Why does my Brother inkjet printer show up as a shared PC on my network?

April 29, 2014 8:29 AM

Brother MFC-J270W. It shows up on my home network as a shared PC called "brother", however:

1. I can't connect to it
2. This facility is not mentioned in any documentation I have been able to find

Does anyone know what good this "feature" is?
posted by chazlarson to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

How is it connected to the network? Many wireless printers can either be set-up to join an existing network, or broadcast its own network.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:46 AM on April 29, 2014

Best answer: The printer is emulating a Windows print spooler (a PC or server to which a shared printer is attached). It announces itself on the network so that you can easily find it and connect to it, but all it's doing is providing print services, so there's nothing else to connect to on that machine.

(Actually, I think that thing might have a Web interface as well, which should show up in Safari wherever the local Bonjour sites show up.)
posted by kindall at 8:55 AM on April 29, 2014

Best answer: Yes, I think this is just an odd side effect of the way it broadcasts its existence as a shared printer. My beloved Brother HL-2170W (GREATEST PRINTER EVER) does the same thing.
posted by mkultra at 9:11 AM on April 29, 2014

Response by poster: I figured it was something like that. The wireless Samsung laser next to it doesn't show up in the same way, so I discounted that notion at first.
posted by chazlarson at 10:29 AM on April 29, 2014

Some printers/multifunction devices that have a memory card reader can share the volumes on it with the network.
posted by glhaynes at 10:44 AM on April 30, 2014

Response by poster: I neglected to mention that as something I'd tried as well.
posted by chazlarson at 1:12 PM on April 30, 2014