Connecting a wired printer is easy. Pick the right cable, then plug one end into the printer and the other into a computer or a router. In a few cases (most often with Canon models, in my experience), you might have to work through the printer’s front panel menus to enable Ethernet in the network settings, but having to do even that much is unusual. Connecting a wireless printer, on the other hand, is, well…not always easy. And even when everything goes smoothly, it’s still more complicated than plugging in a cable.I have decades of experience testing scores of printers at PCMag.com, and I’ve learned that the ease of setup for wired connections is one reason you should use them whenever you have the choice. When you don’t, you have to go wireless, which almost always means Wi-Fi (802.11) in one of two key variations: infrastructure mode or Wi-Fi Direct. The first is what most people mean by Wi-Fi, and I’ll refer to it as standard Wi-Fi here when needed for clarity. It’s the mode you would use to connect to a network built around a router and a wireless access point (which is usually incorporated into the router). Wi-Fi Direct is a peer-to-peer mode that connects directly between two devices, like a PC and a printer.For completeness, note that an older Wi-Fi peer-to-peer mode called ad hoc mode (not to be confused with ad hoc networks) also exists. Wi-Fi Direct was introduced in 2009 as a major improvement for peer-to-peer connections and has fully replaced the older mode. The last time I reviewed a printer that supported ad hoc mode was 2013, and a search for it on the Wi-Fi Alliance website comes up blank today. The mode earns mention here only because if you have an old enough printer, you may run across it as a supported feature. If you do, it’s best ignored.
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Almost every other wireless print connection you’ve ever heard of uses Wi-Fi. AirPrint (for iOS) and Mopria (for Android) both depend on Wi-Fi for wireless printing, for example. And if a printer offers an “Access Point mode” for wireless printing, that’s Wi-Fi also. The various mobile apps from Brother, Canon, Epson, HP and other printer manufacturers also use either standard Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi Direct for the actual connection as well.The one exception to this rule about print connections is Bluetooth, which is most commonly used for small photo printers and a few label printers, and which we won’t be covering here. But just to confuse the issue, some printers either require—or will let you optionally use—Bluetooth to communicate with the printer for the initial setup, even if they use Wi-Fi for printing afterward, and never use Bluetooth for anything else.In a slightly different vein, note that a model that supports Near Field Communications (NFC) for printing doesn’t actually print using NFC. Once you’ve initially set up your phone to work with the printer, NFC serves as an easy way to reestablish a Wi-Fi connection. Touch the phone to the NFC symbol on the printer, and the phone will both bootstrap its way to Wi-Fi Direct and launch the printer’s phone app. A few printers we’ve reviewed, mostly from Canon, can do the same thing with QR codes, typically displayed on an LCD control panel.
(Credit: Canon)
Each of these variations makes the process of setting up a Wi-Fi connection a little more complex, since each requires different steps. Adding still more complexity is that the steps for each type of connection can vary depending on the printer model. The good news is that there are standard approaches to setting up Wi-Fi that work for most printers. Many of these are at least semi-automated in modern desktop and mobile operating systems, so your OS or a manufacturer-supplied setup program can help walk you through the process.The bad news is that manufacturers have an annoying habit of coming up with what they consider improvements in the process, which can often prevent the standard approaches you might already be familiar with from working. In short, the steps for connecting to a printer by Wi-Fi depend largely on what Wi-Fi mode you’re using, what model of printer you have, and, for standard Wi-Fi, the router you’re using. The following tips and approaches to setup will help guide you through the Wi-Fi maze.Consider the Connection Choices Before Getting StartedJust because a variety of Wi-Fi modes and related print protocols like AirPrint exist doesn’t mean the printer and devices you want to print from support them. So make sure you know what each device—printer, PC, phone, and tablet—supports before you try setting up. Also, consider whether you really need to use Wi-Fi for all connections and which Wi-Fi modes you want to use.For example, if you have only one printer and one PC, both sitting on the same desk, and your printer doesn’t have any features that require a direct connection to an internet-connected network (like printing from the cloud), you might want to just connect it with a USB cable, and use Wi-Fi for printing from your phone only.
