Installing HP Wi-Fi Printer

I recently installed a HP Printer on two Win 7 systems using the downloaded driver installation program(s).

In the first case, at the appropriate point it asked if the printer was already a part of my Wi-Fi network. Answer - Yes. It then found my network and asked for the password so it could link up with the printer. Gave it the 10 digit series of numbers password and the process was completed. Ran a test print successfully.

In the second case, same downloaded driver installation program(s) and reached the same point where it asked if the printer was already a part of my Wi-Fi network. Fully expected to be asked for the password, as in the first case. But, no request. The next thing was an indication that the PC was linked to the printer (or is it the other way around). Tried a test print and it ran successfully.

How did that installation program link the PC to the printer in my Wi-Fi network without having to be given the password?

 

Like everything else on your network the printer connects to the router, not to your computers. So it only needs the wifi password once.

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm sure you know more about this than I do, but if what you say is correct I have only one reason to question it.

The printer had been connected to my network router many months before I installed my PC with Win 7. So it already "knew" the password. Yet the first time I connected it to the first new PC (Win 7) it had to ask for the password. An hour later, when I went through the same process (with the second new Win PC), it didn't need to ask.

Also, all this time, my third PC (WinXP) was connected to my Wi-Fi system and therefore had access to the printer, although I never installed the HP software, so the printer would still have "known" the password.

 

When the router asks for a password it is because it does not recognise the device asking to connect. In your case I had to assume that it was the printer that was asking to connect and was not being recognised. However from what you say now it seems that that may not have been the case, though as the software had never been installed on the XP computer it may still be a possibility.

Assuming the router did recognise the printer then the only other possibility is that it was asking for a password from the Win 7 computer itself. That could happen if it was the first time that computer had connected, or if you have not configured that computer to connect automatically.

HTH