photosmart 7520 wired connection to router

[lk53]

I have an HP 7520 e-All-in-One Photosmart printer directly connected to my Windows 10 HP computer with a USB cable.  I recently converted from a wireless connection.  Everything is working fine, including the Fax and Scan modes.  Is there a way to connect this printer directly to my router with a wired connection?  I have a Verizon Quantum Gateway router that only has Ethernet connections on it.  I need to keep this router because it interfaces with my TV set top boxes through an RG-6 coax cable connection, also on the router.  Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide some hints on this topic.

[Dragon-Fur · Accepted solution]

@lk53

The simple answer is "No, you cannot wire the printer to the router".

There is no Ethernet connection.  So sad.   I liked my 7520 -- I missed it having an Ethernet port.

From the Specifications > Connectivity

The following table contains connectivity options.

Model	Wireless	Ethernet (wired)	Wireless Direct	USB
HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One Printer	yes	no	yes	yes
HP Photosmart 7525 e-All-in-One Printer	yes	no	yes	yes

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[lk53]

I have another thought on this issue of trying to connect my HP 7520 All-in-one printer directly to a Verizon FiOS Quantum Gateway router using an ethernet cable with an RJ45 plug.  I believe I have found that there is a way of using adapters to convert the USB type B female socket (on the back of my 7520 printer) to an RJ45 plug that will go into my FiOS Gateway router.  I have found for sale on the web an adapter that has a USB Type B male on one end and a USB Type A female on the other end.  The second adapter would be to use a cable that has a USB Type A male on one end with a Ethernet RJ45 on the other end that would go into the router.  The question is, if anyone might know, would the printer function using the combination of adapters/cable that I mention above?  Thanks in advance for anyone who might have a thought or suggestion on how to get this to work.

[DataHero]

Of COURSE you can wire that printer in!  Problem is, you might not feel like spending the money to do it as it could wind up being more than the printer itself.  I think I got mine for about $60 something.

So what do you think happened when HP didn't have wireless printers?  What did we do with USB only interfaces?  You bought a little something called a 'Print Server', plugged your USB printer into one side and Ethernet into the other.  Done.  Yes, you could get creative, configuring it.  Now everything on the Ethernet can hit the printer with no wireless.  These were quite common until they got built into the printer.  It's still there except wireless.  HP has saved you about $1 for the cost of the wired jack, something to think about for a $60 printer perhaps.

The HP brand name for their print server offering was called JetDirect.  You can still get these for about $150.  My model being an  X175 (internal J6035D).  I have had an H932C hooked into it for DECADES.  It saves me a trip up the stairs and is nice backup.  If you want a piece of wire, then you should look into this option (buying a JeyDirect).  You should check with a nerd about connecting everything and double check compatibility, but it ought to work.

The 'holes' you are referring to are for the phone line.  They are properly called RJ-11 jacks.  The (analog) wire that comes from your phone to that jack is called a CAT3 line.  It is not rated for high speed digital traffic.  The Ethernet plug that you are trying to shove in there will never fit.  It's name is RJ45 and the wire is called CAT5, CAT5e and CAT6, depending on how fast you want to transfer.

The RJ11 jack is for the fax line.  These are seperate phone wires and cost as little as $15 a month.  A dedicated fax is a god send for dealing with Dr offices and government entities where you can't depend on them being able to get email (or even understanding it in this day and age).  ALL offices have faxes and everybody knows how to walk over one and pick up a piece of paper.  It was the entire reason I got this beast, cheapest fax going.  Everything else was gravy.

Another reason to use a JetDirect is it speaks a lot of lagacy printer protocols and will do routing.  My wireless interface will not accept a print job off the subnet, I've never taken the trouble to figure out why (gateway and subnet mask are right).  I think it might be that the default protocol it selects for windows is not routable.  Best of both worlds for you is to get this JetDirect AND keep the wireless hot.  Now all your tablets around the house can do a direct print and you have Internet connectivity.  Best of both worlds.

None of this is news to a nerd; the technology is many decades old; at least since the middle 1980's.

What kind of numbskulls are responding to these messages??

[DataHero]

I did a little more work on this and some tests, the results of which are positive.  I found a print server and wired one part of it to a gigabit switch that I have and connected the other side to the printer's USB port.  You can do both USB and wireless printing at the same time; this is documented and I'm doing right now.

So aside from demonstrating that the original question does have a technological solution (albeit perhaps not the dirtest cheap one), why would you want to do this?

The answer is that the radio space is shared bandwidth.  If you have lots of people doing things, watching movies, Etc., then you are going to have a crunch.  The less radio waves you are flinging around, the less clash you're going to get an increase throughput.  So right now, to use the printer, unless you are doing a direct connect, you do a transmit to the AP, which then turns around and broadcasts it back out the printer.  Move the printer on to a switched wired infrastructure, then the packet gets sent out the Ethernet port and you've just cut your transmissions in half.

If you are in a very crowded area (like an apartment building), with lots of people watching movies and you want to print nice pictures, then doing this could make for less jitter for them or faster printer for you, which is nice instead of having to figure something else out.  Another benefit is that you now have redundant data paths into the printer.  Trust me, a single point of failure will fail when you have an emergency or feel the need for speed.  Now that I have two ways to get into this thing (plus another spare printer), I'm not worried about that happening.

Probably not critical to most pepple, but who feels like sitting around waiting when something breaks?