Connecting a wired printer is easy. Pick the right cable, then plug one end into the printer and the other into a computer or a router. (Credit: David English)
Also note that if you connect your printer to your network, whether via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, you can print from your phone using either Wi-Fi Direct (assuming both printer and mobile device support it) or can connect your phone to the router to send the print job over the network. Most phone apps for printers will work either way—via Wi-Fi Direct or standard Wi-Fi. The point is to pick the type of connection or connections that will be most convenient for both setup and use. Also, keep in mind that if you’re having a setup issue for one type of connection and another option will serve, it’s often easier to switch to the other option rather than try to troubleshoot the one that you’re having a problem with.One last point before you skip ahead to the section for the type of connection you need: Because many manufacturers have model-specific quirks in their Wi-Fi setups, your first attempt at setup should always be using the instructions and any installation program the manufacturer supplies. If you’re not dealing with a brand-new printer that includes them in the box, you should be able to download them from the manufacturer’s website. The suggestions here are for the times the manufacturer’s instructions don’t work, and you need to either troubleshoot them or find a workaround.How to Connect Your Printer to an Access Point or Wi-Fi RouterIf both your printer and your router support Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), getting the connection working can be as easy as placing the printer near the router, putting the printer in WPS connection mode, and pressing the WPS button on the router. If all goes well, the two will negotiate the connection, with a status light on the printer confirming when it’s established. However, details will vary depending on your printer and router.Before trying to use WPS, confirm that the router and the printer both support it. If either one doesn’t, skip ahead to the next section. If both do, you’ll have to find out how to initiate the connection mode for each. For routers, that usually means putting the printer in WPS connection mode first, then pressing the WPS button on the router and holding it for a few seconds.
You’ll need to push and hold the button on the printer (often labeled with a Wi-Fi icon) until a status light shows it’s ready to connect. (Credit: M. David Stone)
For printers that use a button to initiate the connection mode, you’ll need to push and hold the button on the printer (often labeled with a Wi-Fi icon), sometimes in combination with another button, until a status light shows it’s ready to connect, usually by blinking. For some HP printers, for example, you only have to hold the Wi-Fi button down. For others, you have to hold the Wi-Fi button and the power button at the same time.For WPS-capable printers that don’t have a dedicated WPS button but offer an LCD-based menu system, there will most often be a Wi-Fi Protected Setup or WPS option in the Wi-Fi Setup menu. For some HP printers, for example, you would choose Setup, Network, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, Push Button, and then Start.After putting the printer in WPS connection mode, you should be able to connect by pressing the WPS button on the router and holding it for a few seconds until you see an indication that the connection process has started. Note, too, that some printers are set to automatically start up in WPS connection mode the first time you plug them in. If you see a blinking Wi-Fi light when you first power up and can’t find any specific instructions indicating what it means, it can’t hurt to try initiating the connection from the router to see if it connects.
There will often be a WPS option in the Wi-Fi Setup menu. (Credit: Canon)
If the connection succeeds, you’ll usually see a Wi-Fi status light turn solid or an LCD icon indicating that Wi-Fi is active. Then, you can use the printer’s setup program to install the printer’s drivers, or you can use the features built into your OS to install the Windows/macOS drivers for the printer, as described in the next two sections. If a status light or icon indicates the connection failed, it’s worth turning the printer and router off, then on, putting the printer back in WPS connection mode, and trying again. If it still doesn’t work, it’s time to give up on WPS and try another way.How to Connect When WPS Isn’t an OptionIf WPS isn’t available or fails to work, the next step to try is the manufacturer’s printer installation program. Before you start, make sure you have the information you’ll likely need during the setup process: the network SSID (its name), the network password, and which security protocol your network uses: WEP, WPA, WPA2 (the most likely at this writing), or WPA3. (If someone else set up the router, you might have to get these details from them. Otherwise, if you know the password for logging on to the router’s setup screens from a browser, you should be able to find them yourself.) With those details in hand, and assuming you’re using the most common router settings, setup will generally go smoothly.For at least some HP printers that use HP Smart, for example, the printer comes out of the box set for Wireless Setup Mode. After you download HP Smart to your PC or Mac and launch it, the HP Smart setup routine will search for your printer, then pause to let you confirm it’s found the right one:
