Technomadia, might have already figured this out, but here's the scoop on my geek work today.
Problem: We use a Verizon enabled iPad as our sole internet source. This means, our laptop, desktop, and even our cell phones connect to the iPad hotspot feature for internet access (we connect our iPhones because I usually place the iPad near the front of the coach where it gets better Verizon signal than our iPhones in the bedroom area). The issue is two-fold: 1. Our Wii or any internet TV device we want to use won't connect to the iPad as an internet source. It's a long explanation, but the iPad doesn't broadcast internet like a normal router would. 2. Our wireless Samsung printer won't connect to the iPad either so we can't print wirelessly to it.
Solution: Normally, we would go out, purchase a router from Walmart, connect it to the internet, connect all the phones, laptop, and desktop computers to it, and connect the wireless printer to it and have wireless printing, (the Wii would connect to it too). Problem is, you can't connect an iPad to a router. So we are stuck. Today, I downloaded and installed a free program called "Virtual Router" on my wireless PC. Once configured, it works flawlessly!! I can now print wireless from my iPhones, iPad, desktop computer, and laptop! My Wii connects perfect too! If you live in a bus fulltime like us, this could be a great help to you if you're using a Verizon hotspot for internet! Just thought I'd share:
http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/ (http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/)
I think you can setup an ad hoc network on your computer and connect the wireless printer to that, but I've not actually done it.
I've used ad-hoc between two computers, but not with a printer, but usually, printers will allow you to manually configure their
network connections.
If it works, you should be able to share the ad-hoc and/or printer on the computer, and connect to it from other devices, too.
All the I-devi$$es $$eem to always$$ involve more co$$t$$ than they initially appear. Apple $eems to be the $nob$$ of electronic$. They will introduce a new product (at great expen$$e to you) that fixe$$ a deficiency they deliberately de$$igned into the device. I have avoided them for year$$ but my I-pod is the best thing for mobile mu$ic. Did I mention all their $$tuff $$eem$$ expen$$ive to me!
$teve Toomey ;D
Yes, fortunately there are third party solutions for many of the unnecessary limitations that Apple builds into its products.
Craig,
You can do this, but this doesn't allow said devices to simultaneously connect to my iPad hotspot for internet...so I needed a solution to do both. Virtual router is perfect!
Yes, I have used that in the past and it does work well. The funny thing is most of the ability to do the routing is built into every PC, but you have to know how to set it up, Virtual Router makes it easy.
I tried to do this on my win7 pc but it just wouldn't work. Not sure what I did wrong, but connecting to an Ipad hotspot is a little weird. It won't connect to my printer nor our wii, so I had to go about things differently. This worked :)
It isn't easy. You have to setup Internet sharing and put in static routes, etc. Virtual Router does that all for you. I used to use it for part of a proxy server that would allow me to connect to it remotely when I was in places that had sites blocked.
I think you have to bridge the connections in the PC to get everything connected, but I have not ever had to do that so not sure of the details.
If the 3rd party products does what you need, it sounds like a winner.
Yes, bridging is a big part of it.
Bridging was my first attempt. No dice...I know it can be done...because some have done it, but as Craig said, the virtual router third party software made it super easy. The only thing is that when i restart the host computer, it doesn't auto start virtual router, so I set up an auto start batch file and tested it and it works perfect. I guess I'm so excited about this, cause I spent a bunch of money on a nice wireless samsung laser printer like a year ago, and have never been able to print wirelessly without dropping the internet connection, then connecting the wifi printer directly, printing, then reconnecting to the internet wifi. It was drama and often didn't work, was super unreliable and the printer was just gathering dust. I didn't want to spend the money on a standalone router to connect everything if I couldn't connect my ipad to it to give all the devices internet, so I was just stuck in no man's land. After spending 30 minutes downloading and configuring Virtual Router, everything just worked. It's been running now for 24 hours without issues. I'm impressed. Anyway, fun stuff. If you have a hotspot jetpack this probably isn't an issue, but the iPad with the latest ios behaves weird when trying to use it as a router...doesn't quite do the task for some reason.
Quote from: Scott Bennett on January 20, 2015, 07:36:23 AM
... I'm so excited about this, cause I spent a bunch of money on a nice wireless samsung laser printer like a year ago, and have never been able to print wirelessly without dropping the internet connection, then connecting the wifi printer directly, printing, then reconnecting to the internet wifi. It was drama and often didn't work, was super unreliable and the printer was just gathering dust. I didn't want to spend the money on a standalone router to connect everything if I couldn't connect my ipad to it to give all the devices internet, so I was just stuck in no man's land. ...
It's always those pesky 1st world problems that get you! :-)
Lol. :) true
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Maybe I'm missing something but my ipad connects to my router at home and the wifi hotspots. And I can print directly from my ipad or iphone to my HP printer.
Fred which app are you using to do that, the HP one?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Fred,
My setup is a little different than what you're describing.
My iPad is my only Internet source via the Verizon LTE chip inside it. The iPad can broadcast said Internet to other devices when I turn on its hotspot feature. This gives the devices Internet access through the iPad. So my wireless laptop and wireless desktop in the bus both have Internet through the iPad sitting on the front seat of our coach. To make things more confusing, I connect my wife and my iPhones to the iPad internet as well because the iPad is set in a location in the bus that gets decent LTE signal (the front where all the glass is v.s. the bedroom area where I have two tiny windows and a whole lotta metal). So all my devices get their internet from the iPad. The problem is, the iPad doesn't act as a true router. My Wii won't connect to it, and the printer won't connect to it. So the only way to print was to do one of two things:
1. Disconnect a computer or iphone from the ipad and connect it wirelessly to the printer wireless and then print
2. Print from a computer using USB.
Neither of these options were very useful. Half the time the iphone or computer would lose the printer settings in between print jobs and not print and USB doesn't work when I want to print from my iphones (which is a lot actually). So I needed a way to take the iPad internet and rebroadcast it through a router. Most routers today will not tether to an iPad with ios8 so I've been stuck. This little virtual router program allows my wireless desktop computer to connect to the iPad internet, rebroadcast it via a central network and simultaneously allow all of my devices to connect to the printer wirelessly. I can now print from my iphones, ipad, laptop, desktop etc. And anyone who connects to my wireless network can do the same if I give them the super secret password. Here's a diagram of how I was connecting before using virtual router:
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F15%2F01%2F21%2F9c2cde07449534506f81ee1138bd208a.jpg&hash=23ae0a168e420724bb651000ef7045e6f79ae2cb)
Here's what it looks like using my desktop as a virtual router:
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftapatalk.imageshack.com%2Fv2%2F15%2F01%2F21%2Ff5b998865767e177a17638aee1cf73b9.jpg&hash=8ec33df70aae1d16e1274533cfbc72df26470428)
I don't use any app. The printer has the e-print option.Both my ipad and iphone see the printer as a wifi network. As a matter of fact I get a better connection between the ipad/iphone and the printer than I do with my pc. I had to resort to a cable connection between the pc and the printer. My ipad does not have LTE capability but will only work with a wifi connection. However my iphone can act as a hotspot which then allows me to access the net with the ipad.
Regards
Fred.