Whether you work in an office and need to print out documents regularly, or you work from home, and you need to do the same thing, or if you’re a student with bootleg course materials that you can’t be bothered to read off of a screen, the thing is – you want to know how to connect printer wirelessly.
These contraptions are not only useful for creating real-life copies of computer files and documents, but it’s often also less expensive to print something from the comfort of your home than to pay someone else to do it for you.
In this article, we’re going to talk about how to connect printer wirelessly. More precisely, we’ll talk about wireless printers and how to set one up with your computer.
As you will see, the procedure itself is fairly straightforward, so you won’t have any trouble following the steps we’ve prepared in the passages below, even if you’ve never set up a wireless printer before.
How To Connect Printer Wirelessly
In terms of setting up a printer, the procedure is quite straightforward.
All you need to do is plug in some cables, how to connect printer wirelessly to your computer, and you can start printing.
Now, as simple as this is, if you take into consideration all the other cables and smaller contraptions in your workspace that also need to be connected to your PC or Mac (or some other platform), you can see how setting up your work environment can get quite messy with all the cables getting intertwined around you.
Of course, you always have an option to simply take some time to bundle them all together neatly so that you always know what cable goes where.
Alternatively, however, you can also look to purchase computer peripheries (such as printers, scanners, and so on) that allow you to set up these connections wirelessly.
It not only means you don’t have to deal with pesky cables, but it also allows you to use printers in another room, away from your computer, if you need to. (As long as the room in question is covered by the Wi-Fi signal.)
Without further ado, here’s the deal.
Connecting a printer to a PC or a Mac
1. Place the printer in the range of the router
As we already pointed out in the introduction to this article, one of the great advantages of using a wireless printer over a regular one is that you’re not limited by the length of the power cable. (Or, the USB cable, if the printer is powered by the computer itself.)
That said, if you’re using a wireless printer, you do need to make sure that you place the printer within reach of the Wi-Fi signal coming from your router. So, the printer doesn’t need to be close to the computer, but it does need to be close to the router so that both the computer and the printer can receive and send a signal from the router.
2. Connect the printer to your wireless network
The way this connection is set up will pretty much depend on the model of your printer. However, what is true for all printers is that you will need to set up a connection between the router and the printer before you can do any printing.
One way to do this is to access the printer’s menu, navigate to the section related to Wi-Fi connectivity and then follow the instructions that come with your printer to learn how to finish the connecting process. If you’ve lost the instruction sheets, you can probably find these instructions online by going to the support website of the printer’s manufacturer.
Another, easier way of setting up how to connect printer wirelessly, Wi-Fi connection would be to connect them using the special WPS push-to-connect feature. This method is – both your router and your printer need to support this feature, otherwise, it won’t work.
So, if both your printer and your router support this WPS setup process, all you need to do is press the WPS button both on your router and on your printer within two minutes, and the connection will be made automatically.
(A quick note: If you can’t connect your printer to your router this way, you will have to know the username and the password for the router so that you can connect the two the old-fashioned way.)
3. Add the printer to your computer’s list of peripheries
Access the computer’s Control Panel.
If you have a Windows 7 operating system or an earlier version, you can find Control Panel from the Start menu. For Windows 8 systems and later, you need to click the Windows button simply.
Once you’ve done this, within the Control Panel window, find the subsection called Devices and Printers. (It may also say View Devices and Printers, depending on the version of Windows you’re using.)
Next, click on Add Printer.
If you have older printers you’ve worked with or have multiple printers at the moment, several printers will appear in the drop-down list.
Choose the wireless printer you want to connect and then go through the setup process. You will probably also need to install some drivers so that the printer works without any problems once you’ve set everything up.
Although this process is largely automated, if you do need to find the drivers for your printer manually and you lost the disc with them, you can typically find the drivers for the wireless printer model you have online. (Usually under the ‘Support’ section of the manufacturer’s website.)
4. Add the printer to your Mac computer
First of all, in case you’re not sure, you have to check if the printer you’re trying to add to a Mac computer’s list of peripheries is Mac-compatible in the first place.
Assuming it is, the way of adding it to your Mac computer is to simply click on the Apple menu and click the Click & Scan button that appears.
When you do this, you will see a small, narrow window with a + and a – symbol at the bottom of it. To add a new printer, click on the + symbol, find the printer that you’re adding and click on it, and then go through the software installation process as you would on a Windows computer.
5. Start printing
Once you’ve set everything up, you can start printing using your wireless printer, as long as the program you’re in allows printing.
When you hit the Print button, the printer you’ve just connected and added to the list of peripheries on your PC or Mac will appear (as one of the options, if you have multiple printers that you use), and as long as the printer is within reach of the Wi-Fi signal, the printing process will begin.
Printing from an iPad or iPhone
1. See if your printer supports AirPrint technology
… because printers with this feature can receive documents for printing directly from devices that run iOS.
Typically, if you have a printer that does support this feature, you will be able to see the symbol for it printed on the printer somewhere.
If the wireless printer you want to set up doesn’t have this feature, you can still use it with devices that use iOS, but you will have to find the special manufacturer’s app for printing with these devices.
2. Open the app with the printing document in it
Once you’ve set up your wireless printer, either through the magic of the AirPrint technology or some other way, you can open the app that has the document you want to print in it.
Depending on what app you’re using, this can be a text document, an e-mail, or even a picture.
3. Press the Share button
Once you’ve decided what document you want to print, you need to tap on the Share button.
After you’ve done this, you will see an option that allows you to share the document using the AirPrint feature.
Tap on AirPrint, and now you will have an option to choose what printer you want to use. Locate the printer you’ve just connected and tap on it to choose it.
4. Tap on the Print button
Next, all you need to do is simply tap on Print, and the printing process will begin. (Of course, you need to make sure that the printer you’ve connected is within reach of the router it’s connected to.)
Final Verdict
All in all, whether you’re using an iPad, your PC, or some other device that can be connected to a wireless printer (Android devices have this feature, too, for example), being able to print something from afar without having to deal with pesky cables and to be surrounded by cables and printers, can be a great thing if you’re working in an office or even from home.
The more space you have for yourself, the more comfortable you will feel doing your job. We hope you found how to connect printer wirelessly in this article helpful, and we wish you plenty of luck with your wireless printing ventures.