Wifi printer on Iphone 6 Hotspot. Is it even possible?

[Laimbo]

Hi,

I have just done a job where a contractor had setup a temporary office while their gear was arriving and wanted to print from a few notebooks to a consumer wifi printer using an Ipad as the hotspot. The only internet they had was an Ipad air 2 or Iphone 6 being used as the personal hotspot. I figured it should be no big deal but ended up driving me crazy. We have since set it up with a usb connection as their new 4G hotspot + dock will be arriving next week but I would like to figure out where I went wrong.

Any device could connect to the Ipad. The notebooks can get internet and the printer connects and is issued an IP address. The Ipad gives the address 172.20.10.x with subnet mask 255.255.255.240. All of the devices can ping the Ipad (gateway address) but can't see each other. Exactly the same on the Iphone 6. I tested the printer with my phone (LG Nexus 5) and it worked without a hitch so I assume the issue is my lack of understanding of Subnet masks. I would greatly appreciate if anyone can confirm this or give any advice as to what may be causing this issue.

Thankyou in advance for any help!

Liam.

 

[Markverhyden]

What model printer? Some of the HP's actually have their own AP hotspot for a private LAN to print. In the past I've just run the installer with the printer initially connected via USB.

 

[DataMedics]

I would tend to think that the WiFi on most mobile devices is limited to internet tethering, and lacks the capability to really route between devices. Possibly some third party software could handle it, but I doubt it'll ever work well. It's just not what it was intended for. Get a cheap old router and plug it in to make a bonifide network.

 

[Markverhyden]

I would tend to think that the WiFi on most mobile devices is limited to internet tethering, and lacks the capability to really route between devices. Possibly some third party software could handle it, but I doubt it'll ever work well. It's just not what it was intended for. Get a cheap old router and plug it in to make a bonifide network.

That is a great point. Personally I've never used my iPhone as a hotspot as I have my own 4 stick. Adding LAN browsing, etc is more code and overhead for the devcie. When I looked around on this I saw the link below.

http://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...t-not-sent-by-iphone-in-personal-hotspot-mode

 

[Laimbo]

Hi markverhyden - Thanks for the info. I had initially suspected that it was possible but I just didn't understand the subnet process well enough but having read your link I think its possible that Apple just don't support that feature. In hindsight it probably shouldn't be too surprising that Apple would limit something like that. I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume its a security feature.

DataMedics - I tested it on my Android Nexus 5 and it works without a hitch so only some mobile devices I suspect. In this case it was only temporary so USB was sufficient in the end. A cheap router would have worked except they would have had to swap networks to and fro to print.

Thanks for the help. Useful to know for future reference.

 

[DataMedics]

Good to know it works with the Android varieties. I wonder if most all can do it.

Not surprising though. Android caters far more to people who like to do things that are outside the box. While Apple wants to keep you nicely packaged up in their box (and standing in line to get the new box).

 

[cyabro]

Had a similar situation for a client here.
I also suspect that Apple keep hotspot guests isolated for security reasons.

In the end we put in a router with the printer connected to that.
We connected the laptop Ethernet ports to this router and the laptop wifi to the iPhone for Internet.
Works well.