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  • Re: Possibly a silly question about printers

    From Ed Cryer@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 17 09:07:55 2024
    scbs29 wrote:
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?


    Well, I've done it successfully under Win10. Two different entries
    appear in Devices and Printers; with attendant print queues etc being
    produced.
    I've also had two entries for the same printer; one for wifi and one for
    USB cable.

    What make of printers do you have?

    Ed

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From scbs29@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 17 08:55:22 2024
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?

    --
    remove fred before emailing

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Hank Rogers@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jun 17 08:07:33 2024
    scbs29 <[email protected]> wrote:
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to
    be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?


    I don’t see why there would be a problem, but anything is possible.

    Your router should assign the printers different ip addresses.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Graham J@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 17 11:12:59 2024
    scbs29 wrote:
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?


    The conventional way to do this is to connect each printer by WiFi to
    your router. The router will then give each printer a unique IP
    address, and depending on the router this IP address will remain the
    same when the power to both printers and router is removed and restored.
    These printers will then be available (in principle) to all the PCs on
    your LAN.

    Your computer also connects to the router. This could be via WiFi or an Ethernet cable. The process of installing the printer driver (if
    needed) on the PC will configure communication so that the driver knows
    how to talk to the printer. For two different printers you will then
    see both printers listed with (hopefully meaningful) names. One of them
    will be marked as the default: if you want to print to the other then
    you have to choose it explicitly in the print dialog when you go to
    print the document. If both printers are the same make and model this
    should work OK but you may be confused as to which is which.

    If you don't have a router, or you choose the wrong option when
    configuring a printer, that printer may communicate by WiFi directly
    with a WiFi-enabled PC (probably a laptop). When installing the printer
    driver this should nevertheless find the printer and everything should
    work OK. But you may see a problem if the printer has to phone its
    mothership to - for example - order more ink. Beware HP for this sort
    of scam; if an HP printer can't phone home it might stop printing.

    Nothing is ever straightforward with printers!

    --
    Graham J

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to Graham J on Mon Jun 17 16:32:02 2024
    Graham J wrote on Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:12:59 +0100 :

    The conventional way to do this is to connect each printer by WiFi to
    your router. The router will then give each printer a unique IP
    address

    That.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From micky@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jun 17 12:34:26 2024
    In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 17 Jun 2024 08:55:22 +0100, scbs29 <[email protected]> wrote:

    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?

    Don't give yourself a hard time.

    There are no silly questions.

    Only silly people.

    I have had 3 printers connected to my wifi. Two of them I found on the
    street. The one I paid for claims there is a paper jam. One only
    scans. The last one, after 5 or 6 years stopped printing red. But I
    still have 2 connected.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From micky@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jun 17 12:38:40 2024
    In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 17 Jun 2024 09:07:55 +0100, Ed Cryer <[email protected]> wrote:

    scbs29 wrote:
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?


    Well, I've done it successfully under Win10. Two different entries
    appear in Devices and Printers; with attendant print queues etc being >produced.
    I've also had two entries for the same printer; one for wifi and one for
    USB cable.

    One printer stopped working for some reason I could not find, so I
    installed the software again iirc, now there's a new line called
    Brother model nnn (copy 1)

    The original line is still there, but never worked again. I suppose I
    could delete it but it would feel like disconnecting life support from
    an old friend.

    What make of printers do you have?

    Ed

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Shinji Ikari@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jun 17 19:52:29 2024
    Hello

    scbs29 <[email protected]> schrieb

    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?

    Since you are normally not connection the printers to the PC directly,
    but to a router/accesspoint and that router does manage all the
    connected wlan clients there should not be a problem.
    Exception: the builder of the printer did something terribly wrong.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From wasbit@21:1/5 to Hank Rogers on Tue Jun 18 10:16:26 2024
    On 17/06/2024 09:07, Hank Rogers wrote:
    scbs29 <[email protected]> wrote:
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely to
    be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?


    I don’t see why there would be a problem, but anything is possible.

    Your router should assign the printers different ip addresses.

    And if these printers don't have wifi or an ethernet port?
    Perhaps they are both USB only.


    --
    Regards
    wasbit

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From NY@21:1/5 to wasbit on Fri Jun 21 11:53:55 2024
    On 18/06/2024 10:16, wasbit wrote:
    On 17/06/2024 09:07, Hank Rogers wrote:
    scbs29 <[email protected]> wrote:
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there
    likely to
    be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?


    I don’t see why there would be a problem, but anything is possible.

    Your router should assign  the printers different ip addresses.

    And if these printers don't have wifi or an ethernet port?
    Perhaps they are both USB only.

    That should be fine. The PC will allocate the two IDs to different USB
    ports and that will be defined in the "Ports" tabs of the config pages
    for the two printers. It will even work through a USB hub, because the
    ports of the hub will also have unique IDs.

    I've had PCs (Win 7) with two different USB printers connected and
    everything just configured itself and worked.

    One proviso: having installed a printer when it is plugged into a
    specific port, it often needs to *remain* in that port, and will not
    work if it is plugged into a different port.

    If the printer is connected by Ethernet or wifi, the config will
    probably require it to keep the same IP. Either configure the printer to
    use a static IP *which is OUTSIDE the router's DHCP scope* or else use
    the router's "reserved addresses" facility to make DHCP always give the
    printer the same address. I'd always got for the latter - static
    addresses are a liability if you ever change the DHCP scope to one that
    uses a different subnet - eg it you change from a router that uses
    192.168.1.x to one that uses 192.168.2.x. Static IPs, in general, are an accident waiting to happen, unless you take great care...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From NY@21:1/5 to Andrew on Sat Jun 22 01:09:48 2024
    On 17/06/2024 17:32, Andrew wrote:
    Graham J wrote on Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:12:59 +0100 :

    The conventional way to do this is to connect each printer by WiFi to
    your router. The router will then give each printer a unique IP
    address

    That.

    Unique IP - yes.

    The same IP for the same device - maybe, but you might be unlucky.

    Play it safe and create an explicit reserved-IP mapping in the router.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From NY@21:1/5 to Graham J on Sat Jun 22 01:07:12 2024
    On 17/06/2024 11:12, Graham J wrote:
    scbs29 wrote:
    I realise that this is possibly a silly question, but are there likely
    to be any conflicts/problems
    connecting two printers to the same pc using WiFi ?


    The conventional way to do this is to connect each printer by WiFi to
    your router.  The router will then give each printer a unique IP
    address, and depending on the router this IP address will remain the
    same when the power to both printers and router is removed and restored.

    The mapping between the "invisible" MAC address of network device and
    its visible IP address in DHCP cannot be relied on to be fixed - ie that
    the same device (identified by MAC) will always be given the same address.

    Older routers tended to allocate addresses in order, starting with
    192.168.1.1, then 192.168.1.2 etc, based on the order in which the
    devices were booted or in which they requested an address. This was
    reset every time the router was rebooted.

    Modern ones tend *often* to remember the mapping, but I'd never rely on
    it. If it was critical for a device to keep the same IP address (eg
    because the printer driver needs to identify the printer by its I
    address) then I would always create an explicit reserved-IP mapping in
    the router's table, because this is guaranteed to persist (unless you
    restore the router to its factory state).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)