Giving your printer a static IP may not seem very important, but it can save you quite a bit of time in the long run. Normally, your printer automatically assigns itself an IP address and that’s that, but if your network resets, your printer may end up assigning itself a different IP address, but your computer won’t know that the IP address has changed, so you’ll be trying to print, but your printer won’t even see your print jobs.

Step-by-Step Guide

Setting a static IP for a printer is relatively simple, first you’ll want to print off a Network Status Report to get the current IP address of the printer, then on your computer, type that into the address bar of an internet browser (Firefox, MS Edge, Google Chrome, etc.). Next, log on in your printer’s web interface (if your printer isn’t password protected, type “admin” into the username field and leave the password field blank, otherwise contact the company that provided your printer) and go to the “IP Configuration” tab. Locate the “TCP/IP” or “IP Address Configuration” section and change it from “Auto” to “Static”/”Manual”, type in the current IP address and click “Save” or “Apply” to save the settings.