I recently acquired a used Brother MFC-8860DN printer that I would like to be able to access wirelessly. It is not a wireless printer, but it is Ethernet capable.
My home network consists of a wireless network router: Netgear WNR834Bv2 RangeMax NEXT Wireless Router, 802.11n and 2 wireless-enabled laptop PCs, one Win 10 and one Win 8.1.
Until recently I had an older PC with no wireless capability that was wirelessly accessible on my home network. It was connected to my wireless router via an Ethernet cable. I also had an old HP 1210 printer (that was share-enabled) that was connected to the PC via USB and I was able to wirelessly print to the HP 1210 from either of my PCs.
I have connected my Brother printer to my wireless router via an Ethernet cable as well, but it does not appear in Windows File Explorer on either of my 2 laptop PCs, and it does not appear in the list of available printers when I try to 'add printer'.
I have connected the printer to four different Ethernet ports on the router and none of them have worked.
Can anyone help me with this configuration?
3 Answers
Connect it straight to a PC to see if it can be detected, ping it if it doesn't show up in File Explorer. Once you determine its able to be reached, connect it to the router and Add the printer by using its IP address. On Step 8 clicking the Windows Update button may take forever, i remember waiting at least 15 minutes for it to finish and decided to just add the drivers manually.
You should also add a DHCP reservation to your router so that your printer keeps the same IP address.
You say it's a recently acquired used printer. That probably means that the printer already has an IP address - one that is incompatible with your network. For example, the printer may have a 10.x.x.x address, but your router uses 192.168.x.x.
In that case you need to reset the printer's network settings. The best way to do that, as well as to clean out any other junk that may be in the printer, is a factory reset, as follows:
To start, choose the menu button on your printer.
After that, find network menu by using the bottom up button. Continue by pressing OK.
Next, select factory reset, and after that, choose OK.
After that, give the printer an IP address suitable for your network, and install it as @BrainRenticus suggested.
Thanks for the reply, BrainRenticus. And the DHCP reservation tip.
So, after posting this issue, I went to bed, woke up, checked my network devices via the iOS Fing app and suddenly the printer was in the list of network devices.
The printer also showed up in the list of available printers via 'add printer' and it is now wirelessly accessible to my 2 laptops.
I have no explanation but I am moving on...
