hi! i have three pcs connected to an internet router. i shared the printer and internet connection succesfully on my lan. i want to know if i can share my usb scanner and usb zip disk drive on the lan. if it is possible, can anyone suggest how to do it? please help. thank you

Why would you want to do that? Whoever would want to use the scanner remotely would have to put the picture/document in the scanner anyway.

Yes, this is true. However, if the shared computers are in the same room, it make sense to share a scanner. Instead of unplugging and plugging the scanner and finding the right space next to each computer. Unless you have a computer to be used only for scanning, which would be a waste of resources. If anyone knows how to share a scanner over a LAN, I am also interested.

my understanding is you can not share a scanner... you need to dedicate to a pc scan in what every you want and share the folder where you scan to

The scanner sharing is hard to do, I've never seen it done with a regular scanner, I think special network scanners exist, but you'd have to buy it. As for the USB zip drive, that is very easy to share. Just go to "My Computer" on the PC the zip drive is hooked up to, right click on the USB drive and go to properties. Then look for a sharing TAB or option, assign a share name and password if required. Then on the other computers just map the drive. I use XP so I do that again from within "My Computer" under the tools submenu. All you have to do is follow the prompts.

There is a device that will allow most USB devices to be shared between two computers. It is called a USB switch and i saw it on usbgear.com. This could be useful in a classroom situation to minimize devices connected individually to computers.