Shared Workspace DOES NOT Mean Sharing All The Printers
June 21, 2018 9:53 AM Subscribe
I work in a small room that's part of a shared workspace, and we have our own printer inside our room. How can I stop it from showing up as an available printer on OTHER people's computers?
The shared workspace does havea a printer, but we prefer to use our own. The trouble is, we connect to the workspace's WiFi, which means that our printer is on the network - and that means anyone on the network can use it. Most people know to look for the printer that actually does belong to the shared workspace, but every so often there's someone who's new or inattentive and they pick our printer when they print. Not frequently, but often enough that it's annoying - and the things they print are potentially problematic (someone's passport, someone's acceptance letter for a job, other sensitive info).
I'd like to either a) secure it somehow so that only people who know a password or know a code can access it, and then give the code to my coworkers; or b) change the name on the system as a whole so people have more obvious indicators that "we shouldn't be using that printer".
I tried Googling this and got a suggestion to change the printer's name on the network (I named it something obvious like "[Company] Printer Only"), but it seems to have only done that on my computer, and on the rest of the network it still shows up ias "[Printer Brand Name]". What else can I try?
The shared workspace does havea a printer, but we prefer to use our own. The trouble is, we connect to the workspace's WiFi, which means that our printer is on the network - and that means anyone on the network can use it. Most people know to look for the printer that actually does belong to the shared workspace, but every so often there's someone who's new or inattentive and they pick our printer when they print. Not frequently, but often enough that it's annoying - and the things they print are potentially problematic (someone's passport, someone's acceptance letter for a job, other sensitive info).
I'd like to either a) secure it somehow so that only people who know a password or know a code can access it, and then give the code to my coworkers; or b) change the name on the system as a whole so people have more obvious indicators that "we shouldn't be using that printer".
I tried Googling this and got a suggestion to change the printer's name on the network (I named it something obvious like "[Company] Printer Only"), but it seems to have only done that on my computer, and on the rest of the network it still shows up ias "[Printer Brand Name]". What else can I try?
Simplest answer: rename the printer BROKEN PRINTER.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:04 AM on June 21, 2018 [12 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 11:04 AM on June 21, 2018 [12 favorites]
Response by poster: Just came out of Chat - both Deezil and Slipthought tried a couple of ideas for changing the name of the printer, but none of them worked. Slipthought seems to have found some kind of a caveat buried deep in the manual that the name of the printer couldn't be changed, as well.
I'm going to unofficially say here in this comment that I"m giving up for now, but will leave this as "unresolved" in case anyone else has any kind of out-of-the-box idea. But it looks like the official solution is that we can't.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:54 AM on June 21, 2018
I'm going to unofficially say here in this comment that I"m giving up for now, but will leave this as "unresolved" in case anyone else has any kind of out-of-the-box idea. But it looks like the official solution is that we can't.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:54 AM on June 21, 2018
Could you ask whoever's responsible for the shared printer to change that one's name to something obvious?
posted by Helga-woo at 12:28 PM on June 21, 2018
posted by Helga-woo at 12:28 PM on June 21, 2018
What's the make/manufacturer of the printer? What sort of devices need to connect to it? Hard to give specific advice without specifics about the setup.
posted by Aleyn at 1:02 PM on June 21, 2018
posted by Aleyn at 1:02 PM on June 21, 2018
Response by poster: We have an HP Officejet Pro 8620. Just connecting four Lenovo laptops to it; all of them with Windows 7.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:07 PM on June 21, 2018
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:07 PM on June 21, 2018
Are your printer and other devices Bluetooth enabled? Or are you willing to buy the necessary adapters?
posted by jamjam at 1:07 PM on June 21, 2018
posted by jamjam at 1:07 PM on June 21, 2018
Have all devices in your local space on a sharing router, wireless or hard-wired, that segments your network from the one upstream of you containing all the other devices in the network. That probably won't work if you are trying to set up a wireless router to be downstream of another wireless router.
Second way would be to have the printer plugged in via USB to one PC that shares the printer. The printer is not logged into the wifi at all. To use the printer from second PC, you need print access permissions on the 1st PC.
Third way is to set up the printer so it does not broadcast its name on the network and does not use 169/bonjour to broadcast, or Windows broadcast. It only does TCP/IP. That way you have to know the printer's IP# to use it. Set up both your local pc's to print via IP to it.
posted by diode at 1:17 PM on June 21, 2018
Second way would be to have the printer plugged in via USB to one PC that shares the printer. The printer is not logged into the wifi at all. To use the printer from second PC, you need print access permissions on the 1st PC.
Third way is to set up the printer so it does not broadcast its name on the network and does not use 169/bonjour to broadcast, or Windows broadcast. It only does TCP/IP. That way you have to know the printer's IP# to use it. Set up both your local pc's to print via IP to it.
posted by diode at 1:17 PM on June 21, 2018
Do you have multiple printers but no IT? Who set up the printer in the first place?
