I have a printer that doesn’t have wifi support, nither a LAN support. Is there a DIY way to make it work on the network for remote printing.
Get a cheap raspberry pi or similar sbc, connect printer to its usb port and setup network printing service on the raspberry pi.
I used it like this on my older printer for a very long time before I bought a new printer with wifi support.
Welcome to your first homelab project!
You can get a thin client and turn it into a print server, these are usually available for under Rs 2000 and can run Linux or Windows, whichever you prefer. I’ve been using the HP T610 as a print server for a couple of years now.
But just about anything will work as long as it has ethernet or wifi and USB.
Maybe even an older router with a USB port! People say they removed that functionality from newer routers.
Apple plug-type routers (airport express) used to be popular for this kind of thing.
Checkout below thread for thinclient
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LMK if you want something tiny for this.
I had made a project using an esp32 to do this very thing. Wont reveal the source code cuz i can be making money off of you rn.
Revealed the logic though, esp32 and some coding magic.
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Does your router have a usb port? Some routers with a usb port support that functionality..
Check the following faq pages from tp link for eg
Can you tell us the make and model of the printer?
I was doing it using a raspberry pi 4.
Will test that.
I have 3040 as spare. Can use that.
I would be very much interested in that. You can DM me.
I dont have a usb port in router. Using Deco mesh router now.
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Its a Brother printer. I forgot the exact model number. Had to check the model number.
How you make it work? I have pi5.
The above article lists following routers which have been obsolete for years now.
This Article Applies to:
Archer D2 , Archer D5 , TL-WR842ND , TD-W8968 , Archer C5( V1.20 ) , Archer C2( V1 ) , TD-W9970 , Archer C50( V1 ) , TD-W8980 , TD-W9980 , TD-W8970 , TL-WDR4300 , Archer C20( V1 ) , TL-WDR3500 , TL-WDR3600 , TL-WR842N , TL-WR2543ND , Archer C20i , VX800v , TL-WDR4900 , Archer D9 , Archer D7 , TL-WR1043ND , TL-WR1042ND
Last cheap router with usb print server functionality was Netgear R6220 which used to sell for around 2.5k back in 2022. I don’t know of any reasonably priced router from any brand which comes with a usb port that support print server functionality in recent times.
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I didn’t know this feature has been removed from recent devices.. I had an airtel huawei dsl router lying around.. That had the feature, I never used this feature, but I remember it having that feature.. So I thought it might be more common on devices considering I got that router for free..
This is one feature that has regressed in recent routers which is unexpected especially considering that print server functionality uses just a few hundred KBs of space in router firmware.
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That’s actually weird imo.. Considering people don’t frequently upgrade a “printer”, it would be a nice to have..
You can use any print server
8k bruv 
You can get a decent inktank with wifi for 10-11k after discounts
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