
Step 2
Open Control Panel from Start menu, go to Network and Sharing Center and click View network computers and devices.
Step 3
Right-click your scanner icon and select Install to make it accessible to other machines in the network.
Note:
This does not work on Windows XP, there is no such option. To share printer on Windows XP try either of the above methods.
As you see, FlexiHub seems to be the easiest way to share the printer over the network. You don’t need any additional settings or hardware — just the single point access from the FlexiHub account.