Two routers and cannot access a networked printer

[budsal]

Hi. I hope this is a good spot to come for an answer. Thanks in advance for any help.

At my business we have a server connected to a cisco router, I'm unsure of the model but I'll find out if necessary. The cisco router is not a wireless router but I wanted to have wireless access for my phone and tablet and my "tech guy" told me I can't replace the existing router but could hook up a wireless router to the cisco one. So I've hooked up a TPLink Router and it works great, I have internet connection through it. My issue is 1- I have a printer which I used to be able to access through the network from any computer on the network. Now that my printer and computer are connected to the TPLink Router I cannot find my printer on the network from a computer which is not connected to the TPLink Router. 2- my "tech guy" won't respond to help me.

I think I'm unclear and maybe this will help:

Router #1 --> Server, other computers, Printer #1, & Router #2
Router #2 --> Printer #2 & My computer

My computer can access the server and Printer #1 & Printer #2
Server can access Printer #1
Server cannot access Printer #2

Please Please help. It's so inconvenient having to use only Printer #1 for work related stuff.

 

[DelJo63]

the issue is the wiring. If you took the link from router#1 to the wan side on router #2,
then there is no means to access router#1 resources.

fix:
a) use your browser to access router#2 setup (I assume you know how, if not ask).
then disable the DHCP service in this router
also disable the remote management port 8080
save the changes.

b) now take the wire out of the wan slot on router#2 and move it to a lan slot, leaving
router#2 wan empty.

Router#2 will then operate as a switch but still retain the WiFi support. All devices connecting
to it will get IP addresses from router#1 and thus have access to all resources.

 

[budsal]

Hi Thanks for the quick and clear reply. I'll attempt this later and post back with my results.

 

[budsal]

Hi again. One question before I proceed. I usually think of the router as having 1- imput (connects to internet) and 4- outputs (connecting to computers).

You use wan slot and lan slot.

wan slot = imput?

lan slot = output?

 

[budsal]

I didn't wait till the end of day.
I see where I can disable DHCP
I click on Remote Managment and all I see is

Web Management Port: 80
Remote Management IP Address: 0.0.0.0

Should I clear out both spots and save?

 

[DelJo63]

Hi again. One question before I proceed. I usually think of the router as having 1- imput (connects to internet) and 4- outputs (connecting to computers).

You use wan slot and lan slot.

wan slot = imput? YES, also known as the UPlink.

lan slot = output?

YES

I didn't wait till the end of day.
I see where I can disable DHCP
I click on Remote Managment and all I see is

Web Management Port: 80
Remote Management IP Address: 0.0.0.0

Should I clear out both spots and save?

should be a [ ] box for disable

 

[tonylukac]

I don't want to interfere with the experts on this board but if you still need assistance, give us your tplink router model number. Also remember as a previous person said you must attach the first router to a lan (normally output) port on the tplink wireless router.

 

[budsal]

Hi. Thanks guys. I did some reading and I found out that leaving the Remote Management IP Address as 0.0.0.0 is TPLink's way of disabling the remote management. And I disabled the dchp. I connected router #1 --> LAN of Router #2. The server now sees my computer. Good.

The server does not see the printer.

I had it usb connected to my computer, went to printer properties and turned on sharing and nothing happened.

Next I connected the printer via ethernet to one of the LAN ports on router #2.
Still nothing.
TPLink model is TL-WR340G
Printer is Brother MFC8860DN.
Server runs Windows 2003 Server
My computer Runs Windows 7

Any suggestions?

 

[tonylukac]

If you attach a brother printer via lan, you have to load the driver on the server, if it works, choosing the network option. If you reattach it via usb (and don't want to load the driver on the server), enter a command prompt on the win 7 machine and enter
net user guest /active yes
Then try looking for it on the server. Lots of luck.

 

[DelJo63]

I had it usb connected to my computer, went to printer properties and turned on sharing and nothing happened.

#1 USB->Computer needs both Print/File sharing AND the printer to be explicitly Shared.

#2 Next I connected the printer via ethernet to one of the LAN ports on router #2.
Still nothing.
TPLink model is TL-WR340G
Printer is Brother MFC8860DN.

correct, that printer is NOT a networking printer, but only parallel port & USB connected. The printer USB->Router is not correct anyway.

A router will sometimes have both USB & Ethernet connections on the input side
(as well as all ethernet on the output side). The inputs are EITHER/OR but never both at the same time. Go back to #1 setup above