There a number of ways you can
connect to a printer to send a print job from devices such
as a computer, phone or tablet. |
Type |
Description |
USB |
USB 1.0 which stands for Universal Serial Bus was released
in 1996 and was intended to replace the parallel port
connection and used to connect peripherals to the computer
(such as keyboards, mouse, joystick, disk drives, media
player, cameras, etc.). It operated at speeds of 1.5
Mbit/s to 12 Mbit/s. USB 2.0 was released in April
2000 with a speed of 480 Mbit/s. USB 3.0 was released
12 November 2008 with a speed of 5 Gbit/s. |
Wirless |
Wireless (Wifi) uses radio waves that enables devices to
communicate wirelessly. Using wifi usually
requires being within close proximity to the device.
The wifi range is approximately 20 meters or 65 feet.
The FCC allowed the use of Wifi starting in 1985.
|
Bluetooth |
Bluetooth is another wireless technology that operates using
short wavelength radio transmissions. It was created
in 1994. It requires very close proximity between
devices. |
Parallel |
The parallel port was the popular way of connecting your
computer to a printer for a very long time. It uses a
special cable that goes between the computer and the printer
to establish the connection. It is far less popular
now because of new technology such as USB, bluetooth and
wireless. |
Ethernet |
Ethernet connection uses a RJ-45 port on the back of the
computer with a built-in network card or a USB RJ-45 adapter
that connects to a print server that places the printer on
the network where it could be assigned a network address and
communicate with all other devices on the network.
This enables you to print to the printer without having a
direct connection to it. |
Mobile Print Apps |
Mobile print apps are a new way of printing that enable
printing from mobile devices such as smartphones and
tablets. In order to work the printers must come with
the built-in software that enables mobile printing and a
specific app must be downloaded and setup on the mobile
device. |