If the printer is in the room with your group, can someone speak up? Could you put a sign over the printer with a list of recommended printers?
posted by Lesser Shrew at 2:43 PM on June 21, 2018
If the printer is in the room with your group, can someone speak up? Could you put a sign over the printer with a list of recommended printers?
posted by Lesser Shrew at 2:43 PM on June 21, 2018
Response by poster: Trying not to threadsit.
* The shared work space has its own big printer in the lobby that members can use. Some people still have their own printer that their own teams can use. We are one such team.
* We have this printer because my boss had it when this company was a thing operating out of his basement, and "installing it" in this case consisted of plugging it in and turning it on.
* The printer that people are SUPPOSED to use is Big Printer. Most people do.
* But anyone who, like us, has their own printer for just their team, is on the Shared Work Space wifi - and so are all our printers.
* Anyone who is new to this shared work space, the first time they need to print something, needs to "search for" a printer on the network. Usually, they are told to pick Big Printer, or if they have their own printer for their own space, they are told to use THAT printer.
* However, once in a blue moon someone's new and they haven't clearly read the instructions for "what is the printer you should use", and they pull up the list of printers and go ".....Uh.....I guess I"ll just pick one" and they may get ours.
* What I am trying to do is to either a) Change the name that appears on the list of printers on the Wi Fi network so that it is less likely people will pick it (like when you name your WiFi channel at home "stop stealing my wifi" or something because your neighbors are using your signal), or b) see if there is any way that you need a password before you sign onto the printer.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:26 PM on June 21, 2018
* The shared work space has its own big printer in the lobby that members can use. Some people still have their own printer that their own teams can use. We are one such team.
* We have this printer because my boss had it when this company was a thing operating out of his basement, and "installing it" in this case consisted of plugging it in and turning it on.
* The printer that people are SUPPOSED to use is Big Printer. Most people do.
* But anyone who, like us, has their own printer for just their team, is on the Shared Work Space wifi - and so are all our printers.
* Anyone who is new to this shared work space, the first time they need to print something, needs to "search for" a printer on the network. Usually, they are told to pick Big Printer, or if they have their own printer for their own space, they are told to use THAT printer.
* However, once in a blue moon someone's new and they haven't clearly read the instructions for "what is the printer you should use", and they pull up the list of printers and go ".....Uh.....I guess I"ll just pick one" and they may get ours.
* What I am trying to do is to either a) Change the name that appears on the list of printers on the Wi Fi network so that it is less likely people will pick it (like when you name your WiFi channel at home "stop stealing my wifi" or something because your neighbors are using your signal), or b) see if there is any way that you need a password before you sign onto the printer.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:26 PM on June 21, 2018
This may be a crude solution but would turning off WiFi on the printer and using a hardwired connection work? I worked for a company where the finance department did this for the printer that they kept loaded with blank check stock.
posted by zombiedance at 5:23 PM on June 21, 2018
posted by zombiedance at 5:23 PM on June 21, 2018
Assuming it is in fact the case that the printer is its own print server and connects to the WiFi on its own and it can't be renamed from the front panel of the printer, diode's answer is the only real solution, and is good security practice anyway.
Assuming hardwired connections are not possible, you'll need a dual radio wireless router that either supports WiFi WAN natively or can take third party firmware. Ideally, it will also be dual band so that you can either connect to the space's 2.4GHz network and have your own WiFi on 5GHz or vice versa.
Something like a Mikrotik hAP ac² will do what you want, though I'm not sure the simple configuration wizard knows how to set it up. It is a fairly common setup for WISPs that use them as CPE, though, so it might.
As diode said, the point of all this is to segment your group into a separate network that just uses the shared workspace's network as an Internet connection. The nice thing about it is that if you then plug your laptops and printer into the wired ports, sharing files between laptops will be much faster and the workspace's network will work better simply because it's less efficient to have four or five devices on the network than it is to have one single wireless client using the same airtime as all five. (That's in addition to the decreased load from having your inter-device communications off the workspace's wifi)
posted by wierdo at 5:08 AM on June 22, 2018
Assuming hardwired connections are not possible, you'll need a dual radio wireless router that either supports WiFi WAN natively or can take third party firmware. Ideally, it will also be dual band so that you can either connect to the space's 2.4GHz network and have your own WiFi on 5GHz or vice versa.
Something like a Mikrotik hAP ac² will do what you want, though I'm not sure the simple configuration wizard knows how to set it up. It is a fairly common setup for WISPs that use them as CPE, though, so it might.
As diode said, the point of all this is to segment your group into a separate network that just uses the shared workspace's network as an Internet connection. The nice thing about it is that if you then plug your laptops and printer into the wired ports, sharing files between laptops will be much faster and the workspace's network will work better simply because it's less efficient to have four or five devices on the network than it is to have one single wireless client using the same airtime as all five. (That's in addition to the decreased load from having your inter-device communications off the workspace's wifi)
posted by wierdo at 5:08 AM on June 22, 2018
While you're trying more elegant solutions: How inconvenient would it be to turn the printer off until someone in your room needs to print, then turn it off when you're done?
posted by Etrigan at 11:10 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Etrigan at 11:10 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by slipthought at 10:36 AM on June 21, 2018