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(I have very low experience with local networks. I need to connect the shared printer...)

The Brother MFC-L2720DW printer allows 3 ways to print: through USB cable, through wired LAN (patch cable, 8P8C connector a.k.a. RJ-45), or through its built-in Wi-Fi. I understand from the Brother documentation, than the printer cannot use both wired and wireless connection at the same time. Only one mode can be selected in the printer settings. (No problem to understand that.)

Then I have a notebook that is moved around the rooms, sometimes. Mostly, it is connected to the small TP-LINK TL-SG108 switch that makes the tiny local network (via patch cable). Sometimes, the notebooi goes wireless through D-Link DAP-2020 that is connected to the same switch. The switch is also connected to the common fixed-phone line modem. So far, all the things work smoothly.

Next idea was to connect the MFC-L2720DW to the switch (patch cable) to be used as a shared printer. However, I am having difficulties with printing. When the printer is set to use Wi-Fi connection to the Wi-Fi point, I can print from the notebook only when being wireless. Once I connect the notebook through patch cable, I cannot print. I even am not able to switch the printer to LAN mode and make it accessible for printing through wires only.

My idea was to set the printer to LAN mode -- connected to the switch via patch cable. I have expected to be able to print from notebook-wireless >> Wi-Fi (D-Link) >> switch (TP-LINK) >> printer (LAN; patch cable). Alternatively: notebook (patch) >> switch (TP-LINK) >> printer (LAN; patch cable).

Can you suggest some reliable way to make the connection, and possibly install the drivers correctly? The Windows is of version 8.1, the printer drivers are installed from within the printer.

Update: I have never set any fixed IP, nor subnets and all the things mentioned by Massimo's comment below. The described components are almost all that is there. There are two more TVs through internet; however, they are connected to the dedicated socket in the modem. One of the sockets of the modem is used to connect the switch (TP-Link). The modem gets its IP dynamically from the provider.

There is one more notebook that is always wireless, and 2 or three smartphones connected occasionally.

pepr
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  • You read my answer and edited your question, so please do what I said: ***WRITE DOWN THOSE IP ADDRESSES AND ALL SUBNET AND GATEWAY INFO***. This is required to actually have a chanche to answer your question. Don't worry about privacy, those are all private IP addresses nobody can reach (the public IP address of your modem is totally not relevant here). – Massimo Feb 13 '21 at 21:51

1 Answers1

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When the printer is set to use Wi-Fi connection to the Wi-Fi point, I can print from the notebook only when being wireless. Once I connect the notebook through patch cable, I cannot print.

This looks like a problem in your network. Are your wired and wireless network connected? Can they actually communicate?

Please add some IP addresses and subnets here. Most important:

  • Printer IP address
  • Printer subnet
  • Printer gateway
  • WI-FI subnet
  • IP address your PC gets when connected to WI-FI
  • WI-FI gateway
  • Ethernet subnet
  • IP address your PC gets when connected to Ethernet
  • Ethernet gateway

Also, please tell if there is any kind of firewall between those networks.

Please add those info in the question, not as comments.

Massimo
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  • Thanks, Massimo for the fast reaction. I have added some information to the question. However, I am not now near the components (physically) to check the information (not even knowing how to do that exactly). I believe that also the two notebooks get their IP dynamically. No fixed IP's. – pepr Feb 13 '21 at 21:51
  • @pepr even if they are dynamic, they are still definitely relevant. Please add the complete IP configs of all involved components. – Massimo Feb 13 '21 at 21:53
  • OK, but I will be able to do that only tomorrow. I am not physically there, now. Will the ipconfig utility tell all of those? – pepr Feb 13 '21 at 21:57
  • ...do you actually know what a subnet is?!? – Massimo Feb 13 '21 at 22:11
  • No offence intended, of course. But this is a networking issue and in order to troubleshoot it we need to know how much *you* know about your network. – Massimo Feb 13 '21 at 22:12
  • ... subnet. Theoretically yes -- the first part of the IP address that you get using the XOR with subnet mask. So, the task probably is to find whether the subnet masks of the devices fit toghether and whether the parts of IPs after that are unique. No practical experience. – pepr Feb 13 '21 at 22:29
  • You can keep it simple. Just post the IP address, subnet mask and gateway of each involved device. – Massimo Feb 13 '21 at 23:42