I have no experience with routers. I'm going to buy a desktop PC off a friend, but I need to make sure everything he needs is working before I leave. He has way less of a clue than I do. He has a laptop and a wireless all-in-one printer. Sounds easy enough. After I disconnect the desktop from the router, all I have to do is connect the router to the all-in-one, right ?? Anything tricky I need to know about ?? Thanks.
Hi, Could you tell us more about what you are trying to achieve? From reading your post, I think what your saying is that your friend has a router, connected to a desktop PC, a laptop and an all in one printer, and you are buying the desktop PC. You don't state whether the printer is connected to the router at all, and since it's wireless I am presuming your friend is printing to it via Wifi / Bluetooth? If you remove the PC from the router, this basically leaves the router on its own, providing wireless internet access to the laptop (if this is already set up, removing the desktop should not cause any harm). And since the all in one was being used wirelessly then you don;t need to plug it into the router. As long as this is how his setup is, then you shouldn't have any issues. If however, the printer WAS attached to the desktop, then you could have issues.
Thanks for the reply first of all. If my friend knew anything about anything, I would be able to tell you more. I'm going by what he told me. I know it's not much info. Right now he says the router is hooked up to the desktop PC and is also running a laptop off the router. He is using somekind of printing program that lets him print with both PCs. I have no clue what that is. BUT, the all-in-one is still in the box. Not using it yet. So, I need to know if I unhook the desktop, how I have to hook up the all-in-one, so that he can use it to print wirelessly with his laptop. Sorry if I can't be more clear. Thanks.
OK, I'll try to help some more. The router is basically a piece of hardware that can greatly help in managing a small network, as well as provide wireless network and internet access to devices. If the printer is a true WiFi printer, you should be able to print from the laptop (or other WiFi enabled device) straight to it without the need for the router. This means that the router will still need to be used by the laptop for internet access, and possibly networking if he decided to do so at a later date. I hope this helps.
