Help connecting laptop to new printer (wireless)

[Black Dog]

I picked up a new printer today to set up in the Black Dog Coffee office. I've been using the printer that's connected to my desktop unit upstairs but it's been a pain running up and down the stairs to print labels and flyers plus the old Lexmark is starting to have feeding problems.
I thought the solution would be to get a new printer with a wireless card so I could print from my laptop downstairs.
It was advertised to be easy to set up but I'm having no luck. Part of the problem is that my wireless router doesn't have a regular USB port so I can set up a home network using a USB flash device. It has a USB port but it's the small squarish plug rather than the type of plug I'm used to seeing.
I've tried plugging both the lappy and the printer into the router but the set-up still says it can't find the printer. I'm exasperated.
:help:

 

[pdonlin]

What kind of printer is this? Are you setting up both the printer and the laptop to connect to the wireless access point? Do you have any firewall software on the laptop? You said you tried plugging both in, I would assume you mean plug both of them into the ethernet ports on the router? Back to the firewall software, the software I use will block printers from being found when scanning the network so I need to disable it if I wish to set the printer up using the utility.

Depending on the printer, you should be able to print off a configuration page which will list the TCP/IP address associated with the printer. You should then be able to plug that number into the printer installation utility and bypass the scanning process. However, I would recommend setting a manual address on the printer (usually done through the control panel on the printer its self) so that the address doesn't change on you, causing you to lose your printing capability. Most likely your router gives out IP addresses in a range similar to 192.168.1.100-254 (most start at.100). You should pick a static address outside that range, such as 192.168.1.30 (192.168.1.1 should be the router).

 

[Black Dog]

The printer is an HP Deskjet 6980 and I am tyring to connect both to the wireless access point. I can't seem to turn the mcafee firewall off but I did figure out how to set the level to 0.

After that......you lost me:rofl:

 

[pdonlin]

Haha alright, sorry about that. The HP's work really well, were you able to locate the printer using the installation utility after turning the firewall off (or to 0)?

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Disabling McAfee Personal Firewall+ using the task bar:

1) Look for the "M " located in your taskbar.

2) Right click on the "M" until a menu is displayed.

3) Navigate through the menu select Personal Firewall | Disable.



Disabling McAfee Personal Firewall+ from the McAfee Security Center:

1) Launch the McAfee Security Center by double click on the "M" on the task bar.

2) Click on the Personal Firewall+ Tab on the left hand side of the Security Center.

3) To disable the Personal Firewall:
a) Click on the Disable link
b) Click on Yes when the confirmation box appears

McAfee Internet Security

1. Right-click the McAfee icon.
2. Point to Personal Firewall and then click Options.
3. Click the Security tab.
4. Set the Security Level by moving the slider to the desired level.
5. Set Access to Low.
6. Click OK to save changes.

McAfee Firewall

1. Click Stop McAfee Firewall to disable the software.
2. From the Welcome to McAfee Firewall screen, go to the Network Control Settings and select Allow All Traffic.

 

[pdonlin]

Also... you have set the printer up via the control panel physically on the unit to use your wireless router correct? You need to tell it which SSID to connect to and the encryption key if any.

 

[Black Dog]

No it still wasn't able to find the printer. Using your instructions I was able to disable the firewall but still no luck finding the printer. Also, I don't see a control panel on the printer.

 

[pdonlin]

You're right... I thought that was the model that we have a few of at work but its not, yours lacks the LCD display... let me do some more research...

 

[pdonlin]

Apparently those printers require a piece of software called the "HP Network Assistant for Printers" to configure the wireless. It sounds like this software will gather whatever information the printer needs and save it off to a flash drive. You then plug this flash drive into the USB port on the front of the printer (PictBridge Port) and the printer should begin configuring.... a big PITA for sure!

I don't think I can help you much more with the wireless setup than that, mainly because I haven't gone through that method myself. However, if you can run a ethernet cable from the printer to your router it would be MUCH easier and I can help you then.

Once the ethernet cable is hooked up look for the button on your printer which is below the picture of a "piece of paper with a 'check' across it"; push this button and a info sheet should print out listing all kinds of information including the IP Address of the printer. Now run the printer setup utility again... hopefully it will now locate the printer since it is hard-wired in and your firewall is off. If it does not locate it automatically you should have an option to manually setup the printer, which will ask you for the IP address that you just printed off.

 

[Black Dog]

Success!
I had tried the Network assistant but it stopped downloading due to some incompatibility issue with my laptop.
This morning I tried your ethernet recommendation and it worked like a charm. I can now print wirelessly from both my laptop and desk unit. This is great! Not only does it save me from trucking up and down the stairs to print product and USPS labels, this printer is MUCH faster than my old Lexmark. It supposedly has a larger ink cartridge available which I hope will let me go longer between changes.
The only issue I haven't worked out is that I will still have to print my trifold brochures from upstairs since that's the only machine that has the PrintShop program on it. That's no big deal since it's only every couple weeks I do those and I can print more now since this printer is faster. The issue I have to work out is that the printer keeps printing them in portrait mode rather than landscape the way it's designed. I'll get that one figured out though.
Thanks for your help Patrick!

 

[pdonlin]

If you have the full office suite on your laptop you might want to try recreating the trifold in MS Publisher, very similar and very easy to use. I'm glad you got it working.