Shared printer can't be used over WiFi

RickC said:

Thank you. Your answers were very clear.



I agree it's not labelled as 'Recommended' but... unpacking the 7.12 installer shows it includes several driver INF files listing the range of Canon printers it supports, including both the D530 and D560 for the port enumerators (WSD, USB, LPT) and apparently they share the same device GUID:
Attachment 398974




Yet the filename of the ScanGear installer is D560MFDriverV4101WPusEN.exe... as if it's only for the D560.



I meant right-clicking on the downloaded installer files and ticking the Unblock checkbox before going any further:
Attachment 398975


Windows 10 security, including its built-in AV, has moved on in the last few iterations (like automatically blocking downloaded files before use) so perhaps try an uninstall, reboot then 'Custom' install next?

Hope this helps...

I right clicked on the installer file, but I was not presented with a window showing "Unblock" under the "General" tab / "Advanced" attributes. I'll try the Custom install routine next. I really don't want to buy a new printer, because anything comparable to my D530 currently available from Canon, HP and Brother seems to have similar, if not worse, issues.

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Ben Myers said:

You might try installing or refreshing the driver with the Printer Driver Wizard. Press the Windows and "R" keys simultaneously on the host computer, type or paste "printui /id" into the "Open" box and click "OK" to start it.

Ben

Thanks, I'm attempting that. But, which "processor" do I choose? I'm offered ARM64, x64 and x 86.

Select the processors that are present on the host computer and the laptop.

Ben

See if the laptop can access the printer.

Ben

picktoo said:

I appreciate in advance any suggestions from anyone

I've been there before, REALLY several times, I feel your frustration, let me share a bit something useful.

bro67 said:

Suggest getting either a printer that uses wifi or ethernet, or get a router/gateway that allows you to connect the printer to it to use as a print server.

Yes, I agree with this entirely, I'll explain.

You can entirely connect a printer via USB to a computer and then share it over the network, yes, absolutely, but... let's be realistic via experience: sometimes it will be perfect, other times it will fail, and sometimes it will be a nightmare. Why? well, there are multiple factors involved, like... many!, one of them is network discovery (yeah, some will resist believing this). Sometimes your Windows (7, 8 and even 10) forgets the setting of seeing all the devices on the network and isolates your devices. Yeah, I know... countless users will say "no, that's not true, you have to check here and there", no no no, I'm serious: sometimes things suck, I've been there on more computers you can imagine, even regarding remote desktop connections when suddenly all it works it's a restart, and sometimes not even this will work.

I could waste your whole afternoon and weekend telling you stories about setups I carefully created around network computers, be it wifi or USB and shared over the network, and others might come to refuse to believe it... (but I know some will confirm what I'm saying).

Instead, I point to solutions. I often print a lot, in the past I printed A LOT, and I've had lots of diff printers, so I'm familiar with these issues. Some printers worked perfectly, always, some at times, some were a nightmare. Really, the 2 things that worked perfectly for me are these:

1. Setting an old laptop with Windows XP, 7 or whatever with all my printers connected to it via USB, and then share them over the network. Honestly, not a single problem, even with the wireless printers. I accessed this laptop via Ethernet or WIFI, all cool.

2. Even better: I got a router with an USB port for sharing files and printers, connected all the printers to it via ethernet, USB or wireless, and then connected my computers to it via network (ethernet or wifi), even managed to get this cheap router to connect to my internet access to provide web access to all the devices. I currently have 5 printers connected, and flashed the router with tomato firmware, it's perfect. In the past had it with the original firmware, but tomato works way better. Money? it was about US$8 second hand, and yes, wired connections work way better, even if at the end you access the thing via wireless. You could try a specific device called print server too, I was about to try that there was no need.

Good luck, and hope you take what we suggest and save yourself from going nuts wasting time.

Ben Myers said:

See if the laptop can access the printer.

Ben

Nope.

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hroldan said:

I've been there before, REALLY several times, I feel your frustration, let me share a bit something useful.

Yes, I agree with this entirely, I'll explain.

You can entirely connect a printer via USB to a computer and then share it over the network, yes, absolutely, but... let's be realistic via experience: sometimes it will be perfect, other times it will fail, and sometimes it will be a nightmare. Why? well, there are multiple factors involved, like... many!, one of them is network discovery (yeah, some will resist believing this). Sometimes your Windows (7, 8 and even 10) forgets the setting of seeing all the devices on the network and isolates your devices. Yeah, I know... countless users will say "no, that's not true, you have to check here and there", no no no, I'm serious: sometimes things suck, I've been there on more computers you can imagine, even regarding remote desktop connections when suddenly all it works it's a restart, and sometimes not even this will work.

I could waste your whole afternoon and weekend telling you stories about setups I carefully created around network computers, be it wifi or USB and shared over the network, and others might come to refuse to believe it... (but I know some will confirm what I'm saying).

Instead, I point to solutions. I often print a lot, in the past I printed A LOT, and I've had lots of diff printers, so I'm familiar with these issues. Some printers worked perfectly, always, some at times, some were a nightmare. Really, the 2 things that worked perfectly for me are these:

1. Setting an old laptop with Windows XP, 7 or whatever with all my printers connected to it via USB, and then share them over the network. Honestly, not a single problem, even with the wireless printers. I accessed this laptop via Ethernet or WIFI, all cool.