(Credit: HP)
It will then search for your access point and pause again to let you confirm it found the right access point and let you enter the password:
(Credit: HP)
It will then download the driver from HP and install it for you so you’re all set to print. Other printers may require enabling Wi-Fi in the printer menus first, but in most cases, the process is otherwise similar.When everything works as promised, the setup is quick, easy, and painless. When it doesn’t, it helps to have some idea of where to look for a fix. If you’ve already confirmed the printer’s Wi-Fi is enabled, the most likely issue is that the router settings don’t match the standard default settings the program expects to see. If you set up the router yourself, you should already know if you changed anything (other than the username and network password, which you should always change from the defaults), but you may want to refresh your memory by signing on to the router using a browser and looking through the settings screens. If someone else handled the setup, we suggest you contact the person who did and get the details from them. (If you rely on someone else to handle technical details for you, they may have to help you through the steps in the next two paragraphs also.)The most likely source of setup problems is that you or someone else changed one or more settings to make your network more secure. If you turned off DHCP, for example, which automatically assigns IP addresses, you need to assign the printer an IP address manually. Similarly, if you set the router to connect only to devices with specific MAC addresses, you have to enter the printer’s MAC address in the list before you can install it.Another potential issue, which is easier to deal with, is that you turned off the SSID broadcast—the feature that lets Wi-Fi devices announce their availability to other devices by name (the SSID). Many, if not most, printer installation programs will let you enter the name from your keyboard if you know it. However, some won’t, which means you’ll have to turn the router’s SSID broadcast back on so you can pick the name from a list:
(Credit: HP)
In most cases, you can turn it off again after establishing the connection, but we’ve seen some printers that can’t reconnect if the SSID broadcast is disabled.What to Do When You Can’t Find Your Printer’s Installation ProgramIf the printer you’re setting up is old enough that you can’t find a setup program or drivers to download that work with your current OS version, note that today’s operating systems are pretty good at zeroing in on new networked printers all by themselves and installing drivers. For older printers, these drivers may not support all of your printer’s features, but they’ll at least give you some basic capability for printing and whatever other functions the printer offers.The first step is to connect the printer to your access point. If your printer is relatively new, it should come with some sort of modern installation option, such as an onboard wizard, a manual setup in the printer menus where all you need to know is the network SSID and password, or Wi-Fi Easy Connect, which uses a QR Code you can scan with your phone to go through the setup process.Other printers may need you to find separate options in the built-in menu systems to choose and fill in individually. Check your printer’s setup guide to find out which approach to use. If you’ve lost your original documentation, you should be able to download copies from the manufacturer’s support site. Regardless of the approach, once you enter the information the printer needs, it should establish the connection to the network.Once you’ve established the connection, you can add printers in Windows 11 by choosing Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, then choosing Add device.
(Credit: Microsoft)
In Windows 10, choose Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners, and then Add a printer or scanner. Windows will then search your network for a new printer. If it finds one—as it should if you have already established a Wi-Fi connection with the router—double-click the device name in the list to continue the installation process.
