Hooking a printer to a wireless router

[eurolarva]

I have a WRT54G Linksys router and a HP Laserjet 4 printer. My newest computer does not have a serial connector and the printer does not have a USB connector. The printer has a CAT5 connection and I was wondering if I can hook this up to the router versus CAT5 and make it a network printer using the router. If so how do I set this up?

 

[Waffle]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

Would be less trouble to get a serial to usb adaptor.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

Circuit city said they dont exist. Maybe a place like computer renaissance.

 

[old-gubbins]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

I think the answer, basically is yes. You will need to check the manuals for router and printer just to confirm. I do not know the linksys, but the network ports in a router are usually configured as a network hub or switch, allowing it to serve as a standard network hub/switch.

Hopefully, the Laserjet Networking manual will provide step by step instructions for setup. There is usually a separate printer manual for Network setup, and it may just be on the CD which came with the printer.

Provided you have a spare cat5 cable, and are comfortable with following the network setup instructions, it should be OK. If you do not have the printer network setup manual, you will need expert help, which is beyond me, but undoubtedly not beyond others on iboats. I did a quick search on the hp.com site, but did not find the manual.

Good luck and hope this helps

o-g

 

[kmk_7110]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

Circuit city said they dont exist. Maybe a place like computer renaissance.

I've never had good luck or heard of good things about circuit city. Just my opinion tho. Try newegg or tigerdirect for one.

 

[Waffle]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

CDW has them for 13.99.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

Home Depots online store shows they sell them however they look like 9 pin instead of 25 pin. I dont have any of the manuals. My work updated their printers and I took this one home. All the info I see on doing this says the router needs a serial or usb switch and it does not appear mine has one. We have three computers and the only one that does not have a serial port is the one my wife has to have this printer hooked up to.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

CDW has them for 13.99.

Is that Cables direct? I think thats where i bought my serial to HDMI cable to hook the computer up to the tv.They did have great prices..

 

[rogerwa]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

My guess is that the printer is equipped with an HP jetdirect card. If I am not mistaken you should be able to remove the card and find the model number. After that you can find the necessary installation info on the HP site. This printer also came equipped with a parallel port.

If I am wrong about the card (I would need to see a pic of the back) you could put a parallel print server on it to connect to the network. I have one of these - URL:http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=cat3&product_code=313942 on my inkjet but would fine with this..

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

To go a bit further, if it's a JetDirect card, you will need to set up the appropiate parameters from the printer menu, i.e. ip address, sub-net mask, gateway, etc, or configure it for DHCP.

Connect it to the Linksys via ethernet cable. After that, you can just browse the network and connect to it from Control Panel/Printers and Faxes/Add Printer/Network Printer/etc.

You may not even have to change anything on the router.

Whew, that stuff came outa my head with cobwebs all over it. Hope it's right.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

I am this far. In the Laserjet 4/4m I have it set as follows
IP is 192.168.1.1
SM is 255.255.255.000
These I dont understand
lg byte 1=0, 2=0, 3=0,4=0
GW is 192.168.1.1
Timeout 90

How do I browse the network and connect to it from Control Panel/Printers and Faxes/Add Printer/Network Printer/etc

I am using a computer to do this that is using a wifi connection. I have Mcaffes on the computer and a firewall in the router and feel this might be giving me grief or I need a different type of router to do this. I am also running WPA encryption on the router.

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

It looks like you have it's IP address the same as the gateway address. It must have a unique IP address. Also, it cannot use an IP address that is reserved by the router for DHCP. To find this out, you must examine the setup on the router. I don't remember if JetDirect is DHCP capable or not, but if it is set it and forget it.

I have no idea what the lg byte stuff is.

 

[mscher]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

How do I browse the network and connect to it from Control Panel/Printers and Faxes/Add Printer/Network Printer/etc

I am using a computer to do this that is using a wifi connection. I have Mcaffes on the computer and a firewall in the router and feel this might be giving me grief or I need a different type of router to do this. I am also running WPA encryption on the router.

