[W7] I suck with printers. Looking for networking assistance!

[Cheerios]

I have my network set up a little differently due to how shitty the router is, and I'm wondering if there is a way to keep the printer connected exclusively to my own PC while allowing other people on the router's network to print.




With that configuration, I can't get a homegroup going because my PC is connected connected directly to the modem instead of the router. How would I go about printing it from one of the laptops pictured without switching my connections around?

[Teorem]

Even with the laptops getting their connections via NAT, is Main PC visible to them via the local IP assigned by the router? If so, you should be able enable file and printer sharing on Main PC, share the printer in the printer's properties, and then add a network printer on the laptop(s) using Main PC's IP and printer share name.

Example: If Main PC's IP is 192.168.0.1 and you've shared the attached printer as MainPrinter, you should be able to add it as a network printer on one of the laptops (10.100.0.x) as \\192.168.0.1\MainPrinter

[Cheerios]

Main PC's local IP address is 10.0.0.5 (Gateway 10.0.0.1) since I'm connected to the modem itself. The router's page doesn't show Main PC at all, and all other IP addresses on the router are 192.168.1.1xx (192.168.1.1 gateway)

[orinthia]

What's preventing the pc from being on the router? It'd make things ridiculously simple if you solved your router problem. Otherwise, it'd be either quite messy or simply get a 20ft long usb cable for the printer.

[Omniyoji]

^ that, seriously weird setup. I'm assuming you have the router in the pic which has 4 ports. Are the other 4 computers desktops or laptops? If they're laptops just connect main PC directly to the router. Also on Teorem's idea, you'll need to have the main PC on to share the printer. I wonder if asleep is acceptable?

[five]

I would assume your printer has an ethernet jack no? Couldn't you plug it from your router to that jack and assign it a static IP and then add printers via windows printer setup or w/e it's called and add a network printer by manually entering that static IP for a printer?

[Tajin]

Could just buy a cheap wireless card and connect your PC to the router.

[Cheerios]

What's preventing the pc from being on the router? It'd make things ridiculously simple if you solved your router problem. Otherwise, it'd be either quite messy or simply get a 20ft long usb cable for the printer.

I get about 20 mbps down/2 mbps up on the router wired (even worse wireless), and 50-60 mbps down/15 up connected directly to the modem, so I'd rather not connect to the router or buy a new one.

[Senji]

You could look at the routers firmware and see what the problem is.

[Cheerios]

You could look at the routers firmware and see what the problem is.

Will do, but it is a pretty old WRT54G with DD-WRT on it. I'm pretty sure I messed with the appropriate settings according to other threads, but I'll have to take a look at it again.

[Senji]

Will do, but it is a pretty old WRT54G with DD-WRT on it. I'm pretty sure I messed with the appropriate settings according to other threads, but I'll have to take a look at it again.

Parents are chugging on one that's pushing ten years old that's flashed, it shouldn't be hardware bottlenecked. Just take some screens of your settings and post in whatever other thread.

[Teorem]

My remarks were based on the picture presented in the OP. My home network has the same topology; the PC I'm typing this response on now would be in the same position as one of the laptops. Basically, we have a DSL service from AT&T (U-Verse) which provides a single 2Wire modem that serves as a router. The modem is stored in one room with a very long ethernet cable stretched across the apartment into my room, where it connects to another router that hosts my machines. Wireless is an option from the modem, but the signal is crap and I prefer the cable connection.

From my machine (10.0.0.3, behind my router), I am able to reach a PC connected directly to the modem (192.168.1.69). Adding a printer (PrinterName) connected to that PC (\\192.168.1.69\PrinterName) should not be an issue, although, as someone pointed out earlier, you'd obviously need to have the PC on to share it. I assumed this would generally be the case from the OP.

[orinthia]

I have that same type of router, a wrt54g, but I use tomato firmware with it. Tomato is a bit newer than dd-wrt, though its options are probably a little different. Give it a shot, though backup your dd wrt settings and ensure you get the right firmware for your router version (they made a bunch of different versions of the wrt54g).

That being said, it may be time to upgrade to a router with gigabit ethernet and wireless n. I know I've been considering it for a while, though been lazy at researching. What I have works, though my internet speed is around 16-20mbps on good days so I wouldn't notice much of a bottle neck even over wireless g.

Now, there is an odd way to get this to work for you. Get another ethernet card and put your router on that card instead of the modem. Your main comp must be on all the time but I'm assuming you do that already. This way, you share your comp's internet through to that 2nd port to the router and the other devices. You may then be able to network between all the devices, but obviously you'd need to have your main comp on all the time.

Or just leave the router and comp connected to modem, get that ethernet card, and hook to router with it. You'd have two net connections, sort of... You could probably get your home network together this way too, though it seems like a little spaghetti mess.

Just a couple ideas.

[arshesney]

You can manually add a static route towards your 192.168.1.x network on your main pc. Disable any filetring or firewall on your router and find out which 10.0.0.x address it gets, fire up a comand prompt and write

route -p add 192.168.1.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.(router ip)

-p means it is a permanent route. Now your main pc should be able to ping any other behind the router.
You might need to quit homegroup on your main pc (even if you never joined one) and enable the advanced files and printers sharing.

An alternative is to disable dhcp on your router and plug the network cable from the modem in a LAN port instead of WAN, leaving the modem dhcp assigning addresses and your router just being a bridge between wireless and wired networks. Every client will the have a 10.0.0.x address and you will be able to create an homegroup.

[Ratatapa]

I kinda don't see the point about the route tbh

I know what the default route is suppose to do but in his drawing the Main PC can only follow one route. so he has to go threw that route anyway to join the modem

unless i'm missing something

[xopher]

Buy a new fucking router jesus.

[Ratatapa]

or a 4 port switch to plug in the router

[Kurokikaze]

Long answer:

In order for the laptops to see the printer connected to your PC you would need to set up NAT policies so that the network for the router can talk to the network for the modem.

10.0.0.1 (MODEM)
10.0.0.5 (PC)

192.168.2.1 (ROUTER)
192.168.2.X-X (Laptops)

Test your NAT policy by attempting to ping/RDP from main pc to laptops.

Afterwards you go to Devices and Printers then click on Printer Properties and go to the Sharing tab. Share it out from there. Go to the workstation then click on Add a Printer and let it scan the network. Should find it.

Or you could just do \\IP or MAINPC\ then right click the printer and click on connect.

Short Answer (best):

Buy a better router.