Changing a printer from wired connection to wireless

OrchidLady

September 6, 2009 9:07:14 PM

I recently installed a Belkin N150 wireless router [and can say that installation/setup was a breeze even for a novice!]. All computers are now connected, and able to access the Internet through the wireless.

My Brother MFC-685CW also purports to be wireless-capable. I followed the instructions from the Brother website, and the printer claims to be connected to the WLAN, but neither the computer which is currently connected to it by wire nor my entirely wireless netbook recognize the wireless connection.

After more research at the Brother site and elsewhere, I found:

1. The Brother site says the printer will only accept one connection (either wired or wireless). If this is the only problem, then I can get rid of the wired connection and go entirely wireless, but I don't want to do that until I'm sure I can get past the second issue.

2. The wireless router is using WPA/WPA2 with TKIP+AES encryption. The options in the wireless setup menu on the printer will accept either TKIP or AES but not both. I don't want to downgrade the router security to WEP -- so if the 685 won't handle the right encryption for the current router settings, I think I'll just stay wired to the printer until I'm ready to replace it.

On that note, can anyone recommend a good wireless all-in-1? I don't need color (although I don't see many black-n-white anymore anyway), but I do need to fax, scan and copy as well as print.

All advice appreciated!

More about : changing printer wired connection wireless

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ohiou_grad_06

September 7, 2009 1:10:25 AM

If you can, you may consider manually assigning IP addresses and using WEP. WEP may not be as strong, but using that and manual IP's should keep the average user from just wandering onto your network, even if they do, they won't be able to use it unless they can spoof an IP. If they know how to do that they can probably figure out how to get past the WPA.

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ohiou_grad_06

September 7, 2009 1:12:47 AM

Or can you stay with WPA, use the printer wired to the router, and still use manual IP's and add the printer to each machine by IP? Quite easy to do.

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OrchidLady

September 7, 2009 1:50:34 PM

Thanks. The router doesn't have USB ports, but I will give some further thought to the WEP -- I can tell the router not to broadcast its SSID.

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ohiou_grad_06

September 7, 2009 10:02:23 PM

Well like I said, you may be able to set your network not to use DHCP, and just set all IP's manually. I guess I was under the impression that the printer had an ethernet port, and that you would be able to plug it into the router that way.

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OrchidLady

September 8, 2009 9:18:47 PM

If the printer is to connect to the router, it will have to be a wireless connection. The printer's instructions for setting it up to go wireless demand DHCP, and I don't think I'm ready to try to circumvent that, although I appreciate the thought. The router did assign the printer an IP address ...

For now, I'll leave the printer wired -- a new 7-port USB hub went a long way towards cleaning up my former snakes' nest of wires and cables

Thanks for the effort!

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