At my work we have a Kyocera copier/printer/scanner that only allows a wired connection to a network. Is there some device that I can use and connect the Kyocera to it with an Ethernet cable, and then put said device on our wireless network allowing us to print or scan from our laptops? Thanks in advance for any suggestion.
Can I connect a wired multifunction device to a wireless network?
- Thread starter relztrah
- Start date
If the wireless router has ethernet ports on it you can plug a switch into one of those ports, then plug the ethernet from the printer to the switch. You can skip the switch if your router has enough ethernet ports. You'll need to turn on print and file sharing, share the printer. As long as this printer is on the same subnet as the wireless units ie: phones, laptops then you can print to the printer from these wireless units.
You'll need to install a print plugin on your phone and simply install the network printer on the laptop.
This is a simplified version I have set up at my work. I can print to the wired printers from laptops or cell phones. They are HP printers and I had to install the HP Print plugin on my phone and on each laptop I had to install the printer driver and point to it from there.
If you need more detailed instructions, let me know.
You'll need to install a print plugin on your phone and simply install the network printer on the laptop.
This is a simplified version I have set up at my work. I can print to the wired printers from laptops or cell phones. They are HP printers and I had to install the HP Print plugin on my phone and on each laptop I had to install the printer driver and point to it from there.
If you need more detailed instructions, let me know.
britechguy
Well-known member
Also, if we're talking a "purely PC" environment, you can use any one of the PCs as a print server of sorts just by hooking the wired printer to it and sharing it.
I have used this technique more times than I can count, and the volume of print jobs was never such that the person who's computer served as the server even knew that was occurring.
If, however, you have massive print volume that could be problematic. But you can also use a PC that's pretty much "crap" for a lot of things strictly as a print server if that's all it's doing.
At the theater company I work with they have a high end office printer/copier unit connected to one of the office computers. I've shared that on the internal WiFi network so that anyone who can connect to the network, and knows how to add a networked printer on their own machine, can print directly to that printer. It's certainly made life much easier for me, as I can carry in my PC and just print things there from my PC, rather than needing to use something like a thumb drive, SD card, or emailing files to the office address and needing to download them to print them.
I have used this technique more times than I can count, and the volume of print jobs was never such that the person who's computer served as the server even knew that was occurring.
If, however, you have massive print volume that could be problematic. But you can also use a PC that's pretty much "crap" for a lot of things strictly as a print server if that's all it's doing.
At the theater company I work with they have a high end office printer/copier unit connected to one of the office computers. I've shared that on the internal WiFi network so that anyone who can connect to the network, and knows how to add a networked printer on their own machine, can print directly to that printer. It's certainly made life much easier for me, as I can carry in my PC and just print things there from my PC, rather than needing to use something like a thumb drive, SD card, or emailing files to the office address and needing to download them to print them.
You can also try a simple print server.
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