Connecting a Wireless Printer to Your Wi-Fi

Two Ways a Wireless Printer Connects

Before you touch a single setting, it helps to know there are two different kinds of wireless printing. Most home printers can do both.

For a home or small office, joining your regular Wi-Fi is almost always the better choice. Everyone in the house can print without reconnecting to anything, and the printer can sit anywhere in range of your router. Wi-Fi Direct is mainly a backup for when there is no router nearby at all.

What You Need Before You Start

Gathering these three things first saves you from walking back and forth across the house.

Most printers need to sit within a normal Wi-Fi range of your router, the same distance a phone or laptop would work fine from. If the printer will live in a basement, garage, or far corner of the house, expect the signal to be weaker there, the same as it would be for any device.

• Your Wi-Fi network name and password, the same ones your phone uses
• The printer, powered on, with ink or toner installed and paper loaded
• A phone, tablet, or computer nearby to help finish the setup

Setting Up From the Printer's Screen

Most printers with a small screen can join your Wi-Fi entirely on their own, without needing a computer at all.

Exact menu names vary by brand, but Wireless Setup Wizard or Network Settings is the phrase to look for. Printers without a screen usually rely on the maker's app instead, which we cover next.

• On the printer, open Settings or the wrench icon on its screen.
• Look for Wireless Setup, Network Setup, or Wi-Fi Setup Wizard.
• Choose your network name from the list that appears.
• Type your Wi-Fi password using the on-screen keyboard, watching capital letters carefully.
• Wait for the printer to confirm it connected, often shown with a steady Wi-Fi light or a confirmation message on screen.

The WPS Button Shortcut

If your printer and router both have a WPS button, this is the fastest way to connect, no password typing required.

WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup. It lets two devices, your router and your printer, pair up automatically when you press a button on each, one after the other, within about two minutes.

• On the printer, find the Wireless or WPS button, sometimes reached through a menu labeled WPS Push Button.
• Press and hold it until the wireless light starts blinking.
• Within two minutes, press the WPS button on your router or gateway.
• Wait for both devices to show a steady light, confirming they paired.

Let the Printer's App Do the Work

For most people, the easiest path is the free app made by the printer's manufacturer. It walks you through setup on your phone, step by step, with pictures.

Download the app that matches your printer's brand from the App Store or Google Play. Open it, choose Add Printer or Set Up a New Printer, and follow the prompts. The app typically has your phone talk to the printer briefly over Wi-Fi Direct or Bluetooth just long enough to hand it your Wi-Fi name and password, and then the printer joins your regular network on its own.

• HP printers: the HP Smart app
• Canon printers: the Canon PRINT app
• Epson printers: the Epson Smart Panel app
• Brother printers: the Brother Mobile Connect app

Adding the Printer on a Windows PC

Once the printer itself has joined your Wi-Fi, you add it once to each computer that will use it.

If your printer does not appear, make sure it is powered on and already joined to Wi-Fi first. It is also worth checking that your computer is on the same network, not a guest network or a phone hotspot.

• Open Settings, then Bluetooth & devices, then Printers & scanners.
• Click Add device or Add a printer or scanner.
• Wait a moment while Windows searches; your printer's name should appear in the list.
• Select it and click Add device. Windows installs what it needs automatically most of the time.

Adding the Printer on a Mac

Macs generally make this quite painless once the printer is on your Wi-Fi.

Most modern printers work with AirPrint, Apple's built-in printing technology, which means the Mac often finds and sets up the printer without you installing anything extra at all.

• Open System Settings, then Printers & Scanners.
• Click the plus button (Add Printer, Scanner, or Fax).
• Choose your printer's name from the list that appears.
• Let the Mac choose the software automatically, then click Add.

Printing From an iPhone or iPad

This is often the pleasant surprise: many iPhones and iPads need no setup step at all once the printer is on your Wi-Fi.

Apple's AirPrint technology lets an iPhone or iPad find and use most modern wireless printers automatically. Open whatever you want to print, such as an email, photo, or webpage, tap the Share icon, and look for Print. Tap it, choose your printer from the list, and print.

• The Share icon looks like a square with an arrow pointing up.
• If asked to select a printer, choose it once and it is remembered.
• Set the number of copies and tap Print in the top right corner.

Printing From an Android Phone

Android phones use a similar built-in printing feature, plus the option of the manufacturer's app.

Most Android phones use a Default Print Service that finds printers on your Wi-Fi automatically. If your printer never shows up, install the manufacturer's app from Google Play, which adds direct support for that brand.

• Open what you want to print, tap the three-dot menu or the Share icon.
• Tap Print.
• If your printer is not the one shown, tap the printer name at the top to choose a different one, or tap Save as PDF if you see no printer listed.
• Tap the blue print icon to send the job.

Fixing the Dreaded Printer Offline Message

This is the single most common printer complaint I hear, and the good news is it is almost always fixable in a few minutes.

Printers often go offline for a small, boring reason: the router handed it a new address after a restart, and your computer is still trying to reach the old one. Removing and re-adding the printer usually clears this right up.

