Author Topic: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi  (Read 1484 times)

robgul

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Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« on: 03 April, 2020, 01:55:04 pm »
Seeing as a lot of IT experts are probably sitting around I wondered if someone might offer some assistance please?

Just moved house and have a BT Business Broadband connection - where we were before the PCs running Windows 10 and printer were connected to the router with an ethernet cable - that all worked a treat.

The layout of the new house and the location of the incoming line socket and thus the router means that cabling to the PC is not practical or possible - thus need to have the PC using wifi

The router works fine for wifi connections with the PCs upstairs and the router downstairs - signal seems OK but once we get the smart TV on the wifi or broadband we might need a booster.

My question is how best to connect a printer that the two PCs can share?    On the previous set up it was just connected to a slave hub cabled to the router.

So, does anyone have any suggestions (and step-by-step instructions!) to set up the connection please - the printer is a fairly recent Lexmark and the PCs are both running Win10.     Is there such a thing as a "wifi slave hub"?

Thanks  (not too geeky with the answers please . . . . !)

Rob

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #1 on: 03 April, 2020, 01:59:02 pm »
Does the printer have Wi-Fi? Most recent printers do, even if there's no outward sign of it.

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #2 on: 03 April, 2020, 02:07:58 pm »
And if it doesn’t have a WiFi you can buy a “print server” to make it so, that plugs into a USB port on the printer.
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robgul

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Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #3 on: 03 April, 2020, 02:19:28 pm »
The printer is a Lexmark E260DN and we also have a Samsung ML-2955ND - neither of which appear to have wifi (and are perhaps a little older than I recollect!)

Rob

robgul

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Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #4 on: 03 April, 2020, 02:24:13 pm »
And if it doesn’t have a WiFi you can buy a “print server” to make it so, that plugs into a USB port on the printer.

Sorry - can you explain that in a bit more detail please? - i.e. what gets connected to what vis-a-vis printer and each PC, and how

Rob

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #5 on: 03 April, 2020, 02:33:00 pm »
https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/printers-scanners/print-servers

And it has a little explainer at the top.

[EDIT] Ah, there's only one and it's not wireless. Let me look again...
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Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #6 on: 03 April, 2020, 02:34:31 pm »
get one of these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=wireless+printer+adapter&i=computers&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

and plug in the USB of your printer and (hopefully) it will work by magic

when I've done this sort of thing in the past I've used an HP Jet Direct box (not USB), so sorry no tips on which is most likely to work

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #7 on: 03 April, 2020, 02:42:48 pm »
The name of t
Is there such a thing as a "wifi slave hub"?

The name for these is "wi-fi bridge" which puts an ethernet-only device on Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi is really just wireless ethernet so these should be more transparent and therefore more compatible to your PCs and printer than a USB-based bridge.

(some of these have a USB plug on them for power only)

If you have an old Wi-Fi router laying around, it may have a mode that works like this, which would save you buying new hardware.

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #8 on: 03 April, 2020, 03:02:31 pm »
Aren't those "networked" printers, ie they connect to a router by ethernet cable and the router can connect to your computers by wifi?

robgul

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Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #9 on: 03 April, 2020, 03:05:14 pm »
Aren't those "networked" printers, ie they connect to a router by ethernet cable and the router can connect to your computers by wifi?

That's how they were before - to cable connect the printers to the router would mean that they are downstairs which is no use - the whole idea is to have one or both printers next to the PCs.

Rob

Phil W

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #10 on: 03 April, 2020, 03:28:34 pm »
This help?

In Windows you can share a printer with other Windows PCs on same network. It’ll mean having your main PC the printer is connected to, being turned on, if you want to print from a different PC.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4089224/windows-10-share-network-printer

Otherwise you could setup a wifi  mesh network with a spare router, plug printer into that. Then your PCs will be able to find it on the network as before.

Otherwise just get a hub / switch / spare router (if latter turn off its WiFi) with at least three ports and plug (connect network cables) both PCs and printer into that. The PCs can be on multiple networks at once, a wired one, plus the WiFi for Internet. So the PCs will be able to see the printer on this mini local (upstairs) non internet network.  You don’t need both PCs on to print in this setup.

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #11 on: 03 April, 2020, 08:16:27 pm »
Your PC has an unused ethernet socket (because it's now using wifi to the router). Your printer also has an ethernet socket. In theory you should be able to connect the two directly with an ethernet cable. You might need a crossover ethernet cable, but lots of modern devices are auto-sensing and will work with ordinary ethernet cables. Once the printer is connected to one computer you will be able to share it to the other computer provided both computers are on. I don't know what Windows 10 software you need to do this, but the hardware is simple.

Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #12 on: 05 April, 2020, 07:54:42 am »
Probably just a network bridge to config. But the OP has two printers so as upthread a WiFi switch would be best option.

robgul

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Re: Getting printer connected to PCs with wifi
« Reply #13 on: 30 April, 2020, 08:07:37 am »
Update - after a bit of experimenting we've now got the network connected using powerline (it's a BT Broadband Extender Flex 600 kit - cheaper buying from Amazon than from BT) - so router plugged into one unit on a power socket downstairs, second unit upstairs with a "slave hub" (or whatever you want to call it) with 4 output connectors - 2 to PCs, 2 to printers.  All seems to work!

Rob