Printing to wired printer in a wireless-only environment

[goombawaho]

I have a customer that has 5 wireless only PCs. They want to be able to print to a wired-only printer. They told me that they currently plug a CAT5 cable from whichever PC they want to print from into the printer. They said that at another office, they have the same setup and they just put in a switch so all the PCs could print to the printer at the same time (no cable jockeying).

I'm not grasping how this would work - having the ethernet interface on the PCs configured to talk to the printer with the wireless still being active and handling internet access.

Did they set a static IP on the printer and a static IP on the ethernet interface of each PC? Different subnet than than the wireless network or same? Drawing a blank here - never seen this setup before.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[guitarzan]

As long as the PC's and printer are all on the same subnet (behind the same router), they should all be able to print to the printer, whether wired or wireless. Static ip's should not be necessary.

It's possible that in the first scenario, the wireless network is on it's own router and on a different subnet than the "wired" network that the printer is on.

 

[edfair]

Just a different part of the subnet. The fixed ports and printer set outside the DHCP pool.
Think their nomenclature is confusing. The are wireless part of time. Doesn't mean they are wireless.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[rclarke250]

why would they have to connect to a cat5 to print? something isn't setup right if they do, they should be able to print through the wireless ap through the router to the network connected printer, as long as previously stated they are on the same subnet.

 

[MikeHalloran]

<tangent>

My wife and her friend, teachers in adjoining classrooms, bought a laser printer together, because the school district wouldn't provide toner or paper for the district's printers, which were broken anyway, nor allow them to connect their shared printer to the school's network by any means.

I found a trailing edge technology solution from walmart.com; a little box that plugged into the printer's parallel port and accepted data and commands via Bluetooth. It worked well enough for their two Macs, until they were separated out of Bluetooth range.

</tangent>

 

[goombawaho]

they should be able to print through the wireless ap through the router to the network connected printer

Absolutely, BUT printer is NOT connected to the regular wireless network as it is wired only. PCs are connected via wireless.

It's possible that in the first scenario, the wireless network is on it's own router and on a different subnet than the "wired" network that the printer is on.

I'm thinking this is what they are doing with the network cable

NIC 1 - wireless
Connected to wireless network and internet
IP Address: (DHCP) 10.0.0.x
Subnet Mask: (DHCP) 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: (DHCP) 10.0.0.1

NIC 2 - wired
Connected to local wired network (for printing only)
IP Address: 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 0.0.0.0 (unspecified)

Printer configured same as NIC 2 with no gateway and static IP. Each PC must have unique static IP on its wired NIC

In this configuration, all PCs would be plugged into a separate switch and the printer would be connected to the switch - a second network segment only for printing. This has to be how it would work.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[rclarke250]

I understand that the wired printer is not in the same network segment as the wireless workstations, my question is why not? Also, would a wireless bridge be an option Link. What's the network topology,and reasoning behind separating the printer into a different network?

 

[goombawaho]

my question is why not?

NO CAT5 cabling in the office is the reason and nobody thought to buy a wireless printer!!! All decisions before I arrived on the scene.

Yes a wireless bridge is a possibility (and I've done this before with DD-WRT) but my idea of two NICs on a separate network is simpler and more reliable than doing the wireless - I think. Cost is similar.

I guess separating it was not my goal, but a way to achieve printing. I'm trying to mimic what the customer said was in place and working at another site.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[goombawaho]

I confirmed that this should work by using my laptop (wireless internet connection) and setting up the ethernet adapter as above and was able to browse share on an old server 2003 plugged into a common switch. So, if you can open a share, you should be able to print to a printer.

I suppose a lot of people new this, but this type of config is new to me.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[guitarzan]

> two NICs on a separate network is simpler and more reliable than doing the wireless

I'm not sure how 2 NICs per computer is simpler (or even more reliable), but I guess in certain (rare) cases it could be? As long as it works and the client is happy

 

[goombawaho]

wired > wireless in terms of reliability but I know what you're saying.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[Sympology]

This should do the trick:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-...id=1390835646&sr=1-1&keywords=wireless+bridge

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

http://alvechurchlounge.org.uk

 

[rclarke250]

If they don't have a server, but have a wireless router that has an enet port, but the office has no cat 5, couldn't you just use enet over power lines, to extend the port to where the printer is?

 

[goombawaho]

I never liked the ethernet over power solution. I'm going to try "my" solution and see what happens.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[goombawaho]

This worked perfectly. Not necessarily very elegant, but it worked. It turns out that they do have a wired network but there's a separation between who is allowed to use the wired vs. wireless networks and they are totally different subnets. So, more investigation to do for me.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.