How Does a Wireless Printer Server Work?

Wireless Print Servers Connect to Wireless Routers

To provide wireless printing capabilities, wireless print servers interface directly with wireless routers. When the print server is installed, the server is configured to connect to the router either through a built-in display and keyboard, or---more commonly---using special software bundled with the wireless print server. If the router supports advanced features like network address translation (NAT) or wireless security, the server's configuration software allows these options to be defined during setup. The wireless server connects to the router using the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.11 wireless networking protocol; while some print servers may use advanced versions of the protocol like G or N, the limited amount of bandwidth required for sending jobs to print servers means that versions of the protocol later than B are rarely necessary.

Wireless Print Servers Serve Printers

Although wireless print servers connect to the local area network over a wireless connection, the server is physically connected to the printers it supports. Since most modern printers accept input through a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector, many wireless print servers feature one or two USB ports for printer connections. Some printers, like the Brother MFC, support direct network connections; these printers are generally connected directly to the wireless router and do not require a print server interface. Older printers that do not support the USB interface may connect to wireless print servers using a parallel to USB adapter, though a printer upgrade to newer technology may render more desirable print job results.

Connected Users Map the Printers

When users connected to the network---either over standard Ethernet cables or an 802.11 wireless connection---they can quickly and easily map the networked printers and begin processing print jobs. Since the printers are not attached to a computer, users should map the devices as standalone network printers, much as if they were connected directly to the router. Depending on the model of wireless print server used, users can map the shared printers either directly using an Internet protocol (IP) address or using a printer name provided by the server. When a user sends a job to the printer, the router wirelessly sends the job to the server, where it is converted from radio waves to electronic data, and then sent to the printer using normal printer output routines.