How to connect a Chromebook to a network printer
CloudWith Google Cloud Printing going away, you’ll want to find a new way to print from your Chromebook. Why not a network printer?
Late last year, Google announced they were doing away with their Cloud Print service. For anyone that has depended on Cloud Print, this might bring up a touch of anxiety. Why? Ask any IT support specialist and they’ll agree that printing is the bane of their existence.
It’s awful.
Printers rarely work properly, and when they do go down, troubleshooting can be a nightmare. So with a service, such as Google Cloud Print, that filled an important niche, the idea of trying to find a replacement is a bit daunting.
Especially if you have a number of Chromebooks on your network. For Chromebook users, Google Cloud Print was a boon. You attach a regular printer to a desktop, associate that printer to Google Cloud Print, and share it out to any user who needs to print. It was simple. It was effective.
And soon it’ll be gone.
So what do you do?
There’s a really obvious option–even for Chromebooks.
SEE: Hybrid cloud: A guide for IT pros (TechRepublic download)
How to connect your Chromebook to a network printer
Believe it or not, Chromebooks are capable of printing to network printers, even without the help of Google Cloud Print. To connect to a network printer, said printer will have to:
To set this up, open the Chromebook Settings app and type printing in the search field. In the resulting window (Figure A), click Add Printer.
Figure A
In the manual printer popup (Figure B), give the new printer a name, type the IP address of the printer, select IPP from the Protocol drop-down, leave the default Queue, and click Add.
Figure B
Once Chrome OS has detected the printer, it will be added and you’re ready to print.
That was easy. And you don’t have to stress about losing Google Cloud Print.
As long as you have a printer connected to your network, you should be able to get this working. It does, however, help if the printer in question was supported by Google Cloud Print. So before this service goes away, I’d suggest purchasing a printer or two that are found on this list.
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