Sharing a Printer in a WiFi Network
Tags: hardware, printer, productivity, sustainability
Published: 2023-04-19 08:09:40

Printers are maybe not something we should own at our home, at least not when we can access a shared printer at work, in a coworking space or a copyshop.

## No Developer likes to Fix Printers! 🔧🖨️😒

Printers are notorious to be expensive, wasteful, and guaranteed to cause trouble due to missing, incompatible, or outdated device drivers. It has become a running gag that you don't want to be the "IT expert" having to support and fix other people's printing problems.

![Image search results for fix printer developer meme](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5jjfw0pft1zsgoky77kl.png)

I have had trouble using an HP LaserJet in our family. At least, the printer doesn't refuse to work with third-party color cartridges, so we can use recycled ones instead of the more expensive original ones.

## Outdated Drivers, Planned Obsolescence? 🗑️💸

But I often struggled and failed to install a driver for any other platform than Windows. It used to work some years ago, maybe 2018 when they last updated their [HPLIP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Linux_Imaging_and_Printing) driver?

![Screenshot of a Linux Hewlett Packard driver installation dialog with an AskUbuntu page in the background](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/k4pzdovcktruo32oa40q.png)

### Not even working on Linux anymore?!

But after both Apple and Linux switched their [CUPS](https://www.cups.org)-based printing systems to Python 3 or some other breaking change that I don't mind to understand, the only way to print a document seemed to be using a PC running Microsoft Windows. So I had to save a PDF in the cloud or email it to myself, then startup Windows on a laptop physically connected to the printer, start the printing process, check if the paper has been printed successfully, and shut down Windows. What a waste of time and energy!

![Screenshot of a printer icon and an error message telling that something has been deprecated](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/a5scaun6yfdxze4091a6.png)

Later, I had another hardware problem, when the German Telefonica subsidiary O² had sent us their default white label router which seemed to use a slow fall back protocol when accessed by my Linux laptop. So I needed an alternative.

## Reusing Second-Hand Hardware 🪄✨🙏

The Fritz!Box 7520 is branded by 1&1 and cheap to get second-hand, and it works as an O² client as well, [as a helpful forum user pointed out](https://hilfe.o2online.de/dsl-kabel-glasfaser-router-software-internet-telefonie-34/nutzung-der-7520-mit-o2-546037).

![A Fritz!Box 7520 router.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5rozvj55uwdimdqdq9ec.png)

Later I found out that the router has an [option to connect a printer](https://en.avm.de/service/knowledge-base/dok/FRITZ-Box-7590/15_Setting-up-a-printer-connected-to-the-FRITZ-Box/) via USB and make it accessible as a network printer.

## No More Troubleshooting! ✌️

Now our old LaserJet is connected to the router and can be used as a network printer by everyone logged into our WiFi network.