Adding a Wireless Printer on a Network

Adding a Wireless Printer to Your Wireless Network

Here are the GENERAL steps on how to add a wireless printer on your wireless network. These are general since I don't know exactly what printer you want to add, but you can extrapolate these instructions to your situation.

Here's the basic idea on how it works, and what you need:

A wireless printer which is network and web enabled (i.e., it must have a network card installed in it, and have the capability of being accessed via an Internet browser - most networked printers have the capability). The printer can have both a wired and a wireless network card in it.
A wireless network and router, assumed to be up and running at this point.
A computer which is up and connected to your wireless network.
The printer driver associated with the operating systems on all the computers you want to be able to use

IMPORTANT DETAIL: The wireless printer must have a static (i.e., manual) IP address assigned to it from your network IP address range. It cannot be DHCP enabled, otherwise every time DHCP assigns a new address, your printer port will stop working.

How to set a manual IP address on your printer:

When the printer is connected to the network the first time, the router will assign an IP address to it. To get the IP address that the printer was assigned, print a configuration page from the printer. It will show you the IP address on that page somewhere.

Using an Internet browser, type the IP address of the printer into the address line of the browser and press enter. It should bring up a printer configuration window.

Now, since each printer is different, I can't give you the exact steps, HOWEVER, here's what you are looking for:

Find a Network - TCP/IP configuration menu. Somewhere in that menu, it will give you the choice of setting a manual or static IP address versus a DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol) assigned address.

You want to manually set the IP address to the address given on the configuration page. This would normally be 192.168.1.10x where x is any number between 0 and 9. The subnet mask will normally be 255.255.255.0 and the gateway will normally be the IP of the router, usually 192.168.1.1

Once the IP address is assigned permanently to the printer as a static address, you are now ready to add the printer to each computer on your network.

Add the Printer to Your Networked Computers

In Windows XP, follow these steps to add the wireless printer to your computer:

Go to Start, Printers and Faxes.
Double click on Add Printer
Click Next.
On the Local or Network Printer dialog box, choose Local Printer and UNCHECK the box that says "Automatically detect" the printer. Click Next.
On the Select a Printer Port window, choose to Create a New Port, and then under Type of Port, choose Standard TCP/IP port. Click Next.
Make sure the printer is On and Ready, and connected to the network. Click Next.
Type in the static IP address of the printer that you set in the steps above. Click Next.
It will then try to connect to that IP address. It you typed it wrong, or the printer is off, it will come back and give you an error.
If all is well, it should then ask you for the printer driver. If it is an older printer, it may already be listed in Windows. Alternatively, you can insert the CD for the printer, and find the Windows XP English version of the driver. It will be an .inf file most likely.
Double click on the appropriate INF file and then choose the driver you want to install. (the PCL 6 version is usually the one you should choose).
Click Next. It will install the driver and ask you to name the printer.
When it is done, click Finish. (You can choose to print a test page if you want).

Done with Wireless Printer, take me back to Wireless Network Security

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Adding a Wireless Printer to Your Wireless Network

How to set a manual IP address on your printer:

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