Wireless Printing

[Freddie-M]

Is it possible to connect my printer to my Netgear wireless router? I only use a laptop and this is downstairs. Printer and router are upstairs! I guess i would need a printer to lan cable but don't even know if such a thing exists!:confused:

[Evo]

I got myself an HP "JetDirect EX plus" box from ebay (cost about 15 quid) that does exactly what you want. Box plugs into the router via ethernet and the printer plugs into the box. Then you set the printer up in Windows as a network printer, give it the IP address of the HP box and off you go. It's about the size of a VHS tape, sits there quietly doing it's job and never goes wrong. Perfect.

Newer routers often have a printer port built in. Mine, the Netgear 834G, doesn't.

[ExGrunt]

Alternatively DLink (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=313#) do wireless print servers, depending on your setup they have:

DP 311P
DP 311U
DPG 310

EG

[Toxteth O'Grady]

Or one of these (http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/product_detail.asp?stype=5&productcode=4010-2332&group=EDIPS&pgroup=NET&ref_site=dealtime) for 30 quid.

If your router and printer are collocated just use a 5e patch cable to connect the print server to an ethernet port on your router and the USB from your printer into the server. They also do ethernet to parallel port versions if you don't have a usb printer.

[FJJP]

I've got a PC upstairs with a laser and inkjet hardwired in - one serial and the other USB. Both are shared and I can use both from the laptop downstairs via wifi D-link.

Can also wifi use them from the wife's PC in her office! Great system and easily set up. Am about to have a go at sharing a scanner - watch this space for expletives!

[BEagle]

Freddie Lucan-Mercury, you can get a bluetooth thingy for your printer and laptop. I use this set up; you plug a receiver (about the size of a matchbox) into the USB port of the printer and a little USB stick into the laptop if it doesn't already have bluetooth included.

It works fine except that it doesn't seem to be fully bi-directional as it doesn't give me the ink level status indication. But that could be because my printer is now a couple of years old?

The bluetooth system I bought was an Anycom Bluetooth USB Printer Module PM-300 for the printer, plus an Anycom Bluetooth USB Adapter USB-120 for the laptop - total cost around £80.

And you can rest assured that it won't clash with your wireless router - for the hell of it I ran mine the other day at the same time as using a 2 GHz wireless mouse, Vodafone Mobile Connect card on GPRS plus another GPRS phone ringing a DECT handset! No EMC snags whatever with 6 devices all working within a few inches of eachother....

Made my hair drop out though!

PS - Thanks for the coffee the other day!

[goates]

There are plenty of options as people have posted, but you need to do some research to see which one will work with your printer. Not all inkjets like to be networked, either losing one or two options as BEagle mentioned or outright refusing to work at all. Lexmark printers seem to be some of the pickiest, at least that's what I found when trying to network my girlfriend's Lexmark printer.

goates