Hi, I'm very new to linux having only just got it working, so i'm a complete beginner, I'll try and be as clear as possible, if you need any more info then please ask (but tell me how to obtain the info on a linux machine)

On my laptop I have installed OpenSuse 10.0

I'm connected to a wireless network, which has 3 other windows xp machines. On one of those machines is connected a printer (hp photosmart 1215), all the machines on the network use that printer to print, how do i do the same from my linux machine, please remember I have absolutely no idea what I am doing so step by step instructions would be appreciated.

Another question though slightly less important is that the windows xp machines have shared folders, is there anyway i can see these shared folders?

Thanks in advance for your help.

all your troubles can be solved by SAMBA , which is a tool for accessing netBIOS networks. you will be able to browse windows shares, share your folders and yes, print to a windows network printer. before going any further you need 1) that your workstation has an IP on your local network.
try this command as root user:

ifconfig

and look for an 'eth' voice (eth0, eth1... depending how many network interfaces you have. likely only one... -eth0) example: on my WS here's the result:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:95:30:27:EA
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:180 (180.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000


2) you also need to know whether SAMBA is installed and running on your system or not chances are that you have it already installed. in a terminal window give this command :

samba status

if you get the message :
bash: samba: command not found

then samba is not installed. install the samba package from your distro's CDs . i dont know your distro, but i'm sure that samba is included. or you can download the latest version... anyway, go to http://us3.samba.org/samba/ and read, read ...

if you instead get this:

smbd is stopped
nmbd is stopped

or

smbd is running
nmbd is running

well... you know.

if the services are stopped, give the command

samba start

and read the messages.

n.b you may need to be root to perform one or more of these operations.

once you got samba installed and smbd/nmbd running you can configure it simply with your browser. the SWAT (samba web administration tool) can be reached at this local address:

http://localhost:901/

if everything goes well , reading the documentation you will be able to get everything working. there is also a "printer" section in the control panel.

this is only a very tiny quickstart. lots of things may require attention, from network setup to samba installation and setup. think that most linux people encountered problems like yours at some time. I use samba for curiosity, on a virtual network (to a windows virtual machine running under linux).

good luck for now