Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Connecting a office network printer to a home network

Tags:
  • Routers
  • Network Printer
  • Office
Last response: in Networking
Share
September 15, 2014 11:07:41 PM

Okay so my girlfriends dad got a colorqube 8750 for free, one of the fancy office printers, and it needs to stay in a certain room of the house which is away from the main computer which connects to the network via wifi. Apparently they have two routers on one wireless network one acting as a access point or signal booster or something. I tried running ethernet from printer to this access point router which is the same room as the printer. It seemed to go fine, the printer kicked out an IP address, but the main computer still doesn't recognize it on control panel, browser kicks up a page not found when typing in the IP of printer, and the installation/driver cd can't find it either.

So I guess my question is, is this possible? Can I connect the printer to the network by running an ethernet to this extra router? And if so why isn't it working? And why if it isn't connected is the printer giving me an IP address?

More about : connecting office network printer home network

September 16, 2014 6:48:25 AM

The IP address can just be a static one that is wrong for the network or an autoconfig IP address which also won't work. You need the RIGHT IP not just any IP in the printer.

You should be able to manually edit the IP address to match the rest and assign it a high IP number that should not get used, like 100. The second router may not have the ethernet ports working if it's being used as a wifi extender, if the IP is correct, you see link light and still can't ping the printer, that may be the case.

Not even thinking about the printer simply having a bad network card wich is also possible. Test it on the first router see if it works on that.
m
0
l
September 16, 2014 8:55:57 PM

hang-the-9 said:
The IP address can just be a static one that is wrong for the network or an autoconfig IP address which also won't work. You need the RIGHT IP not just any IP in the printer.

You should be able to manually edit the IP address to match the rest and assign it a high IP number that should not get used, like 100. The second router may not have the ethernet ports working if it's being used as a wifi extender, if the IP is correct, you see link light and still can't ping the printer, that may be the case.

Not even thinking about the printer simply having a bad network card wich is also possible. Test it on the first router see if it works on that.



Okay so I found out some new information that might help. I tried setting up an manual IP like you suggested, and then went to ping it from the main computer and got no response. I ruled out your other two for the most part. I know for sure that the ethernet on the router work, and the printer is brand new I don't think it's a problem with the network card.

Here's what I found out, on the main computer when a check the list of available wireless networks, one called Other Network shows up. Try to connect to it and it asks me for an SSID. Just on a hunch I went and unplugged the AP router and this other network disappeared, then reappeared when I reconnected. So obviously this is the culprit. The printer isn't connected to the 'same network' as the main computer, which makes sense why it cannot be pinged. So I googled this other network thing and turns out its a common side effect of multiple routers on one network. I guess when you use the same SSID it shows that instead of duplicates. Or so I thought. But then I tried connecting to the other network, and went it asked for SSID I typed the main network's SSID. But then all that showed up was 'Windows cannot connect to this network' or something.

So what next? Any suggestions? I thought about just getting a very long ethernet cable and trying to hardwire the main computer to the router and see what network it connects to and if the printer works then. But assuming it does, what's the next step to get it to work over wireless? And is there an easier way that doesn't require me procuring a huge cable?

Thanks
m
0
l
!