Any way to get a Brother HL-2040 to act as a network printer

[sonoferu]

I have a Brother HL-2040 laser printer, usb to my desktop machine. My wife has a laptop that she prints with by connecting through our network, via my machine. Both machines are Windows 7

It doesnt work if my box is sleeping. She has to go to my office which is down in the cellar, and wake it up. And even then it sometimes cant be made to work, things are not in the queue, etc. I want her to get her own printer, I would pay to be out of the tech support business at home. But she doesnt want a printer out and about in the upstairs. She hates looking at things like that.

Sigh ...

So I was hoping there would be some way to get this printer to respond to her laptop through the wireless router, but it only has the usb port and an old style connector port.

It cant be done unless the printer is built for wireless, or if it had an ethernet port, is that right?

I dont want to leave my box running 24/7, but that's MY quirk

 

[seepy83]

You have a few options:
Buy a new printer that has networking built in.
Buy a new router that has a USB port and print server built in.
Buy a USB print server to put your existing printer on the network.

YMMV on the 2nd two options. I know these products exist, but I have no experience with them. Not sure about any compatibility restrictions you may run into.

 

[sonoferu]

Never heard of a usb print server. found this at newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833139009

So for under $40, it might serve both hers and mine?

Currently I have a cable from the main router into my office, which goes into the wireless router [linksys E1200] which has 4 ethernet ports, one of them feeds my desktop. That way she can get to my printer through the wireless.

So if I get the usb print server and run a cable out of the wireless router into the print server and connect the printer to the print server it should work?

For $40, that would be a great solution!

 

[jumpncrash]

Never heard of a usb print server. found this at newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833139009

So for under $40, it might serve both hers and mine?

Currently I have a cable from the main router into my office, which goes into the wireless router [linksys E1200] which has 4 ethernet ports, one of them feeds my desktop. That way she can get to my printer through the wireless.

So if I get the usb print server and run a cable out of the wireless router into the print server and connect the printer to the print server it should work?

For $40, that would be a great solution!

Yep that would work. Another solution would be to get a router that has a built in USB port and hook it up to that.

 

[sonoferu]

I ordered the one from newegg

thanks All!

 

[sonoferu]

the print server arrived. I got it set up, far as I know

* cable from the wireless router [192.168.0.1] to the print server
* usb that used to go from my desktop to the printer now goes print server to printer
* installed the software, set the IP for it to static, as recommended - 192.168.0.222, 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.0.1
* print server found the printer and set it as its default printer

But I could not print to it from my desktop. I tried removing the printer and re-adding it as a network printer, but the Windows 7 could not "find" it on the network which was odd, since the print server could, and I can get to the print server at its IP and can see its configuration application

I reset the printer on the desktop to the old settings, and looked into it and saw it was Offline. I clicked on that, and unchecked the line for "Work offline" and suddenly it printed. Very odd

Then I went to my wife's laptop, and there too I could not get her laptop to "see" the printer. In Printers and Devices on hers, however, the printer didnt have an Offline setting that I could try to change like I did on my desktop

Both machines show ipconfig as 192.168.0.131 and 132 [dhcp] with 255.255.255.0 and 192.168.0.1 as gateway, so they seem to be on the same subnet as the wireless router and the print server. Both can get to the print server's setup app in a browser with 192.168.0.222

But neither seems to "see" the printer in Printers and Devices.

???

 

[sonoferu]

Well I guess it was obvious, but it wasnt obvious to me

I ran the print server installer on the laptop and now it can print, too

interesting