HPLIP

Sharing the printer over wi-fi with windows machines

Asked by MrKen

I'm sorry to ask this here. I'm sure the answer is in documentation somewhere but I can't seem to find it. I just hooked up my officejet 6500 wireless to my Ubuntu 9.10 by usb. The printer is near the desktop linux box (obviously) and the ethernet router, which is also a wireless router. I'd like to set it up so that other laptops in the house (windows xp right now) on the wireless network can send to the printer wirelessly. Is it best to use the wireless setup function in the HPLIP and just do everything wirelessly? I figured it would be good to keep the usb connection for highest quality printing/scanning from the main machine (e.g. photos, etc.). And I'm under the impression the wireless setup function will set the printer to receive only wirelessly over the network. What's the best setup here and how do I get it? Keep USB and get other computers to send wirelessly to the printer (how)? Do everything wireless? Connect the printer to the router by ethernet cable (and then what)?

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Andrew Malcolmson (andmalc) said : 		#1

The only disadvantage in performance or quality when using a wireless connection is that it is slower. The connection type makes no difference to print or scan quality..

Since your printer is close to your router, you should connect it by Ethernet instead of wirelessly to the router as this will be faster and requires no special setup steps as does a wireless connection. You may then run the software setup on your computers, i.e. hp-setup on the Linux computers and install from the CD for your Windows computer. If you've had other HP printers on your Windows computer, be sure to uninstall these first and create a System Restore point before installing in case of problems.

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MrKen (mrken) said : 		#2

Is there any problem leaving the usb connection to the desktop computer? One use to which I'll be putting the printer is to scan and deposit checks (which my bank lets me do without sending the check to them). But their system requires (or recommends?) that the scanner be directly connected to the computer. But I still want to be able to access the printer over the network from the laptops (which will be soon moved to Linux). If I'm connecting by ethernet to the router, did I just pay extra for wireless for nothing?

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Andrew Malcolmson (andmalc) said : 		#3

The printer may be connected both by USB and either of Ethernet or wireless.

"If I'm connecting by ethernet to the router, did I just pay extra for wireless for nothing?"

The wireless version of the 6500 also includes a duplex unit for double sided printing. The Ethernet only model does not come with that.

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