Whilst browsing the pictures available on the internet, I thought I'd put in a post on Network printing. It's almost the same for wired or wireless, but with wireless you need to set up the printer just like you have to set up a PC and they are not very forgiving at it.
This is a normal network scenario, printer connected to pc via USB etc.
You install the printer driver and it's done. But only that computer can use it unless you use Windows to share it. But if you do that, the PC must be ON when it's sharing.
My preferred option is this
Plug the printer in, install the drivers on each PC telling the drivers that the printer is on the network. Done and when any pc wants to print, the only thing that needs to be on is the printer. One caveat. If you have already installed the printer local on a usb port, you have to uninstall it and re install telling the driver it is now a network printer.
Finally the wireless option
This diagram most closely resembles what I have at home. So to the wireless printer. It is the same as the diagram above, except that you first have to establish a wireless connection for the printer.
Of course setting up wireless is not as simple as it should be. If there were real standards, then there would be one simple set of instructions. However there is no single standard. Manufacturers set their routers up in various different ways with different security configurations.
There is only ONE and I do mean ONE fail safe way to set up wireless connections which will work on every single wireless router and device out there.
1. Open your wireless router in your browser. Now this is often 192.168.1.1 however this varies from manufacturer too. You can always find your router from Windows.
Start->run->cmd
type ipconfig and press enter
You will have and entry like this
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::6da4:5972:c2ea:faa3%15
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.25
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Regardless of whether it says Ethernet adapter or Wireless Ethernet adapter, it will Always have the entry marked in bold.
So in your browser you type in http://192.168.1.1
You enter the user and the password. Again, this is almost always printed on the router and will be in the documentation. Favourite passwords are
admin
admin
admin
password
admin
blank
2 Once you are into the router, you will need to check the SSID, security and password. You do this by going to the Wireless settings page.
The SSID is what computers see. Sometimes Printers want to know the security level so it's good to know that and you enter the passphrase into the dialog on the pc or the printer. Not all routers let you see the passphrase, if you can't see it and don't know it, then it is wise to change it. However when you change it you need to enter the new passphrase for every computer which connects. So you need to remember it.
Contrary to popular belief
Please Let Me In
is easy to remember and more secure than
AZB@@;
3 Some more points.
If your printer is not new, don't use anything higher than WPA
You must make sure that MAC blocking/filtering/access list is not switched on. This comes in many variants, Netgear calls it a wireless card access list.
The important point to remember here is that if you have this enabled, it blocks all access to ANY computer not in this list. This is on by default on my Orange routers and I need to disable it every time.
4 Having done all of this, a short run though on an printer wireless setup
Start the printer
Go to the wireless setup
Ask it to scan for wireless networks
Select the SSID you found in your router setup
Enter the passphrase you set up in your router
OK out.
Install the driver software on your PC
Tell the software it's a network printer
Get it to search for your printer
Select the printer
Finish the install.
That should be it done. You now know every part of your wireless and printer setup.
Any other "Wizard" type setup for your router and printer will leave you at the mercy of the spotty greasy geek who lives in a very dark room and speaks in strangeese. Because that is the person who wrote the wizard. S/He's also annoyed to have to write it because S/He thinks you should already know how to do this and if you don't it's your own fault..... Hence the experience is always less than optimal.
