Converting my printer to a wifi printer

  • Thread starter tomhart9
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tomhart9

tomhart9

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I was wondering if anyone could help me.
I have just acquired a new MacBook Pro and was wanting to be able to print wirelessly, the home computer is hooked up via USB to the printer and the Netgear router I have is connected to the computer via ethernet and everything else wirelessly.

Is there a way of connecting my printer to the existing router or do i have to get a wireless printer server which I have seen after a quick goole.

Thanks in advance!!!
 
You need to be a little bit more specific about some things. You say you want your printer to become a "wifi printer". This means that you want the printer to connect to the router wirelessly, not that you want to be able to send documents to print wirelessly.

If you want the latter and not the former, then you have a few options.

1- Make your wired PC into some sort of print server. In order to print documents from other computers you'd need to keep the PC turned on all the time or turn it on whenever you want to print. Too much of a hassle.

2- You can buy one of these. It's cheaper than a print server and it serves the same function, except that you can connect mostly any type of USB device (like flash sticks, cameras, etc.) and use it over the network. That particular model supports up to four devices, not just a printer.
 
Ahhh yes I'm looking to send things wirelessly to the printer.
That little gadget seems quite clever, didn't realise such a device existed!
Thanks for the help!

EDIT: would this do the same thing? Looks to me like it would
 
No that's just a USB hub. I would not use that. The Ethernet cable is just packed with the USB hub.
 
That's just a travel USB hub that doubles as a retractable ethernet cable. The cable attached to the hub is a regular, run of the mill ethernet cable to connect to your hotel's network, etcetera. It's not intended to make the devices work over your network.
 
Um, it networks. . . .

The one you linked is just a USB hub. Several USB devices connect to a single USB port on a PC.

The other one has an Ethernet port and a USB port, and presents the USB device to the network.

Depending on the printer, that also may not be what you need. Many USB printers have services running on the PC that they have to have. Sharing the printer at the PC and then accessing that share may be the best answer to what you want to do. The PC is on the network, your portable is on the network, the printer should be accessible.

Dang, tree'd about the difference.
 
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The one that Coxis linked to is an adapter piece to convert USB to Ethernet. That allows your printer to hook up to the router. If your wireless router has a input USB port then you can hook your printer's USB cable to the wireless router and use it wireless.
 
A few years ago they made wireless USB hub's (in the days just before everything got WiFi). One was made by Belkin and was pretty pricey but it basically mimicked a wired USB 2.0 connection which meant you didn't need any complex setups.

belkin_wireless_usb_hub_f5u302.jpg
 
If I may suggest I would think a new printer might be your better option. Because it doesn't have Wifi I'm going to assume the printer is a few years old. You could take the money your putting towards buying whatever to give the wireless to the printer and buy a new one for about $50-60.

My GF and I bought a Brother one for $60 for my parents for Christmas this year. The print quality is good and ink is dirt cheap for it. Brother also has apps for iphone and android so you can even print wirelessly from your phone too.
 
nick09
The one that Coxis linked to is an adapter piece to convert USB to Ethernet. That allows your printer to hook up to the router. If your wireless router has a input USB port then you can hook your printer's USB cable to the wireless router and use it wireless.
Click to expand...

I have a BT Home Hub v2. It has a USB slot at the back. When I realised I could in fact plug the printer to the back of this, I was rather happy.

However, BT Home Hub v2 doesn't support it. Only BT Home Hub v1. Reason being, they didn't want to support the networking function of printers (as it is not BT's market) and instead tells you to do it using Windows Print Share function (obviously ignoring Apple and Linux O/S).
 
All very helpful guys! Thanks, I'll keep researching atm...
If I'm honest I'm looking for the cheapest solution possible so a new printer ins't really suitable.
 
Let's remember that he doens't need the printer to be wireless necessarily, he just needs to print to it from his wireless computer. Not the same thing. As long as the printer is on the network, either wired connection or shared, he should have access to it.
 
wfooshee
Let's remember that he doens't need the printer to be wireless necessarily, he just needs to print to it from his wireless computer. Not the same thing. As long as the printer is on the network, either wired connection or shared, he should have access to it.
Click to expand...

So if they exist a usb to ethernet cable to my router would do the trick? Or with some kind of adapter/slitter box in between the two cables?
 
No, no, no. What I meant by "on the network" was either shared from the PC, or attached to a print share box. There's no such thing as an Ethernet to USB cable. There would be a USB hub with an Ethernet connection, like the thing is Coxis's post, the first reply in the thread. Can't say if it would work on your printer, though.

