Wireless printing

4romseyavenue · 02-08-2008, 16:34

I have a belkin wirelss router connected to an NTL modem.

I use a laptop wirelessly. What I would like to do is have a printer set up in another room and also an external hard drive that I could access from my laptop wirelessly without attaching by cable to the router or laptop.

Is this possible?

If yes, what equipment would I need and and how would I set it up.

You can probably guess I am not an expert.

Any help appreciated.

Regards Bill

DocDutch · 02-08-2008, 16:47

Bill if you have a pc thats connected to the printer and router then you can do windows printer sharing, bit annoying to setup but it can be done.

with regards to the external hd you can share that as well but you would have to share the drive.

4romseyavenue · 02-08-2008, 17:00

Hi

I do not really want to connect to the laptop. Is there some way that a wireless signal can be sent from the wireless router to another router or something that can have the printer and hard drive attached?

02-08-2008, 17:35

You could do it with a NAS unit with a built in print server, such as a Buffalo Linkstation.

- however, as far as I know, you would have to connect it to your wireless router using an ethernet cable.

idi banashapan · 02-08-2008, 17:38

new printers come with wireless IP. Canon do a range at a good price. Alternatively, does your printer have a USB port that supports wireless printing over Bluetooth? mine does. It's handy from the phones, but Printing my photography from over the bluetooth protocol takes ages, thus I just plug mine into the main machine and share it on the network.

Ramrod · 02-08-2008, 20:12

I had a Belkin wireless print router. When it worked it was fine but it often decided to lose it's settings which meant I had to run a 25m CAT5 cable between it and the main router to re-establish all the settings. I eventually put a hammer through it......

02-08-2008, 21:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

You could do it with a NAS unit with a built in print server, such as a Buffalo Linkstation.

- however, as far as I know, you would have to connect it to your wireless router using an ethernet cable.

I have a Buffalo LinkStation Live and I do exactly this! A folder on the NAS is shared and accessable by anyone with the correct password, or no password if you wish and I have a USB printer connected to the NAS so all wireless clients can print.

02-08-2008, 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by LSainsbury

I have a Buffalo LinkStation Live and I do exactly this! A folder on the NAS is shared and accessable by anyone with the correct password, or no password if you wish and I have a USB printer connected to the NAS so all wireless clients can print.

Thanks for confirming that

dragon · 02-08-2008, 23:54

Quite a few printers now are available with either wired or wireless networking.

Even the wired ones can be connected to a wireless router and then printed to from a wireless client.

03-08-2008, 00:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragon

Quite a few printers now are available with either wired or wireless networking.

Even the wired ones can be connected to a wireless router and then printed to from a wireless client.

True, but the OP wants storage, as well as printing, which is why a NAS with a print server built in should cover both requirements

dragon · 03-08-2008, 00:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

True, but the OP wants storage, as well as printing, which is why a NAS with a print server built in should cover both requirements

True just dont buy a generic NAS believe me its not worth the hastle.

Also While Accessing the NAS over wi-fi will indeed work the speed won't be all that great so it might be worth asking what kind of stuff the OP wants to store on the NAS.

If it's just documents and photos it will be fine but if they are constantly using Large media files or want to run programs over the network then the link between the Laptop and the Nas needs to be a lot faster.

Also the OP didn't specifiy if they had a printer or needed one if it's the latter then one with network printing support isn't always that much more expensive.

I just bought a mono laser printer with network support for Ã‚Â£46 (assuming misco accept the order, since their price is about Ã‚Â£20 lower than most other online merchants)

03-08-2008, 00:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragon

True just dont buy a generic NAS believe me its not worth the hastle.

Also While Accessing the NAS over wi-fi will indeed work the speed won't be all that great so it might be worth asking what kind of stuff the OP wants to store on the NAS.

If it's just documents and photos it will be fine but if they are constantly using Large media files or want to run programs over the network then the link between the Laptop and the Nas needs to be a lot faster.

Also the OP didn't specifiy if they had a printer or needed one if it's the latter then one with network printing support isn't always that much more expensive.

I just bought a mono laser printer with network support for Ã‚Â£46 (assuming misco accept the order, since their price is about Ã‚Â£20 lower than most other online merchants)

Yes, I agree, most of the reviews I have read seem to say that speeds using a wireless router connected to a NAS are not brilliant.

If it was only a printing solution which was required, it would be a lot simpler - good luck with getting your order filled

dragon · 03-08-2008, 00:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

Yes, I agree, most of the reviews I have read seem to say that speeds using a wireless router connected to a NAS are not brilliant.

If it was only a printing solution which was required, it would be a lot simpler - good luck with getting your order filled

Thanks.

Reason why i said avoid the generic nas is I had one and it was forever locking up. (was a Black "dual hdd nas")

WLan thoughput will prob be in the reigon of 8- 20Mbit/s maybe slightly higher if the PC is right next to the router.

AndyCambs · 03-08-2008, 03:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramrod

I had a Belkin wireless print router. When it worked it was fine but it often decided to lose it's settings which meant I had to run a 25m CAT5 cable between it and the main router to re-establish all the settings. I eventually put a hammer through it......

And they're not compatible with all printers (no mention of this on the box when you buy it - only when you've spent several fraught days trying to get the damn thing to work - and eventually contact Belkin for support).

Ramrod · 03-08-2008, 10:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyCambs

And they're not compatible with all printers (no mention of this on the box when you buy it - only when you've spent several fraught days trying to get the damn thing to work - and eventually contact Belkin for support).

Heh......and it's even more fun when your main PC is running XP64 and HP don't support 64bit on the printer you are trying to get to work on a wireless network