2. Even better: I got a router with an USB port for sharing files and printers, connected all the printers to it via ethernet, USB or wireless, and then connected my computers to it via network (ethernet or wifi), even managed to get this cheap router to connect to my internet access to provide web access to all the devices. I currently have 5 printers connected, and flashed the router with tomato firmware, it's perfect. In the past had it with the original firmware, but tomato works way better. Money? it was about US$8 second hand, and yes, wired connections work way better, even if at the end you access the thing via wireless. You could try a specific device called print server too, I was about to try that there was no need.

Good luck, and hope you take what we suggest and save yourself from going nuts wasting time.

At this point, I'll try almost anything. It's so stupid to create a document on my laptop, then have to save it to a shared file, walk into my office, open that shared file on my desktop and print from there.

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RickC said:

Thank you. Your answers were very clear.



I agree it's not labelled as 'Recommended' but... unpacking the 7.12 installer shows it includes several driver INF files listing the range of Canon printers it supports, including both the D530 and D560 for the port enumerators (WSD, USB, LPT) and apparently they share the same device GUID:
Attachment 398974




Yet the filename of the ScanGear installer is D560MFDriverV4101WPusEN.exe... as if it's only for the D560.



I meant right-clicking on the downloaded installer files and ticking the Unblock checkbox before going any further:
Attachment 398975


Windows 10 security, including its built-in AV, has moved on in the last few iterations (like automatically blocking downloaded files before use) so perhaps try an uninstall, reboot then 'Custom' install next?

Hope this helps...

Just installed driver ver 7.12 on both computers. Laptop still can't connect to the printer.

picktoo said:

Just installed driver ver 7.12 on both computers. Laptop still can't connect to the printer.

IMO you need to forget about the laptop for the moment (which appears to be a networking and/or permissions issue) and concentrate on the host computer, i.e. get the driver installations sorted so there's no more errors or Event Log entries complaining about the driver needing “further installation.”

Basically I'm suggesting the following order:

a) sort each of the multifunction device's driver functionality out on the host computer first so you know it all works as expected;
b) next, sort out the host computer's sharing of the printer as a network resource;
c) finally, look at the laptop both in terms of driver(s) and network connection to the shared resource.

Q8. On the host computer, did you also uninstall/reinstall the ScanGear driver at the same time?

Q9. Now you have installed the v7.12 printer driver on the host computer, are you now getting any more errors/Event Log entries or have they now been resolved and all 3 device functions (printer + scanner + copier) are now working as expected?

Hope this helps...

hroldan said:

I've been there before, REALLY several times, I feel your frustration, let me share a bit something useful.

Yes, I agree with this entirely, I'll explain.

You can entirely connect a printer via USB to a computer and then share it over the network, yes, absolutely, but... let's be realistic via experience: sometimes it will be perfect, other times it will fail, and sometimes it will be a nightmare. Why? well, there are multiple factors involved, like... many!, one of them is network discovery (yeah, some will resist believing this). Sometimes your Windows (7, 8 and even 10) forgets the setting of seeing all the devices on the network and isolates your devices. Yeah, I know... countless users will say "no, that's not true, you have to check here and there", no no no, I'm serious: sometimes things suck, I've been there on more computers you can imagine, even regarding remote desktop connections when suddenly all it works it's a restart, and sometimes not even this will work.

I could waste your whole afternoon and weekend telling you stories about setups I carefully created around network computers, be it wifi or USB and shared over the network, and others might come to refuse to believe it... (but I know some will confirm what I'm saying).

Instead, I point to solutions. I often print a lot, in the past I printed A LOT, and I've had lots of diff printers, so I'm familiar with these issues. Some printers worked perfectly, always, some at times, some were a nightmare. Really, the 2 things that worked perfectly for me are these:

1. Setting an old laptop with Windows XP, 7 or whatever with all my printers connected to it via USB, and then share them over the network. Honestly, not a single problem, even with the wireless printers. I accessed this laptop via Ethernet or WIFI, all cool.

2. Even better: I got a router with an USB port for sharing files and printers, connected all the printers to it via ethernet, USB or wireless, and then connected my computers to it via network (ethernet or wifi), even managed to get this cheap router to connect to my internet access to provide web access to all the devices. I currently have 5 printers connected, and flashed the router with tomato firmware, it's perfect. In the past had it with the original firmware, but tomato works way better. Money? it was about US$8 second hand, and yes, wired connections work way better, even if at the end you access the thing via wireless. You could try a specific device called print server too, I was about to try that there was no need.

Good luck, and hope you take what we suggest and save yourself from going nuts wasting time.

I'm done trying to fix this issue with drivers only. I'd like to lean on you for guidance on how to resolve this as simply, inexpensively and reliably as possible.

picktoo said:

I'm done trying to fix this issue with drivers only. I'd like to lean on you for guidance on how to resolve this as simply, inexpensively and reliably as possible.

Over to you, @hroldan.