Wireless Printer

[DiscoDes]

Just a quick question. Mate has just bought a wireless printer. He does not have broadband or tel line. His laptop has a wireless card but cannot see the printer. Does he need a hub/switch/router to be able to use the printer?

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[gordy180]

Has he installed the printer driver onto the laptop

[Deleted]

He needs an ad-hoc network connection... windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Ad-hoc-networking-How-the-network-with-the-funny-name-can-make-your-life-easier

although I think this means you can only connect to other computers and access their connected printers. Can he not directly plug into the printer?

[Deleted]

Some more info on what to do ...

There are two types of topologies (ways to organize) wireless networks: ad-hoc and infrastructure. If you have a wireless access point (WAP) involved - either a standalone WAP or one built into a router - you are using infrastructure. The WAP acts as a director for the network. Without a WAP, two wireless devices can still talk in ad-hoc (aka peer-to-peer) mode, but there are things the router would have done for you that you will now need to do for yourself.

The first thing you will need to do is to make sure the printer supports ad-hoc mode and set it to such. (It probably does.) You will need to set up a new wireless connection profile on your laptop to use ad-hoc as well. On both the printer and the laptop, set up matching SSIDs (the name of the wireless network to attach to - normally transmitted by the WAP), encryption types (WEP-64, WPA, etc; use the best that both the printer and laptop have; WPA/WPA2 preferably) and encryption keys. All items must match exactly. You may want to set up the channel used as well (from 1 to 11 in the US).

One additional item is that without a router to offer a DHCP service to hand out IP addresses, you will need to set static IP addresses on both the printer and the computer. You might set the computer to 192.168.3.2 and the printer to 192.168.3.3, for example, with a netmask of 255.255.255.0. (Gateway and DNS info won't matter.) The two must have the same starting octets (e.g., 192.168.3). and different last octets (e.g., .2 or .3). Do not use 0 or 255 as the last octet. They are for special purposes on a network.

[DiscoDes]

Feb 25, 2013 12:27:51 GMT gordy180 said:

Has he installed the printer driver onto the laptop

Yes Gordy


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[DiscoDes]

Ash, Great advice Ash, I've not seen it yet but all your advice sound s great and will point me in the direction I need to take. I'll let you know how I get on.



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[Deleted]

To make it simple for first time and for testing, don't bother setting up WPA/WEP encyption ... you can then decide if you want to enable it or not later

[Banky]

Feb 25, 2013 13:24:31 GMT @ashmal said:

He needs an ad-hoc network connection... windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Ad-hoc-networking-How-the-network-with-the-funny-name-can-make-your-life-easier

although I think this means you can only connect to other computers and access their connected printers. Can he not directly plug into the printer?

Great info Ash I've bookmarked the link for future reference.

[nevermore]

I think he should install the driver then try it again.

[dinamic22]

when we got our wireless printer i did all the step by step instructions & used the disc that came with it & still the printer wasn't recognised, then a couple of days later i was messing about on the laptop & thought about the printer, i just typed in the make & model number in search bar & / drivers,
i then downloaded the drivers & now the printer works perfect wirelessly, i just cannot get my iphone or ipad to recognise the printer