Plan A: The printer's already attached to a PC, just share it from that PC. Sharing makes the printer a network printer, which is all you have to do. Connect to the share from your portable. I can't tell you how to do that on a Mac because I find Macs to be useless and I know nothing about their operation. I do know that they can do Windows networks, though, I just don't know (or care, really) how. THIS WILL WORK. (There are Mac people around that can tell you how to find a Windows shared device from the Mac.)

Plan B: If (and it's a big if, depending on the printer) the printer can be attached to a print share device, then it would be available on the network at an IP address. Tell your portable that there's a printer at that IP. You have to buy the print share device. The device is like a network card for the printer. Many USB printers require driver intelligence running on the PC, and if this one is like that, then it won't work on this device. THIS MIGHT WORK.

Plan C: Get the Zonet device linked in Post #2. Attach a network cable from it to your router or switch, attach a USB cable from it to your printer. Then find out if your printer will even configure with the thing, maybe it will, maybe it won't. Many USB printers require driver intelligence running on the PC, and if this one is like that, then it won't work on this device. THIS WILL PROBABLY NOT WORK, BUT I MIGHT BE SURPRISED.
 
To addon to the above post, this is from Apple on how to add a printer from a Windows Machine.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3049

Mac OS X v10.5 or later

Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
Choose Print & Fax from the View menu.
Click the + button to add a printer.
Press the Control key while clicking the "Default" icon (or any other icon on the toolbar), then choose Customize Toolbar from the contextual menu that appears.
Drag the Advanced (gear) icon to the toolbar.
Click Done.
Click the Advanced icon that was added to the toolbar.
Choose Windows from the Type pop-up menu.
In the URL field, type the printer's address in one of the following formats:

smb://workgroup/server/sharename
smb://server/sharename

Note: "workgroup" is the name of the Windows workgroup that the computer sharing the printer belongs to. "server" is the name of the computer sharing the printer (or its IP address). "sharename" is the shared Windows printer's share name. If the share name contains spaces, replace each space with "%20" (without quotation marks).

Tip: You don't need a "workgroup" when specifying the IP address of the computer (such as when the printer is on a different subnet), or if your Mac belongs to the same Windows (SMB) workgroup.
In the Name field, type the name you would like to use for this printer in Mac OS X.
Choose the appropriate PPD or printer driver from the "Print Using" pop-up menu.
Click Add.
Click to expand...

Obviously the problem is you won't be able to print if the Windows PC is off. The way around it to get an external print server. I have one of these lying around my house somewhere. (I can't even remember how I got it).

Anyway, even though it says Lexmark only, it's worked for me on every printer I've tried it with. So something like that may be an option. Standard USB to Ethernet adaptors I seriously doubt would work, as most are designed purely for extending the range of USB.
 
Tried the method above to connect my printer up but when I go to print it asks for a user name and password. I can't for the life of me work out what password it wants :/ anyone know what it wants? Nothing on my PC is passworded and I've tried the passwords on my MacBook.
 
Is the PC Windows 7? Windows 7 does log in, even if it doesn't start by asking you for a password. A default username with a blank password is common, and the PC will boot straight to a desktop. That doesn't grant users of other machines access, though.

Either make a password for the user (CTRL-ALT-DEL, pick "Change password" from the menu) or enable the guest account and then remove the guest account from the policy "Prevent access to this computer from the network." The last method has a few more steps, and has the side effect of leaving the PC completely open to whomever or whatever is on your network. If your network is secure, maybe that's not a problem, and it does make for the easiest sharing.

To enable the guest account, right-click on "Computer" and pick Manage. Look in Local Users and Groups, the Users folder, right-click on Guest and click Properties. Uncheck "Account is disabled," click OK, and close all the windows you just opened.

To change the access policy for Guest, open the Control Panel, go to Administrative Tools, and open Local Security Policy. In that window, go to Local Policies, and click on User Rights Assignments. In the right-hand pane, open "Deny access to this computer from the network." Select Guest, click the Remove button, click OK, and close all the windows.

At this point the Macbook should be able to use the printer. Again, the PC is open to whoever is on your network if you do it this way, but it's easy because there are no passwords needing to be set up.

If you want higher security You need to create a name and password on the PC, or just add a password to the existing account, and then provide that name and password on the Mac when prompted.

These hoops are needed because Windows 7 will not share anything when accessed by an account with a blank password.
 
I think it all still applies. You need an account with a password to access something shared, or you need the guest account enabled and removed from that policy. Pretty much the same places in XP.
 
Never mind... Turns out I never needed to do all the fancy jazz... My laptop found it when I tried to add it again :lol: I'm gunna put it down to my lack of experience as a Mac user! Thanks anyway!!
 
Probably found it because guest access (or valid login) was allowed the second time.
 

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