Networking a non-wireless printer WITHOUT keeping my PC on?

Hey all!

I was looking for some help with networking an old-school, non-wireless printer that I have. Previously, it was connected to my old Apple Airport (it had a single USB port specifically to network printers and other devices) and was networked through that. I am currently using a Google Wifi mesh setup, which does not have that capability. So, I thought I would network it another way, and I've gotten a lot of suggestions to do it through my PC. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out a way to have it work with my PC in sleep mode, let alone totally off.

Is there a way to network my old printer through my PC without having to keep it on 24/7? Or better yet, is there an easy way to do this without a PC at all? My setup has an ethernet hub with one free port, if that helps. Neither my router nor my modem have a USB port

Thank you all!

Ah, definitely should have specified that the printer does not have an RJ45 socket. That would have been a pretty fantastic solution!

Is there a product out there that maybe could convert the USB signal to Ethernet without a whole router attached?

It sounds like you need wired or wireless printer server. The best place to learn about them is YouTube and Google. If you buy one, make sure it comes with a USB port, not all do.

A network print server is what you want but compatibility is highly dependent on your printer model. The consumer print servers I've seen tend to be old (since demand for them has fallen due to newer printers already having networking capabilities) and poorly updated.

If you're somewhat familiar with Linux you may be better off getting a Raspberry Pi and following a tutorial to set it up as a print server. At least that way you'll have updated drivers and better compatibility.