Printing from Chromebook to Windows printer

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Situation:

Wireless Router
connected via ethernet patch cable to
Windows 7 PC
connected via USB cable to
non-wireless Brother laser printer
This laser printer is set up as “shared” on the printer driver on the PC (but this makes no difference)

The Windows 7 PC prints quite happily to the laser printer.

Along comes a Chrome Book which cheerfully connects wirelessly to The Internet, but under “Google Cloud Print” -> “Manage” the Chrome Book cannot see any printers.
If I connect the Chrome Book via a USB cable direct to the laser printer it can see it.

My question is:
is there any way I can get the Chrome Book to print ‘wirelessly’ via the Windows 7 PC to the laser printer?

If so, how, and would I need any more hardware?

Thanks!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Does this help?
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1069693?hl=en

Jerry

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Thanks, Jerry – but unfortunately no, because that’s the crib sheet I’ve been working from!

It has been suggested that I need to have a(n otherwise useless) wireless connection on the PC for the ChromeBook to connect to..

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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It has been suggested that I need to have a(n otherwise useless) wireless connection on the PC for the ChromeBook to connect to..

The system that’s “sharing” the printer (the one running Chrome), and the Chromebook (or Android device) must both be Internet connected – they must be able to access “the cloud”.

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I like the new printer suggestion, but a Belkin wi-fi adapter for your PC is on sale at Best Buy for about $16.

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Sorry about that. I don’t see why a wireless connection should be needed as long as you’re on the same network. I did need a third party utility on the PC with a shared printer to be able to print from my IPad before I got a wireless printer. That’s what I thought using Chrome on the PC with a Google account would provide as described in the link.

Good luck finding a solution.

Jerry

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Jerry – which utility did you use, please?

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Colobos Fingerprint. It’s been superseded by Presto. Looks like its subscription only now. Fingerprint was a one time purchase.
http://www.collobos.com

Jerry

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Also found this:
http://www.rbrussell.com/2013/04/09/tech-tip-how-to-enable-airprint-for-any-printer-in-windows/

Can’t vouch for it as I haven’t tried it.

Jerry

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Thank you! I’ve also come across this writeup, which avoids contaminating the PC with AirPrint, iTunes and Bonjour… (If it works!)

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Does your Brother printer have an ethernet port? In other words, can you connect it with an ethernet cable to your router? If so, you could make it a network printer, and access it that way from your Windows 7 computer and from your Chromebook.

By doing it this way, you would eliminate the need for the Chromebook to negotiate its way through Window 7 security. My guess is that this is where the process is failing.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Does your Brother printer have an ethernet port?

Sadly, no. It is a low-end laser, with just a USB connection.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Sadly, no. It is a low-end laser, with just a USB connection.

You could get an external print server, to make it a network printer.

Here’s one, for $58, the HAWKING HMPS1U Print Server:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833164145

I’ve never used a Hawking print server, but I have a Hawking wifi extender, and I’m pleased with it.

If you can’t figure out how to do this otherwise, then this may be the only way to go.

Of course, if you’re going to spend $60 for a print server, you might instead want to just get a networkable printer. It won’t cost much more than this, and it will be brand new.

And all of this is assuming that your Chromebook can print to a networked printer. I’m sure it can, but I would verify that before spending any money.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I don’t see any difference between a chrome book vs windows laptop connecting to a printer on a network. All you should have to do is make sure the chrome book is on the network, and through the network on the chrome book just add the printer driver…like you would any other laptop to print from the network. I have 3 laptops setup this way and all print via the wifi of the network.

My printer is an old HP 5610v with no built in wifi or ethernet connection. I’ve had this setup for years and years….works great.

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I don’t see any difference between a chrome book vs windows laptop connecting to a printer on a network. All you should have to do is make sure the chrome book is on the network, and through the network on the chrome book just add the printer driver…like you would any other laptop to print from the network. I have 3 laptops setup this way and all print via the wifi of the network.

My printer is an old HP 5610v with no built in wifi or ethernet connection. I’ve had this setup for years and years….works great.

How can I convince the Chromebook that there is really a printer available?

I have found this thread (see the top post) which seems to indicate that the problem is non-trivial… I have to get a USB wireless adapter to test it with.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Could it be simpler to just pull the document down from the cloud on your windows machine and then print? Maybe not as expedient as printing directly, but it would work. This is how we “network” the printer at my house: my daughter creates her document for school, saves it to a USB drive, then “sneakernet’s” it to my desktop which has a laser printer attached and, voila, printing ensues.
Just a thought.

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I used something similar to this to finally and reliably print from non-MS clients (Linux, Mac, whatever) to my USB-connected laser. Laser is connected to a Win7 x64 Pro box.

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