OpenWRT Wireless Print Server Recap

Here is a friendly recap of my lengthy process of setting up my router as a Wireless Print Service with OpenWRT. My router was a WNDR3400 v1 (N600).

In the first part I discuss (briefly) the process of installing OpenWRT and which distribution you should use. From there I just get the device online as another WiFi client on my network with a static address.

• Part One: Getting Online

In the second part I cover connecting your USB printer to the router. Not all printers are going to be the same but the process is pretty easy. Mostly the difficult part is using the correct USB drivers.

• Part Two: The Print Server

Lastly, we cover setting up ZeroConf aka Bonjour so that you don't have to remember any information about your printer. It is pretty easy with mDNSResponder. Using mDNSResponder is so easy nobody has written any basic tutorials about the usage.

• Part Three: Automatic Networking

Do you hate yourself? Do you love Avahi Daemon? For whatever reason you might want to read this part I got ZeroConf aka Bonjour setup using avahi-daemon but it was a pain in my rear end. You can read all about it in Part Four if you really want to. It removed days from my life so I hope it might help convince you that mDNSResponder is way better.

• Part Four: Automatic Networking Hell

Maybe this series will help you. Maybe it'll help me when I need to remember what I did in 6 months.