Learn about Printing wireless with Bluetooth printers and printer adapters

Printing wireless to your printer using Bluetooth can be very liberating. You will be able to connect multiple devices simultaneously to the printer, get rid of unsightly cables and print from much greater distances. Bluetooth is a wireless protocol that operates over the 2.45GHz frequency range and allows devices to communicate with each other wireless without the need for a line of sight.

Imagine sitting in the living room with your lap top comfortably and printing to a printer in another room while your significant other prints from his/her laptop simultaneously, sitting in yet another room! This is possible with Bluetooth technology. All you need is a Bluetooth adapter for your printer (shown below) and Bluetooth capability for your laptop/pc/handheld device, which could be inbuilt or an attached USB dongle. Your printer may already be Bluetooth enabled so you may not have to buy a separate adapter. Bluetooth USB dongles are usually plug and play, meaning you just plug them into any USB port and it can begin connecting to other Bluetooth devices immediately, no other setup required!

HP BT450 Wireless printer adapter

Setting up Bluetooth Printing

Follow these general steps to start printing to your printer via Bluetooth. Your printer or printer adapter may have more specialized instructions in their manuals which you should refer to first.

These steps may require you to already have the printer drivers setup. This means you may have to first connect your PC to your printer via the USB cable and install the drivers using your printer CD etc.

1. Attach your adapter to your printer and turn on your printer. If your printer is already Bluetooth enabled just turn it on.
2. Attach your Bluetooth dongle to your laptop/pc via USB port if your laptop does not have inbuilt capability.
3. Go to “Control Panel”, then “Bluetooth Devices” and select the “Devices” Tab. Select “Add device” and run the wizard.

You can also connect to the printer automatically (less secure) by going to “Control Panel”, then “Bluetooth Devices”. Go to the “Options” tab in “Bluetooth Devices” and make sure the “Turn discovery on” and “Allow Bluetooth devices to connect to this computer” check boxes are both ticked. You may also check “Alert me when a Bluetooth device wants to connect”.

With certain versions of Windows you can also go to “Printers and Faxes” in “Control Panel” then “Add Printer” and select “Bluetooth Printer” and follow the steps.

Buying a Bluetooth Printer Adapter

Several companies such as HP, Canon and Belkin make Bluetooth printer adapters but each adapter may only work with certain printers (such as a limited range from the same company)! For example the HP BT500 adapter only works with select HP printers so make sure you double check (read the back of the box, visit the company website etc, call customer support etc.). Bluetooth adapters also have limited ranges according to the Bluetooth class. There are three Bluetooth classes; class 1, 2 & 3 which have varying ranges but Bluetooth printer adapters will almost always be class 1 or 2 which have a 100m and 10m range respectively. So before buying your adapter make sure the range suits your needs. Class 1 type adapters with 100m range may be considerably more expensive.

Another thing to consider is that printing wireless via Bluetooth can be slower than printing via a USB cable though the difference won’t be bothersome. Bluetooth 2.1 and 2.0 are faster than 1.0 and 1.1 (3MBps compared to 1MBps) and they are all compatible with each other. If you have an all in one printer (fax, scanning included) you will most probably only be able to use the print function wirelessly and not scanning or faxing!

Bluetooth printer adapters can cost from just $20 to several hundred dollars depending on range, speed etc and can be purchased online; such as from HP’s site, Canon’s site, Amazon etc or from reputable electronic, department stores.