Hardware and devices taking control

[J T]

Meanwhile, at JT towers - I spent possibly an hour trying to get the cheap-ass Epson printer that Lady T bought to connect to our wifi, because apparently using the Epson app to send a print job from her phone was too inconvenient, and having to move the laptop 'near ish' was a pain.

I had to spend a lot of time dicking about holding buttons, turning off and on, pressing the stupid button on the stupid router. Eventually it worked but that was mainly due to my dogged persistence than any skill or nicely set up system.

This Alexa integration doesn't sound so bad to me - but - i do worry a bit about the future, if everything is all interconnected and reliant, if it goes down people will be kinda stuck.

[Harrison]

Indeed, and I have experiment that very issue. A lot of my house is now Alexa integrated with smart things. My lights, central heating, hot water, front door camera bell, hoise security camera, and even morning wakeup alarms, are all through Alexa. So when the Amazon Alexa servers went down last year I couldn't control anything all day.

Regarding printers. I know your pain. Epson are the worst to get working. Although my Samsung laser was a nighttime. My current Brother printer has been the easiest to date. Most of the time it just works.

[Stephen Coates]

I just got my inkjet printer set up for the first time in a few years. Remarkably easy with a USB cable, and the manufacturer's driver CD for Windows, and Turbo Print for Linux. I probably will need to buy some more ink at some point though as I intend to print photos. My printer is too old to order the ink itself though.

[Harrison]

Wired connections to printers are always easier then wifi. At least the computer or device can see its plugged in, which is half the battle won. The nightmare with many printers these days is getting thrm to see the wifi and then getting the device you are printing from to see the printer. So many times I've had to fight the software to find a print. Even to. The point when changing to a different printing app in my phone sees the printer and prints fine, but another app refuses to see it at all.

Ethernet is a good solution and always has been though.

[Stephen Coates]

My [early 1990s] LaserJet connects through Etherner to my switch and can be seen from anything connected to the network (either wired or wireless). My Canon inkjet is USB though.

[Harrison]

A lot of routers these days have a USB port and a built in print server, so you can get a usb printer shared on a network without having to share it from a computer. Can be very useful.

And yes, the big advantage of am ethernet connected printer is you can conect to it via Wifi, but without the issues of WiFi direct.

Both my Samsung Laser and the Brother also have NFC. Open an image or document on your smartphone. Just tap it on the NFC area on the printer and it prints it. Bit of a gimmick, but I've found it useful to quickly print a PDF for things like postage labels.

[J T]

A lot of routers these days have a USB port and a built in print server, so you can get a usb printer shared on a network without having to share it from a computer. Can be very useful.

And yes, the big advantage of am ethernet connected printer is you can conect to it via Wifi, but without the issues of WiFi direct.

Both my Samsung Laser and the Brother also have NFC. Open an image or document on your smartphone. Just tap it on the NFC area on the printer and it prints it. Bit of a gimmick, but I've found it useful to quickly print a PDF for things like postage labels.

I'm pretty sure our router has that, but wouldn't you just expect that while the router is in a nice central location to provide good coverage for the house, it's not a location that'd be good for a printer.

TSK