Printer and Mac wireless connection

Daniel Cohen

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Mar 1, 2019, 2:34:10 PM3/1/19

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I am wondering about changing my printer from wired (USB) to wireless.
However, the printer sees only my 2.4GHz network, whereas my computer is
connected to the 5GHz. The router itself, of course, provides both
networks but with different names.

Is there an easy way to print in this setup? A third-party addition
would be acceptable. Maybe I'll just have to stick to USB, but I would
rather like to get rid of cables.

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Christian

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Mar 1, 2019, 5:04:53 PM3/1/19

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Daniel Cohen <dcohe...@talktalk.net> wrote:

> I am wondering about changing my printer from wired (USB) to wireless.
> However, the printer sees only my 2.4GHz network, whereas my computer is
> connected to the 5GHz. The router itself, of course, provides both
> networks but with different names.
>
> Is there an easy way to print in this setup? A third-party addition
> would be acceptable. Maybe I'll just have to stick to USB, but I would
> rather like to get rid of cables.

What is the problem?

The printer needs a connection to your WLAN router, and the Mac needs a
connection to your WLAN router. It does not matter on what frequency the
individual devices connect to the router - it is important _that_ they
connect.

It is much like if you have two Ethernet cables going to your router,
one is yellow and the other one is red.

The only thing is that both need to be in the same _logical_ network,
which is determined by the internal IP address and the netmask.

In a "normal" configuration, with an internal IP address range of
192.168.xx.yy, the netmask should be 255.255.255.0. All devices must
then have identical addresses in the first three segments of the IP
address (192.168.xx), while yy needs to be different for each device.
Normally, this is handled by the DHCP server, so you don't even need to
care about it.

Daniel Cohen

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Mar 2, 2019, 3:31:17 AM3/2/19

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Christian <christi...@ghanart.org> wrote:

> Daniel Cohen <dcohe...@talktalk.net> wrote:
>
> > I am wondering about changing my printer from wired (USB) to wireless.
> > However, the printer sees only my 2.4GHz network, whereas my computer is
> > connected to the 5GHz. The router itself, of course, provides both
> > networks but with different names.
> >
> > Is there an easy way to print in this setup? A third-party addition
> > would be acceptable. Maybe I'll just have to stick to USB, but I would
> > rather like to get rid of cables.
>
> What is the problem?

Quite possibly no problem. I did not understand wireless networking that
well, and didn't want to try without getting guidance. I'll try later
today.

>
> The printer needs a connection to your WLAN router, and the Mac needs a
> connection to your WLAN router. It does not matter on what frequency the
> individual devices connect to the router - it is important _that_ they
> connect.
>
> It is much like if you have two Ethernet cables going to your router,
> one is yellow and the other one is red.
>
> The only thing is that both need to be in the same _logical_ network,
> which is determined by the internal IP address and the netmask.
>
> In a "normal" configuration, with an internal IP address range of
> 192.168.xx.yy, the netmask should be 255.255.255.0. All devices must
> then have identical addresses in the first three segments of the IP
> address (192.168.xx), while yy needs to be different for each device.
> Normally, this is handled by the DHCP server, so you don't even need to
> care about it.

With two different named networks (one for each frequency) it seemed
likely to me that something extra might be needed to get the two to
communicate. Evidently I was wrong.

Daniel Cohen

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Mar 2, 2019, 6:00:46 AM3/2/19

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Daniel Cohen <dcohe...@talktalk.net> wrote:

> Quite possibly no problem. I did not understand wireless networking that
> well, and didn't want to try without getting guidance. I'll try later
> today.

And now that I have tried, all went well. I am grateful for your
reassurance that problems weren't likely to appear.

Wireless printing seems slower than direct via USB, but it's good to be
able to get rid of the cable, and also to print from my iPhone if I
want.

Christian

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Mar 2, 2019, 3:08:23 PM3/2/19

to

Daniel Cohen <dcohe...@talktalk.net> wrote:

> And now that I have tried, all went well. I am grateful for your
> reassurance that problems weren't likely to appear.
>
> Wireless printing seems slower than direct via USB, but it's good to be
> able to get rid of the cable, and also to print from my iPhone if I
> want.

Good to hear. Have fun printing!