Just a few months ago I bought an Airport Express and was able to successfully add my Cannon printer so that I could wirelessly print. Actually, it was probaly the easiest thing I have ever done (Thanks to Apple and OSX in general!) Today, I stopped over my uncles house who just got a PC laptop and he wanted to add his wireless printer to the PC (The printer's ethernet is plugged in his cable modem). I know how to EASILY do this on a mac, but I was clueless PC-wise. He just called me and he needs it done by tonight. I realize that this is not a Mac based question but if I could just have some quick help I would really appreciate it. I've been around these forums long enough to know how knowledgable you guys and gals are! Any help would be appreciated, I know this is probably easier than I think it is, but I am lost! Thanks, and I have already downloaded the printer drivers off Cannon...
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Adding a wireless printer
- Thread starter Blazer5913
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Well start off by seeing if it recognizes it in the add printer wizard. It should be pretty straight forward. I would think it would recognize it in the add printer wizard(under network) If not then you need to go to the manufacturers site and see if it has an add printer wizard(HP has one) This may do the trick. If it does not then look for documentation on adding if via TCP/IP.
Well I can easily add it by just connecting the USB cable from printer to PC laptop, and then using the wizard. But he wants it wirelessly, and I have no idea how the computer would find the printer...
OK my bad. So currently it is all cabled. You said the printer is connected to his cable modem? You mean router correct? If it all works wire right now. Then all you need to do is by a wireless access point of some kind.
The joy of adding printers wirelessly to the Mac is most probably due to Bonjour technology in OS X that allows networked devices to be found and used really easily. Nicely, Apple also makes this technology available for Windows 2000 and XP. Your uncle may well find that if the printer supports Bonjour (or its old name of Rendezvous) that installing Bonjour for Windows and using the printer setup utility that I believe is included will allow his PC to find the printer on the network and print to it.
Blazer5913 said:
The answer to your question depends on what you already have. If the printer is connected to a wireless router that the laptop is connecting to then you should not need anything else. The router is used to connect networkable devices together and also control the network. Your AirPort Express, for example, is a wireless router since it allows wireless devices to connect to it, plus a single ethernet device (typically a modem), and assigns IP network addresses to each of the devices connected to it. It is not uncommon these days for people to buy combined modem/routers or for such devices to be able to handle wireless connections, so if your uncle has such a modem then, no, no other purchases should be necessary.
Your initial statements makes it sound as though your uncle has all that is needed since if he is able to connect to the Internet wirelessly then he must at the very least already have a wireless Access Point, if not a full router.
Ok, now I think we are getting on the right track. He does have a router and a modem. So I should plug the ethernet port into the router. The thing I am still confused about is how do I actually connect the two in XP? Will the laptop just automatically recognize the printer once connected to the router?
Well, there's what I think is "the easy way" and then there's "the harder way". The easy way is, I believe, to do as you said (plug the printer into one of the router's LAN socket) and then install Bonjour on the PC. I believe that Windows Bonjour comes with a printer setup utility that will search for Bonjour-enabled printers on your network. Quite a lot of printers seem to support Bonjour since the technology has been knocking around for a good few years so this may well work for you.
The harder way is to find out what the IP address is that the printer is assigned by the router when it is connected and then setup the printer in Windows as an IP printer (i.e. you print to a known IP address). The problem here is that printers typically don't have a display to show you what their IP address is so you may need to rely on an administration page for the router (usually accessed through your web browser - see the manufacturer's website or instruction manual for details) or guess the address. You can guess the address by looking at the IP address assigned to the computers connected to the router (wired or wireless) and then try printing to the next IP address or, if there is a gap, to the IP number in the gap. For example, if your Mac has an IP address of 192.168.0.1 and your uncle's PC has the address 192.168.0.2 then the printer would (assuming no other computers connected to the router) likely have been assigned the address 192.168.0.3. Equally, if your Mac has the address 192.168.0.1 and your uncle's PC has the address 192.168.0.3 then the printer probably has the address in between (i.e. 192.168.0.2). Depending on the resources available to you there may be some trial-and-error involved.
Anyway, try the Bonjour method first since it'll make things simple if it works.
The harder way is to find out what the IP address is that the printer is assigned by the router when it is connected and then setup the printer in Windows as an IP printer (i.e. you print to a known IP address). The problem here is that printers typically don't have a display to show you what their IP address is so you may need to rely on an administration page for the router (usually accessed through your web browser - see the manufacturer's website or instruction manual for details) or guess the address. You can guess the address by looking at the IP address assigned to the computers connected to the router (wired or wireless) and then try printing to the next IP address or, if there is a gap, to the IP number in the gap. For example, if your Mac has an IP address of 192.168.0.1 and your uncle's PC has the address 192.168.0.2 then the printer would (assuming no other computers connected to the router) likely have been assigned the address 192.168.0.3. Equally, if your Mac has the address 192.168.0.1 and your uncle's PC has the address 192.168.0.3 then the printer probably has the address in between (i.e. 192.168.0.2). Depending on the resources available to you there may be some trial-and-error involved.
Anyway, try the Bonjour method first since it'll make things simple if it works.
Awesome Kelmon! Thank you so much for your support. I had no idea that Bonjour was available for Windows. That would be awesome if I could set that one up using that. Thanks again, I'll let you know
No problem. If you still get problems then feel free to either Private Message or send a message to my iChat account. If you go the iChat route then just make sure you announce yourself properly else I'll probably not recognise the name and block you as a spammer.