Making a Printer Wireless

MiniLaura

After buying wireless router wee while back, I'm finding it really great. I have an Epson CX3200 printer and as I use a laptop, would be great if I could link up the printer to the wireless.

When I got the wireless router, it came with a USB network thing - which I didnt need as laptop picks up connection itself.

Would it be possible to use this with the printer or would I need other equipment to get the printer wireless?

Printer works well and meets all my needs so reluctant to throw it out and get a new one.

If its possible to buy something please point me in right direction!

Thanks

k18dan

there is two main ways you can do this...

1st is to set you printer (that is connected to your main machine) as a network printer to do this you have to go to control pannel - printers - sellect the printer from the list of installed ones - right mouse click - and sellect propties - there you will find a sharing tab - you can set the printer up to be sharred here - on you laptop you will need to "add printer" and select the network and the printer

2nd is to use a USB print server, this works by wifi and you just plug you printer via USb to it, you can then place the printer and small printer server anywhere where you can pick up your wifi.

HTH

espresso

I think that you will need a wireless network printer adaptor e.g. here to do what you want to do. Some printers come WiFi enabled now but to use your printer you will need and adaptor.

spaceboy

Can anyone show me a good (and cheap) USB print server?

John_Gray

spaceboy wrote: »

Can anyone show me a good (and cheap) USB print server?

Google can!

spaceboy

Anyone have any experience? Seriously if you have nothing to say then dont.

bcl999

I've done it with mine without having to buy anything extra - just set up a network. I think it works like option 1 of k18dan's post above. The printer is connected by USB to my desktop computer which is in turn connected to my wi-fi router.

benjus

bcl999 wrote: »

The printer is connected by USB to my desktop computer

This is fine if there's a desktop computer to connect it to, but I think the OP only has a laptop. I may be wrong - that's just how I interpret the original message.

OP: Do you actually need the printer to be wireless, or would it be OK if you could connect the printer by cable to the router? This may be a cheaper option than actually making the printer wireless.

A few routers actually have print servers built in, so it's probably worth making sure you don't have one of these first. Check if there's a USB port - if not, it doesn't have a print server.

Most routers have a few Ethernet (LAN) ports for wired connections to PCs. You could use one of these to connect an Ethernet print server such as this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Single-USB2-0-Ethernet-Print-Server/dp/B0014I4WCE