I am new to this sharing printer stuff but am interested in being able to use my wireless laptop while lounging on the deck and being able to send my documents to my printer in the house. I do not know if this is networking or if I need a wireless ready printer. What exactly is networking a printer anyway?
Thanks for your knowledge!!
Charles
Favorite Answer
network printer hooks up to the router with a wire, wieless printer hooks up wirelessly, so basicly nothing other then the conection type
Andy M
"Network printer" and "wireless printer" are the same thing, only one is more broad than the other. A wireless printer is one type of network printer, but one that works via a wireless network connection, while a "network printer" in general may work with a wired or a wireless connection.
To know what you need, you need to know how you plan to have it accessible on the network. If you have a desktop PC on the network, the printer can be connected to the desktop PC, and you set up the sharing for the printer on the desktop PC, and then point your laptop to your desktop's printer. If your laptop is your only computer, then you need to buy a print server device, which allows you to plug the printer into the print server and the print server into the network.
?
Network Ready Printer
Yauna P
A wireless printer is just that, a printer that is wireless. That's probably what you want. A networked printer is one that is hooked up to a network, or multiple computers that is available for use by all of them even if it is in a completely different place than the computer itself. This requires wiring though and a network setup.
Glenn N
A network printer hooks directly to a hub so multiple people can use it on a network. You can make a regular printer a network printer but you would need a print server in this case. A wireless printer usually uses something like bluetooth to connect to a computer. Although multiple computers can use it, this is not a true network printer.