Technically challenged

I only know enough about technology to get myself into trouble…

I have a WIfi Ranger router & modem that are password protected. I have ALL my items (laptop, IPad, IPhones, printer) connected with passwords to the WiFi Ranger that is usually connected to the parks WiFi or my cellular hotspot.

We have been currently staying in a park for a couple of days and connecting to their WiFi, I was try to print to my Brother WiFi printer that IS password protected & every time I tied to print it has failed. Yesterday the office called and said they had the items I printed in the office. Turns out they have the same model Brother printer I have and everything I was printing was going to their printer (thank goodness I wasn’t printing anything personal)

How the heck did I end up printing on the park office printer? I get it that I am on their WiFi and have the same printer model they have, BUT my system & printer is password protected and I have my printer set as the default printer.

Chuck

Hmmm..well Chuck I have to think about that for a bit because utilizing the camp WiFi should not change you default printer on my laptop...unless somehow network sharing may be turned on. But for a quick fix you could always get a USB printer cable and plug you laptop directly into you printer locally. I will get back to you tomorrow.

Jerry

Jerry:
Thanks for the input, I do have a USB cable and think I might be scared enough to use it. LOL
Chuck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ck2hans

I only know enough about technology to get myself into trouble…

I have a WIfi Ranger router & modem that are password protected. I have ALL my items (laptop, IPad, IPhones, printer) connected with passwords to the WiFi Ranger that is usually connected to the parks WiFi or my cellular hotspot.

We have been currently staying in a park for a couple of days and connecting to their WiFi, I was try to print to my Brother WiFi printer that IS password protected & every time I tied to print it has failed. Yesterday the office called and said they had the items I printed in the office. Turns out they have the same model Brother printer I have and everything I was printing was going to their printer (thank goodness I wasn’t printing anything personal)

How the heck did I end up printing on the park office printer? I get it that I am on their WiFi and have the same printer model they have, BUT my system & printer is password protected and I have my printer set as the default printer.

Chuck

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That is absolutely possible, and how printers work.

I agree with Mike. If the printer and the lap top are on the same network, they will find each other and allow you to print. If you do not have a unique name for your printer, then it is likely that you were seeing the park printer instead of your printer. Interesting that it latched on the the park first! good to know …. There are so many ways that we can compromise our security

Hey Mark didn't forget about you...yes Mark that is correct...also more than likely you selected the campsite printer because both printers would show up in your printer dialog box and being they are both the same manufacturer and model you may have selected the campsite printer instead of your local one which will over ride your default printing setup. There is a feature called network isolation which would keep shared network users from printing to a host network printer, but the campsite would have to set that in their network settings. But I guess the likelihood of someone having the exact manufacturer and model printer would be rare....but of course not in your case..:)

Thanks for the input Jerry:

I have Starlink and usually use that as my internet connection. This was a short trip and the campground had great internet, so I got lazy and didn’t activate my Starlink. Will definitely think twice before using the campground internet again.

Chuck