• Confirm the printer is powered on and its Wi-Fi light is steady, not blinking or off.
• Restart the printer: turn it off, wait about 15 seconds, turn it back on.
• Restart your router too, especially if other devices seem off as well.
• On your computer, remove the printer from Printers & Scanners and add it again fresh.
• Make sure the printer and your computer are on the same Wi-Fi network.

When a Print Job Gets Stuck

Sometimes one stubborn print job jams up everything behind it. Here is how to clear it.

Every computer keeps a small waiting line, called a print queue, for jobs on their way to the printer. If one job fails partway through, it can sit there and block every job after it, even though the printer itself is working fine.

• On Windows, open Printers & Scanners, click your printer, then Open print queue, and cancel the stuck job.
• On a Mac, open System Settings, Printers & Scanners, click your printer, and remove the stuck job from the list shown.
• If canceling does not work, restart the printer and the computer, which usually clears a truly stuck job.

Where to Put the Printer

A printer is just another device on your Wi-Fi, and it is subject to the same rules as your phone or laptop about signal strength.

Printers that frequently drop offline or take a long time to start a job are often simply too far from the router. Moving the printer, or improving Wi-Fi coverage in that room, solves more offline complaints than any software fix.

• Keep the printer within the same general range you would expect a laptop to get a decent signal.
• Avoid tucking it inside a closed cabinet, which blocks the signal more than people expect.
• If it sits far from the router, consider whether a Wi-Fi extender or mesh point nearby would help, the same fix you would use for a weak spot anywhere else in the house.

When Your Router or Network Changes

A printer that worked perfectly for months can suddenly go quiet after a router swap or an internet provider visit. This is expected, not a sign something broke.

Your printer remembers one specific Wi-Fi network name and password. If your provider replaces your equipment, or you set up a new router, the network name or password often changes, and the printer no longer recognizes it. The fix is simply to run through the wireless setup steps again on the printer with the new network details.

• Run the Wireless Setup Wizard on the printer's screen again, or use the maker's app to reconnect it.
• Use the new network name and password exactly as they now appear.
• Once reconnected, the printer should reappear automatically on phones and computers already set up to use it.

Printing Without a Router Nearby

Every so often there is no home Wi-Fi to join at all, such as a printer in a workshop or a temporary setup. Wi-Fi Direct is the backup plan for exactly this.

Turn on Wi-Fi Direct in the printer's network menu. The printer then broadcasts its own small network name, often shown right on its screen. On your phone or laptop, open Wi-Fi settings, find that name in the list, and connect using the password shown on the printer.

• Only devices connected directly to the printer's own signal can print this way, one or a few at a time.
• You will not have regular internet access while connected to Wi-Fi Direct, since it is not routed through your provider.
• Switch back to your normal Wi-Fi once you are done printing.

Keeping Your Printer Secure

A printer connected to your Wi-Fi is a small computer in its own right, and it deserves a bit of the same care you give your router.

None of this is urgent daily maintenance. It is more of a once-a-year check, similar to updating your router, and well worth the ten minutes it takes.

• Change the printer's admin password from the factory default if it has a web page or app login of its own.
• Let the printer install its own firmware updates when offered; these fix security weaknesses over time.
• Turn off remote or cloud printing features you do not actually use, which reduces how the printer can be reached from outside your home.

Ink, Subscriptions, and a Few Scams to Know

Printers come with their own small world of subscriptions and, unfortunately, their own scams. A few minutes of awareness goes a long way.

Some printers offer ink subscription programs that ship replacement cartridges automatically before you run out. These are legitimate services from the manufacturer, but read the terms carefully before enrolling, since they involve an ongoing charge on your card.

The Order to Try Things In

When a wireless printer is misbehaving, working through these in order solves the great majority of problems without a service call.

That last step tells you a lot. If every device fails, the trouble is the printer or the network. If only one device fails, the trouble is usually that one device's printer setup.

• Check the printer has paper, ink or toner, and no error light showing.
• Confirm the printer's Wi-Fi light is on and steady.
• Restart the printer, then the router, waiting a minute between each.
• Remove and re-add the printer on the computer or phone giving you trouble.
• Try printing from a different device to see if the problem follows the printer or stays with one device.

You Have Got This

Wireless printing looks fussy from the outside, but it really comes down to a handful of ideas you now know.

Print a test page once everything is connected, and you are done. That small piece of paper is proof the whole chain, from your phone to your router to the printer, is working together.

• The printer joins your home Wi-Fi much like any other device does.
• The maker's app is usually the easiest way to get there.
• Once on Wi-Fi, you add the printer once per phone or computer.
• Offline messages are almost always fixed by a restart or a fresh re-add.
• A little security housekeeping and a healthy skepticism of unsolicited calls keep the printer safe.

What's in the 27-page PDF

• The two ways a wireless printer can connect, and which one you want
• Step-by-step setup using the printer's own screen or the WPS button
• Using your printer maker's phone app to finish the job in minutes
• Adding the printer on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android
• Fixing the dreaded printer offline message
• Keeping your printer secure and dodging ink-related scams

Why I wrote this

I write these as printable handouts because a guide you can keep in a drawer beats a web page you have to find again. No jargon, no judgment, no rushing. If you'd rather have someone sit beside you and go through it together, that's a flat $99 first visit with the 30-day follow-up included — serving Portage County from Atwater, Ohio. — Bill