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  1. #1
    Long Hauler Paul & Deb's Avatar
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    Seeking Computer / Network Help for the Trailer

    Okay, at home we have a wireless network. It consists of a high speed cable modem, Linksys S3000 router, Seagate Hard drive, our 2 laptops and a wireless all-in-one Epson printer. Everything works great, no problem.

    I'm trying to figure out what to do for a network when we are on the road.

    We take both laptops and we connect to the internet usually through my Verizon Mobile Hotspot on my 4g cell phone and that works great.

    The only thing that I want to add for the road is a scanner/printer. A couple years ago I thought I would just bring our current printer along with us but I could never get it configured to work so I haven't tried since.

    Since I won't have a hard wired modem with me are there routers that connect wirelessly to my mobile hotspot and then my devices connect wirelessly to it or what?

    Or should I just purchase another printer that I would travel with and it would just connect to my laptop with an HDMI cable when I need it? Actually, maybe I just talked my self into the simplest solution but I'm interested in hearing what others have done.

    Thanks
    Paul "Poppy" and Deb Cervone
    2022 Imagine XLS 22MLE
    2021 Imagine XLS 17MKE - SOLD ; 2015 Grand Design Reflection 337RLS - SOLD
    2016 GMC Denali 3500HD SRW Duramax/Allison CC 4x4; Tire Minder TPMS

  2. #2
    Fireside Member
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    You can get a HP Officejet 8610 printer new for less than $150. It has wireless capabilities. Just use the lcd screen on the printer with the wireless wizard and connect is to the same wireless network as your laptops. Or use a Ethernet cable and plug from your laptop ethernet to the printer directly. You will still have wireless internet on the laptop with networked printer. This will only allow one computer to print unless you share the printer on the network. Hope this helps.

  3. #3
    Long Hauler Paul & Deb's Avatar
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    So I don't need a router for the printer to connect to? It will just connect to my Verizon hotspot like the laptops do?
    Paul "Poppy" and Deb Cervone
    2022 Imagine XLS 22MLE
    2021 Imagine XLS 17MKE - SOLD ; 2015 Grand Design Reflection 337RLS - SOLD
    2016 GMC Denali 3500HD SRW Duramax/Allison CC 4x4; Tire Minder TPMS

  4. #4
    Long Hauler Paul & Deb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dhaile View Post
    You can get a HP Officejet 8610 printer new for less than $150.
    Amazon has this printer for only $118 but it looks a little big and bulky. Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 11.8 x 18.5 inches ; 26.2 pounds. Hmm, I like the idea I just need to find something smaller.
    Paul "Poppy" and Deb Cervone
    2022 Imagine XLS 22MLE
    2021 Imagine XLS 17MKE - SOLD ; 2015 Grand Design Reflection 337RLS - SOLD
    2016 GMC Denali 3500HD SRW Duramax/Allison CC 4x4; Tire Minder TPMS

  5. #5
    King Pin
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    Poppy,

    I use an HP wireless printer though my wireless network. Here's what you need to do:

    http://support.hp.com/gb-en/product/...ent/c03278373/

  6. #6
    Big Traveler RamGunner's Avatar
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    One issue you might face is that your Verizon Hotspot might not allow the devices connected to the WiFi it provides to talk to each other. I'm not sure on the latest ones, but I know their older ones didn't create a true local LAN. Each device was routed to the Internet, but could not reach any of the other devices.

    Here's how we are setup.

    We have an Asus RT-AC66U router. It has 1 hardwired ethernet port for WAN (external Internet), 4 hardwired LAN ports, and a full WiFi system (with both primary and guest WiFi networks). It also has two USB ports - and one of them can take a USB device from a wireless carrier to use as a backup when the primary WAN is offline. The other can take any USB device and make it usable via the network - printers, hard drives etc.

    All of our wireless and wired devices connect to this system. That never changes, so our internal LAN is always the same and is always available. We have a Canon MG5400 printer/scanner which connects to the primary wireless network and can be used by anything on our LAN.

    In terms of external Internet - we have three modems that can connect to the WAN port on the router. One is a Motorola SB6141 DOCSIS 3 cable modem if we have cable Internet. Another is for ADSL if we have a DSL connection. The third is what you might be looking for.

    It's a Netgear Trek N300 (Model PR2000). It has several functions, but the one we use is to bridge the hardwired WAN port of our router to ANY WiFi signal - this can be a WiFi from a hotspot, WiFi at a park, WiFi at a library - if we can connect to it, it will use it. When we arrive at a location with a public or secured WiFi where we have the password, I just plug the PR2000 into the WAN port of our router, and access it through the router. I enter the info for the WiFi and it connects. Then our external connectivity runs through it.

    Even if we don't have external connectivity, we always have the same internal connectivity available, including for our printer/scanner.

    There is also a function on the PR2000 that will let you plug your printer into it via Ethernet and create a WiFi network that your laptops can connect to and communicate with it. It could also bridge to your Internet hotspot. That would simplify the setup - and you could give the WiFi it creates the same name and settings as your home network so that everything would automatically connect.

    I hope that's helpful.
    Editor - www.RamGunner.com and www.MomentumGunner.com
    2014 Ram 3500 Tradesman/CTD/AISIN/4.10/4WD/CC/LB/DRW/VHF/UHF/APRS/CB/SCANNER
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    2016 Momentum 385TH (Internal LAN/AV Distribution/Polaris RZR 800 EPS/CB/SCANNER/VHF/UHF/APRS and HF for World-Wide Communications)

  7. #7
    Site Team WhittleBurner's Avatar
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    We connect through our Verizon phones hotspots and have a cheap canon printer that I plug into the usb port of my laptop to print. No issues everything prints fine. It's pretty easy to set up on any lap top.
    When that runs out of ink I'm thinking of getting one that has bluetooh and wireless capabilities so we can print from either the phones, tablets or lap top
    .
    Marcy & Gary
    2014 Grand Design - Reflection 303RLS
    2022 GMC 3500 Denali Duramax Longbed SRW
    2015 GMC Denali 3500 - Retired
    2003 F350 - retired
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    We're in trouble now, the dog are bloggin'!
    https://3dogsandatrailer.wordpress.com/


  8. #8
    Ditkitty
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    We use a wireless printer. can print to it from either my iPad or Dave's laptop.

  9. #9
    Long Hauler LCBoyer's Avatar
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    Dave. I'm curious, what printer do you use
    2018 Freedom Elite 24FE, 2 Yorkies, and my wife MARILYN, HAM call K0LCB. Traveling around this great country, making friends and seeing lot of beautiful and interesting places

  10. #10
    LA5ver
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    When we were full timing in a motorhome about a year ago, we used a D-Link DIR-505 Wireless router. It is just a wall wart the plugs into any 120 outlet and has wireless connections to all of the local devices. The upstream connection was to our Verizon hot spot on my Samsung S3. When we were at a RV Park with wireless service, we just reconfigured the DIR-505 to use the RV Park's wireless connection. We never had to reconfigure any of the laptops, printers, iPads or other tablet devices. Our printer was an HP Envoy multifunction that had a pretty small footprint. The setup was easy to reconfigure when we move from campground to campground.

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