How Do I Put A Printer On My Network?

Starting up an office for a small business means doing a lot of things yourself. If you have networked computers together, then you can set up a printer on the network for everybody to use.

Sometimes manufacturers will package a setup disk with the printer. Simply run the setup disk and follow the instructions. After the printer has been configured, you can add to your PC via your "Add Printers" program.

If your printer didn’t come with a setup disk, you can manually add it to your network. Network printers have a LAN (RJ-45) port, which looks like a phone jack but larger.

Here's a photo of a LAN port:

1. Simply plug the LAN cable from your printer into your network hub. After you connect the printer into the hub, turn the printer on. The printer will need a few minutes to boot and perform self tests.

2. Once it has warmed up, print out a configuration page. You should be able to do this by pressing a sequence of buttons on the printer (Check your manual for directions).

3. The printer should be set to automatically get an IP address from your network. The configuration page that you printed out will show you the IP address that was assigned. The IP address will be a series of numbers.  It is a unique set of numbers that has been assigned to your network by your internet service provider.

4. Once you have the IP address, you can enter it into the address bar of a web browser.  You will be taken to a screen that will allow you to setup the specifics of your network for sharing the printer.

By either setting it up manually or following the setup disk, you should be able to hook up your printer to the network without any trouble.

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