Comments on: How can I connect a HP deskjet printer that only has a USB cable to my home ethernet network?

By: Horny MOFO

Horny MOFO — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:46:59 +0000

There are two ways to do this in a Windows environment, but one of them doesn't work in every circumstance.

The first, traditional way is to connect the printer to a machine on the network, install the drivers, and then share the printer. In Windows XP, you do this by right-clicking on the printer and choosing "Sharing and Security". Sometimes this doesn't work — some HP inkjet printers shipped with drivers that specifically prevented them from being shared.

The better way to accomplish this is to get an HP Jetdirect 175x print server. This print server has USB ports on it and is widely supported. You plug a network patch cable into the Ethernet port and the printer USB cable into the USB port.

Here's a link:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/18972-236253-64302-34214-64302-28830.html
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By: person103

person103 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:07:59 +0000

look around at stores or the internet. You'll find a USB to Ethernet adapter somewhere.
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By: bryanjrobertson

bryanjrobertson — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:57:59 +0000

Generally speaking no, you can't connect a device that isn't network aware (i.e. one that doesn't have an ethernet port) to a network like that. It's not just the fact that a USB port and ethernet port are different shapes, the device has to have networking protocols and knowledge built into it or it's got no idea how to interface with ethernet. I have heard of routers that will allow this kind of thing, that'll accept USB devices and do all the networking transactions on their behalf, but that's mostly for hard drives so you can have shared storage, I don't know if they handle printers. It seems unlikely because printers all need different drivers while USB hard drives are totally standard.
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By: Steven L

Steven L — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:23:59 +0000

Buy a USB print server like the one below..

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=165
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By: shmifty_14

shmifty_14 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:57:59 +0000

Connect it to a computer that has drivers for it (or install drivers ona computer). Then enable printer sharing on the network and every computer on your network should be able to use the printer.
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