How to Set Up a Brother Printer Through a Router
By Tiffany Garden
Many models of Brother printers have network adapters installed. Instead of connecting the printer directly to your computer, you can connect the Brother printer to your router and use it as a network resource. This setup is advantageous when you want to use the printer from multiple computers in your house or if all of your computers are laptops and you don't want to bother with connecting and disconnecting the printer as you move from room to room.
Insert the Brother printer installation CD. Choose to install BRAdmin and the drivers. Click "Next" on each installation wizard window until you reach the end of this process.
Plug in your Brother printer. Wait for it to power up completely; then connect the Brother's Ethernet cable into one of your router's wired devices or printer-specific ports.
Go to the computer you installed the Brother software and drivers on. Go to "Start" and click "Control Panel." Choose "Printers and Faxes." Click "Add a Printer."
Click "Next." Choose "A network printer, or printer attached to another computer." Click "Next." Choose "Browse for a printer." Leave the text field blank and click "Next."
Select the Brother printer in the list of printers that appears on the next page. Click "Next." Choose "Yes" or "No" to select the default printer status. Click "Next" then "Finish."
References
Tips
- Log into your router's control panel if your computer does not automatically detect the Brother printer connected to your router. Enter the IP address of the printer as a TCI/IP printer connection in the "Add A Printer" wizard. You should not need to do this as long as you install the Brother drivers and software from the installation disk.
Writer Bio
Tiffany Garden has been a freelance writer since 2002, working in the commercial copywriting field. She has been published in a number of technical and gaming magazines, as well as on numerous websites. She also runs her own websites on a number of subjects, runs a handcrafted jewelry business and is a CompTIA A+ Certified computer technician.