Tips for the WPS issue

[SickAlice]

I'm giving advice here rather than asking because I know this has been a long time tricky subject. The solution is rather easy. HP get's a lot of snark over it but as a programmer I can say not to blame them. The technology itself and communication between other types is just not a fixed system at this time and date thus conflicts are common especially when networking. So to begin:

Where to find the WPS number? It shows up briefly on your printers display if it has on. Else this is on the bottom of your internet router itself unless it's an old box type one like mine. The better answer is you don't need it and can bypass this process. 

If you received a WPS message it means you are already at the point I will move from and have already installed the software. You should have an exe shortcut to handle processes for the printer/scanner. For example an HP 2600 series is "HP DeskJet 2600 series". If you click on it you may get a prompt to install device. Cancel that and right click and run as admin. You may see messages now about installing the service/setting up the network. The fact is it already is.

Close that and go to your pcs network folder. There if your printer is not visible go to the taskbar > Network > Add Devices and Printers and select your HP product. It will now be visible in your network and more importantly to your OS. 

At this point shut off your printer. It will be running programs in the background and if you attempt to connect to it you'll get an error that it's already in use. There's a technical solution here but why bother, just press the button on and off or unplug it and you're good to go. 

Once your printer is on again open the aforementioned shortcut. Should work fine, no WPS needed. May need to run as Admin of course. Else go into your network directory and either double-left click on the printers icon or right click and check properties. You will be taken to webpage that is the virtual address of your printer. From here you can also scan and print. You can also make adjustments. Straight away you will want to click Settings > Security > Administrator Settings (see where it's becoming choice to run as Admin?) and Enable All and Apply. You can also add a password in the menu directly above so people can't access your printer through the internet. Else you can find every piece of info about your printer throughout this page. 

Oh and your printer works now without the mess and frustration of going through the WPS process. Basically we just sidestepped that. Hope this helps anyone, a nice straight forward way without any need for knowledge of programming and such.

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

I sometimes suggest just use the push-button method.

To add a Printer just push the button.

[SickAlice]

Good tip but not cool threadjack. I was trying to provide a solution here for people that have zero technical understanding of pc's, like my mum does.