Apologies if this is not the appropriate forum, but I hope someone can answer some silly questions.

To start with, I have a T-Mobile Wireless Hotspot (made by Huawei) for internet access. Hardware wise, it seems to work fine, and I have multiple devices that use this for internet access, including an Ubuntu PC, an Apple Macbook, a Windows laptop, and a Nook Color tablet. So far so good.

When I attempted to hook up my daughter's wireless printer, things just didn't work at all. Subsequent poking around (T-Mobile is no help whatever, by the way) led a few responders to tell me that because the internet access functionality and the router functionality are combined in the Hotspot device, and the printer cannot be accessed, nor can one pc connect to another via this setup. I have no idea if that is the reason, but there it is.

So now, I'm planning to add a new printer that has what HP refers to as e-Print in addition to normal wireless connectivity (which I assume won't work for the same reasons outlined above). The e-Print, if I'm reading it correctly, assigns an e-mail address to the printer, and the other devices (including those not on my wireless network at all) can print to it by sending certain types of attachment as an e-mail to the printer for printing.

My question is: does anyone know if I can expect any success with this? I would still want to have the printer connected to my main (Linux) machine via a USB port, though, so I don't need to go through the hassle of attaching something to an e-mail.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

my opinion is that if you are able to receive emails on your pc then the printer-pc combo should also be able to receive an email (i'm pretty sure they just are webos(linux) tablets with printers attached).

as for your non-eprint printer, does your mobile hotspot router have a config webpage. like for my home netgear/linksys router i would go to 192.168.1.1 (admin/passwd) and i can toggle things like wifi channel and static ip's for my xbmc server and ethernet connected printer.

Thanks for the quick response.

I'm not sure if I wasn't clear or if I'm not reading your response correctly, but I don't have a PC-Printer Combo. The printer I'm trying to use is a Hewlett-Packard "All-in-One" - a Printer, Copier, Fax combo. I suppose it does sort of qualify as a "computer" in its own right, but it isn't something that can just be "used" by itself.

Frank

yeah, i was just being facetious by considering the printer to be a pc (pretty much any computer that is capable of tcp/ip networking is kinda' like a pc). and pretty much since it handles email and can automatically open attachemnts then select file -> print all on its own shows that it is capable as a pc eventhough hp locks down its os so no one else can login.

As far as I know eprint will not work if connected via USB. In a few reviews I read no mention of any local LAN capability but you might want to check its setup pages anyway. A bit of a kludge but I suppose you could add a wireless access point or second wireless adapter to your Ubuntu PC to create a local LAN.

Thanks Michael.

Couldn't resist pointing out that the converse/corollary of your quote isn't true. Beginning with the notion that, using the power of the internet, it was possible to determine the original author of "If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you", I attempted and failed.

It's been that sort of day with my wireless networking problem as well ...

Frank