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(Credit: Microsoft)
In macOS Sequoia, Choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Printers & Scanners in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.) A dialog appears listing printers on your local network. When your printer appears in the list, select your printer, then click Add.If your computer can’t find your printer, first confirm that it’s connected to the network. You should be able to do that by looking at a status light, a built-in menu in the printer, or a status page you can print from the printer menus. You should also be able to find the assigned IP address. To confirm that the PC can find the printer on the network in Windows 11, press the Windows key, then enter cmd in the Search box (in Windows 10, enter cmd in the taskbar Search box; in macOS Sequoia, open a Terminal window by entering Terminal in the Spotlight search box). In the window that will then open, enter ping after the command prompt, followed by the printer’s IP address. If the printer is on the network, the Ping command will confirm that it received a reply from the printer:
(Credit: Microsoft)
Otherwise, it will report “Request timed out” or “Destination host unreachable:”
(Credit: Microsoft)
If you can’t confirm the printer is reachable through the network using the ping command, repeat the steps described above for making the connection, double checking each step to make sure you’re not making any typos or other obvious errors.If you’ve confirmed the printer is on the network and Windows still can’t find it when you choose Add device or Add a printer or scanner, wait till Windows stops searching and choose Add manually (in Windows 11) or The printer that I want isn’t listed (in Windows 10).At this point, you’ll have several options to choose from, some self-explanatory, some more obscure.My printer is a little older. Help me find it. Selecting this option brings up a dialog box that searches for your printer. If the printer is not found, you are provided with several options, many of which are beyond this simple guide and may require additional information from your home network gear or, if at work, your IT people.Select a shared printer by name: All devices on your network will have a name, either one that you, IT, or the network itself gave it. You can either type the name of the network printer to search for it (note the format of the examples under the Browse field), or you can leave that field blank and click Browse to see all uninstalled printers.Add a printer using an IP address or hostname: This is similar to adding a printer manually. Select this option and click Next, then enter the printer’s hostname or IP address in the ensuing dialog box. Click Next to complete the process.Add a Bluetooth, wireless, or network-discoverable device: Choose this option and click Next to make the computer search for new devices. If the device you are looking for is displayed, double-click the entry to install it.Add a local printer or a network printer with manual settings: Here, again, you’ll be adding the printer manually.If you’ve confirmed the printer is on the network and macOS Sequoia still can’t find it, you can add it using an IP address. Open the Printers & Scanners settings menu as described above, then click the Add Printer, Scanner, or Fax button on the right, click the IP button, then enter the printer information. How to Connect Your Printer to Your PC Through Wi-Fi DirectAs already discussed above, some printers let you connect directly to another Wi-Fi device via Wi-Fi Direct. Once the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct is turned on, and assuming the PC supports Wi-Fi Direct, Windows can find the printer and install drivers. (Macs do not support Wi-Fi Direct).
(Credit: Brother)
As an example, a Brother laser printer we were testing at PC Labs let us establish a secure connection with a Windows laptop simply by turning on Wi-Fi Direct in the printer, clicking on the Wireless icon in the laptop’s system tray, picking the printer from the list of available networks, and entering the password for the printer.How to Connect Your Printer to Your Android or iOS DeviceMost printer manufacturers today offer mobile print apps for both Android and iOS mobile devices, available through Google Play and Apple’s App Store. Most of these apps will work with either a Wi-Fi Direct connection or a standard Wi-Fi connection to your router, finding the printer and printing via the network.Setup can be a little tricky because some of these apps require you to first set up a Wi-Fi Direct or standard Wi-Fi connection before they can find the printer you’re trying to set them up for, while others will ignore the fact that your phone is already connected to your network or printer, and require that you set up the connection through the app. Since mobile apps tend to lack clear instructions, you may have to try both ways to find the one that works. Note also that some manufacturers offer different apps for different lines of printers, so if you are searching for an app without knowing its name, be sure to include the printer name in the search.
(Credit: HP/Brother/Canon)
As shown in the screenshots above of Canon’s Print & Scan, Brother’s iPrint&Scan, and HP’s HP Smart show, these apps offer commands for printing, scanning, and more. The HP Smart App, for example, lets you set up and manage most HP printers, scan files with your camera, and send faxes, among other choices.Another option is Apple’s AirPrint, which makes it easy to print from iOS devices to compatible printers (thousands of printer models are now supported.) You can then print within apps that support AirPrint by selecting Print and picking an available printer. Finally, Android users have Mopria Print Service.That said, it’s easier to install an app on your device, and it will offer a wider feature set as well. Apps from Canon, Epson, and HP also include features for editing and enhancing photos with special effects, decorative text, frames, and the like.No one-size-fits-all wireless printing solution covers all scenarios, but you have a greater range of options today than ever before. Whether you want to print from a laptop or a mobile device via Wi-Fi, several solutions will likely be available to choose from. And if one doesn’t work to your satisfaction, you can always try another.
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About M. David Stone
Contributing Editor
Most of my current work for PCMag is about printers and projectors, but I’ve covered a wide variety of other subjects—in more than 4,000 pieces, over more than 40 years—including both computer-related areas and others ranging from ape language experiments, to politics, to cosmology, to space colonies. I’ve written for PCMag.com from its start, and for PC Magazine before that, as a Contributor, then a Contributing Editor, then as the Lead Analyst for Printers, Scanners, and Projectors, and now, after a short hiatus, back to Contributing Editor.
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