Even though the LJ4 is a "network Printer", you will still need to configure a print queue on a PC. If I remember right, you do an Add Printer and configure a LOCAL printer. Then look for an option to configure a "port" for the printer. You add the IP address of the printer, in the "port" setting. If other networked PC's want to use this printer also, then you will share your local printer and they will connect to you as a networked printer.

Encryption is not an issue when a device is attached by a cable. WEP is only for wireless devices.

The router firewall shouldn't interfere with what you are trying to do, but if you have the PC's firewall enabled you might have problems.

Have fun.

 

[i386]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

I'm trying to remember what I remember about a LaserJet 4. I think you meant parallel, not serial, but that's not a big deal here.

I believe your printer has a JetDirect card. If the network jack on the printer appears to be in a removable card I'm 90% certain you have a HP JetDirect card. If the jack doesn't seem to be part of a removable card that your printer has JetDirect built in.

JetDirect it's what HP calls its print server product line. Unlike your PC's network card, the JetDirect card is a network card AND a print server. Think of the card as a small computer with a ethernet interface and can share its printer.

Like every other IP device on your network, the JetDirect must have a unique IP address. What I mean is, there can be no other device on your network with the same IP address.

How do you set the IP address? Some printers will have a display on them so you can configure some things. I recall the LJ4 having that too. If I can have some more information about your printer and the print server card in it I could possibley give you some more specific instructions. But speaking in general you can configure the IP settings of the JetDirect card several ways. If it's set for DHCP (Obtain IP Address Automatically) then it will grab an IP when you turn it on assuming it's connected to the network and assuming you have a DHCP server running on your network. On a home network this will likely be enabled or at least an available feature of your router. If the print server has a statically assigned IP address and its one that won't work on your network you'll need to change it.

You can do this from the printers control panel and buttons on the printer itself.

-or-

You can temporarily modify the IP settings on your computer to be in the same network and subnet mask as the printer.
Telnet to the jet direct, change the ip settings.
Set your computer's IP settings back.

-or-

Get JetAdmin from HP. It's software for managing/configuring JetDirect print servers. It was called JetAdmin the last time I used it anyway.



I know this sounds really complicated but it's not. I'll be glad to help you any way I can. Once it's setup it should work great and you can put the printer pretty much anywhere you want to as long as it's connected to the network.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

First off thanks to everyone for helping me with this. My error above was I had my IP at 192.168.1.13 not at 192.168.1.1. The problem I had was the computer that was trying to talk to the router printer had to be configured under add printer. I kept selecting the network printer instead of local printer attached to this computer. I then needed to add the port 192.168.1.13 to that list so the printer knew where to look. It is all working now. Not bad 8 hours to hook up a printer. It is snowing like crazy so I did not have anything else better to do. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

Connecting your printer shouldn't be a problem. Connect a Cat5(6) cable from the HP printer to any port (1-4) on the router.
You now have 2 options in the configuration (as was mentioned). You can set your own IP address for the printer OR let the router sort out the IP address for you(dhcp).
To choose you own IP address: ( called static setup)
In the printer setup, input your choice of an IP address (say 192.168.1.225). Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
When it askes for the Gateway IP, enter 192.168.1.1 (FYI..the Gateway IS your Linksys router and it's IP address is 192.168.1.1)

To let the router do the settings:
In the printer setup, check off DHCP ,The printer will now ask the router for an IP address, it's all automatic.

I prefer to pick IP addresses for the computers on my network statically. I then know all the ip addresses for every computer and printer. It's a personal preference. Letting the router pick the IP addresses is ok too (DHCP). The only consideration is....every computer may not get the same IP address , it depends on what order the computers were turned on.

FYI: Inside the router there's a section called DHCP. It shows a range of IP addresses. Typically the range starts at 192.168.1.100 and goes up to 192.168.1.150.
Last note, if you DO decide to assign your own IP addresses, don't pick an IP address that falls inside the range that is setup in the router....
Again, don't pick an ip address that falls between 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.150.

