Wireless Printing to a LAN port on a Ricoh 4420NF (Savin 3760NF)

copymeMaven VIP

Sorry for the long case study here: I have a customer with a FAX 4420NF that wants to print to it from her laptop. She is wireless in her house and the router is too far and cannot have a CAT5 cable coming from it across the whole first floor. The 4420NF has a LAN port (ethernet) but no USB or parallel port. You can get the optional local printer option type 1013 with the USB/Parallel ports but I cannot find one that is low enough in cost to justify the expense (around $400). So, can I wirelssly print to the 4420NF with a wireless card installed in the LAN port? I was told the 4420NF can do Network printing but this is in a home. I have been told the router acts as a server as far as being able to input an IP address into the 4420NF's menu under "printer". Also, do I need a wireless print server, which is around $100 at Microcenter, it allows wireless printing and scanning. They did not have a wireless card that is for CAT5 to fit int eh 4420, only a USB port card. Any help appreciated, this is a challenge.

7/21/1010:16 AM

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JasonRMaven VIP

Answers to the questions I think are in there:

Yes, you can wirelessly print to a 4420 with a wireless card, as long as the home has wireless.

The router does not act as a server, it acts as a router. It will take the print job from the PC and "route" it to the printer, as long as you configure them both to be on the same network/IP scheme and print to that IP.

Do you need a wireless print server? Well, the answer to that is "no" if you have a wireless card in the 4420 and "yes" if you not.

The $100 for the wireless print server is usually cheaper than the wireless card in the machine.

Paragraphs... use them.

7/22/108:26 AM

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copymeMaven VIP

Thanks very much and LOL about the paragraphs, you are right about that!

So if I am understanding this correctly, I need to put the wireless print server next to the 4420NF and run a short CAT5 cable to it?

I then can input an IP address into the 4420NF and tell the printer driver what it is. Or maybe it will assign one automatically under DHCP? I would then find it on the 4420NF and input that when settin up the driver?

LAstly, do I need to do anything with the router if I use the wireless print server, such as configure it in any way?

Thanks again.

7/23/107:16 AM

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JasonRMaven VIP

Correct, short CAT5 cable from printer to wireless print server.

Best to put in a static IP into the machine, otherwise, you'd have to print to the hostname of the printer and have something doing local DNS to map it from the name to the ever-changing IP.

You shouldn't need to do anything at all with the router. Just make sure your IP for the printer is in the same range as the PC.

for example, the PC's IP is 192.168.1.1, you could make the printer 192.168.1.44

For small home networks, it's ok to make up an IP, I usually just put it somewhere in the 30-100 range so it'll never be in conflict with the rest of their devices.

Note: Making up your own IP is great when you are on a network with 2-4 devices. It's a horrible idea in a business environment or anyplace where they have 50-100 devices.

7/23/109:23 AM

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