These days, everyone has an I.D. card. Without an I.D. card, you won’t get very far in life. You’re probably going to get locked up and labeled John Doe until the police can figure out what to do with you. Your I.D. card tells people who you are, where you come from, and more often than not, what you’ve been doing these past couple of years. But did you know that computers on the internet also have an I.D. card, called the IP address?
What is an IP address and why do printers have one?
Like we said, think of the IP address as your I.D. card whenever you are on the web. Whenever you connect to the internet, your router assigns you a string of numbers to the tune of 123.123.123.123, and as you browse, the string of numbers leaves a trail around the web.
PRINTERHEADLINES Tip: As printers became more and more sophisticated, they started having their own IP addressess too! Isn’t that exciting? Printer IP addresses are used to connect the printing device to a network, whether via ethernet cable or wirelessly. That way, your computer can transmit data to the printer and you can do most of the printing job from the comfort of your chair. As we’ve explained in our “Where to find WPS PIN on HP printer” article, printers even have their very own Wi-Fi key.
Can someone steal your IP address and do something bad with it?
No, don’t worry. Your IP address is unique to your device and can’t be copied by other devices. The same goes for printers. The only way this could happen is if someone breaches your computer and then does bad things through it, but since you’ve read our instructions on how to set up HP Wireless Printer, you’re good to go. Provided your computer has even basic security, the the only thing you should be worried about is whether you are doing something bad online.
Finding the IP address of an HP printer via the built-in screen menu
To connect your HP printer to your network, be it home or office, you’re going to need to know the HP printer IP address. One way to find it out is to use the built-in LCD screen that most modern printers come with.
Depending on the printer model, the exact naming of the Menu subjects may vary, and you might want to check our HP printer user manuals section for specifics. Still, we’ll give you a general guide and hope you don’t meet one of the rogues from the HP Printer Error Code list. Especially the final boss, called the HP Printer Not Printing.
Anyways, back to IP addresses. Use the buttons on the printer to reach the Settings or Setup page, and from there navigate to either to the Network Configuration part (again, the exact naming might vary depending on the printer). From there, you will get a summary of various network data involving your printer, and one of them will be the printer’s IP address.
Universal solution: How to find IP address of HP printer through router access
Don’t want to tinker with the printer itself or go neck-deep into your operating system? No problem, as your router will also be able to tell you the HP printer’s IP address. Remember, the printer is connected to the computer, and the computer is connected to the router, which provides internet access. Therefore, the router knows everything. Everything. Well, it probably won’t answer if you ask it, why is my HP printer offline?, but still.
If your printer has Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) access, that is. You’ll need to check the printer’s manual to figure this out, but if it does, simply connect the printer to your router via an ethernet cable and check the list of connected devices through the router’s interface. Your printer will be there, and so will its IP address.
Finding the printer’s IP address on Windows
This is really the easiest way to do it, provided you have a Windows machine. The operating system already has an user interface for that, so once you’ve connected your printer to the computer, go to the Printers and Faxes section in your Control Panel (accessed through the Start menu, or you can simply type “printers” into the Start menu’s search bar). There, find your printer, right click it and click on Properties, then navigate to the Ports tab. That’s it!
One Command Prompt trick to remember
You’ve seen that old Hackers movie and decided: “I don’t need an user interface, I’ll do it the old-fashioned way!” Well, you can do pretty much anything through Windows’ command prompt, including the step-by-step of how to find IP address for HP printer, although it’s a bit trickier than the above method. It’s not as tricky as knowing how to effectively clear the internal memory of an HP Printer, but it’s still no picnic.
Open Start, then type in Run in the search box, and then type “cmd” without the quotation marks in the Run interface. Once you’re in the prompt, type netstat -r and press Enter. This will list all of the devices connected to your computer along with their IP addresses, and one of them will be your printer. There you go, you’ve solved the whole “how to find IP address on hp printer” 90s-style.
You’re on a Mac? Use these two tricks to find the printer IP address on Mac OS
You knew we weren’t going to leave out our dear Mac printer users, and you were right. We have two ways to find your printer’s IP on a MAC: one through the OS itself and one through applications.
- Find the printer IP through OS: In the Apple menu, go to System Preferences and then Print & Fax. Find your printer, open its print queue and run the “Print Test Page” option in the menu that pops up. The Device URI section will look like a string of text, and your printer’s address will conveniently appear after “IP=”
- If that’s too much hassle, use either WakeOnLan or Bonjour Browser to get the address. These are two safe third-party apps that will show all of the devices connected to a given network, along with their IPs. With tools this neat, you might as well type some gibberish like “how to find printer IP address HP” in their interface and things will solve themselves on their own. Hopefully. They can also help with initial HP printer setup and even guide you through HP printer troubleshooting on a Mac. Wait, aren’t Apple devices supposed to be trouble-free?
While all PrinterHeadlines contributors are printer specialists with many years of experience in the tech industry, we will sometimes refer to other articles and websites. This gives our users a chance to both verify the information they’re getting and gives them a chance to explore additional venues of knowledge.
To cite this article, please use:
Bazmarov, Anya in “How to find the IP address of an HP printer on a Windows or Mac,” on PrinterHeadlines.com, Published 2/07/2019, Last Accessed 22/08/2019, https://printerheadlines.com/how-to-find-hp-printer-ip-address/
References and additional resources (3):
- TeleGeography Blog: How Do IP Addresses Work?
- Lifewire: How to Set Up and Use Wake-on-LAN
- Server Fault: How to use Bonjour?
Photo Credits to:
- George Doyle/Stockbyte/Getty Images
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