To print TO the HP printer, goto Control Panel, Add a printer...You'll be asked if you want to connect a Local printer or a Network printer......
A Local printer is one that is connected to the computer you're sitting at.
A network printer is , well, on the network, it's shared, that's the one you want. The OS will search for the network printer and the HP should show up in the list. Pick it off the list and load the drivers, test print etc.

All of this works as long as you have File and Printer Sharing turned on in Windows.

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

I have DHCP enabled and the address is set for 192.168.1.10 with a max number of users at 5. So does this mean I need to move the static IP for the printer up above 192.168.1.15? I did not see an DCHP option on the HP printer however I believe this is called BOOTP. If you select BOOTP to yes then you dont go into setting the TCPIP addresses. A couple of references to this recommended that it would be better to leave the printer static so that when others on the network tried to print it would always be the same. After playing with the printer all day I can easily change the IP address to pretty much anything.

 

[i386]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

To print TO the HP printer, goto Control Panel, Add a printer...You'll be asked if you want to connect a Local printer or a Network printer......
A Local printer is one that is connected to the computer you're sitting at.
A network printer is , well, on the network, it's shared, that's the one you want. The OS will search for the network printer and the HP should show up in the list. Pick it off the list and load the drivers, test print etc.

All of this works as long as you have File and Printer Sharing turned on in Windows.

It's been my experience that this differs a little with IP printing...


JetDirect is an IP printer, not a "shared" printer via SMB (Microsoft's file and print services). It's a little counter intuitive, but do like Xcuseme said, except install as a local printer (uncheck automatically detect) but add a new port (standard TCP/IP port) instead of selecting an existing port. Just type in your printer's IP address. And yes, I agree that it is useful to have the printer's IP as a static IP. I've got 10 or so HP printers with JetDirect at work and I have them all set to static IP.

** I THINK I may have been able to "see" some other brands of printers (Mita / Tektronix) on the network, but every time I've done an HP printer it's been IP.

Eurolarva: I think it will have an option to choose BOOTP or DHCP, but if you just assign the address it's a moot point and better practice to do so anyway.

 

[arboldt]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

I'm trying to remember what all I did to set up my LaserJet 5 as a network printer. You've gotten several excellent posts, and it sounds like you've already gotten it working, so maybe you don't need mre advice. If you do, here goes..

My network is all hard-wired Ethernet (Cat5), so I just had to connect the printer to the router. My router functions as a DHCP server also, meaning it assigns IP address dynamically whenever anything connects. makes home network admin easier *except* for the printer. I finally determined it was easier to assign a fixed IP address within a range that no other devices would get to -- think I used 192.168.1.241. My 3 or 4 PCs are usually assigned addresses around 192.168.1.2-14. This assures me that everything will always have its own unique IP address.

Both the router and my firewall (Zone Alarm) have places to designate allowed IP address / ranges, so I had to expand the allowed range. (like 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255?). Since my network is all hard-wired, I didn't bother with allowing only specific MAC addresses (allowing only pre-specified hardware to use the network).

Within Windoze, each PC using the printer had to add a LOCAL printer but using a port having the IP address (I'd have to look up the specifics here, but other posters covered it anyway). This sets up both the print queue and the printer driver.

It wasn't really necessary, but I had some extra memory chips lying around, so I added them to the JetDirect card. There is a maximum which includes the built-in RAM, so make sure you stay under that.

Even though my printer is accessible from any PC on my network, I usually leave it turned off unless I or someone else in the house plan on using it. Even in standby mode, a laser printer consumes a bit of power.

HTH

 

[eurolarva]

Re: Hooking a printer to a wireless router

I set the static IP at 192.168.1.13. I only have 3 pcs on my router and have the DHCP set to allow only 5 users. My guess is I will have to change the printers address to at least 20 however I have some other stuff to do with the network and figured I will do it later. It is not a big deal however getting time on the other machines can be taxing. Just to spend 5 minutes on the kids computers creates a rift. One of the best things about Iboats is people helping and giving advise. Without all the posts on this thread I would have just hooked it up to an older computer and been done with it.