Printing without wires.
Printing without wires.
I have an Epson ET-2850 WiFi printer placed on the opposite side of my house from the router. According to Epson’s guidelines, it should be within about 15 feet, preferably under 20. This seems unusual since my laptop can connect from a similar distance, though the connection isn’t very strong. It doesn’t appear I can access the router’s settings through the printer’s network options, suggesting the printer and router are too far apart. Would there be a way to resolve this without moving the printer into my bedroom where the router is located? I’d prefer not to have anyone enter my room just to print documents.
Your router offers both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. You might want to switch them apart and connect your printer to the 2.4GHz network. If you use a Wi-Fi 6 device, its password might be protected with WPA3 only, which many printers can't handle. Consider changing it to WPA3+WPA2 or just WPA2 to test connectivity. Alternatively, you could use an affordable powerline Ethernet adapter for a stable connection.
I avoid dealing with networking often because it tends to be a really annoying process. The router model is Telus - T3200M. What do you mean by "separating them"? How can I tell if it supports 2.4/5 or WiFi 6? Even if I could connect, I think the link would likely be unstable since my laptop has trouble staying online at that distance and Epson mentioned the printer is too far from the router. Are you considering a powerline adapter or do you have another idea? Edit: The powerline guide suggests plugging an Ethernet cable from the adapter into the router. If you have a switch, can you connect it there? I suspect my printer isn’t equipped with an Ethernet port.
It seems the et-2850 lacks Ethernet functionality. If all your devices connect to just one network name, it’s likely a mixed network where both 2.4GHz and 5GHz are labeled identically. This probably isn’t worth changing unless you need more options. Your Telus router supports Wifi 5/802.11ac, so you don’t have to worry about password encryption. You can treat powerline adapters like a single Ethernet cable, though with some extra steps. Most users don’t own a switch, which is why they recommend plugging the adapter directly into the router—though you can connect it to your switch instead. Even if your printer doesn’t have an Ethernet port, a powerline Wi-Fi extender works well; just connect one end to your switch and the other to a wall outlet near the printer. Set it up like a regular Wi-Fi network, using the existing name and password. This method is often more stable, especially for older Wi-Fi standards. You might find a better option elsewhere, but this approach is practical and reliable.
The item you mentioned has a higher rating count with more reviews, though the numbers don’t match exactly. People seem to favor it more compared to the other extender. Amazon scores might not always reflect true preference.
I tried setting up the TP-Link Powerline extender for testing and placed a laptop between the router and printer. It worked fine then, but my desktop couldn’t see the printer even when it was wired across the room. When I moved the second laptop closer to the printer area, detection improved. This suggests a range problem during the initial connection. For your desktop, you might need to check cable connections, ensure proper placement, or consider using a different extension method if needed.
Could you confirm if your printer is connected to your Wi-Fi? If it is, the computer should recognize it; the process might vary based on your extender setup. Look up your printer’s IP address in its network preferences and enter it when prompted in the device discovery section.
Yeah, someone else recommended that I try to find my Printers IP so I'll go do that now. I don't know if I can find it via the printer itself or if I need to look through the software on the computer. The WiFi extender isn't that complex. I just pressed the routers WPS button and the extenders "WiFi button" to get them on the same network. The WiFi printer does see my routers username since adding the WiFi extender and since my desktop PC is directly wired to the router I don't understand why I can't connect to the printer. Edit: I actually got it to work by just going into "Printers & scanners" > Add a printer or scanner and it detected the printer. Strange that I had to do this on my desktop PC but I never needed to do this on either of my laptops and they are all running Windows 10. I did recently update the printers firmware though so maybe this had some kind of impact.