How to Brother HL-2135W on Ubuntu via secure WIFI router

The Brother HL-2135W laser printer only has one USB port and a wireless port. In this "how to" the USB port is never used and there is no need for any USB cable at all.
Your Ubuntu computer can use the printer wireless via your network Access Point or via a wired connection to your router, both work fine after this how to.

I use standard 32 bit Ubuntu 14.04 with the standard Unity GUI and the printer-drivers can be found in the "Ubuntu Software Center" if you search for Brother and unhide the technical items.

The printer runs fine with USB but cannot be configured with USB.

Here is how to get the printers wireless connection to your secure wireless router configured so you can use the printer by any computer in your network without using USB or Windows .

First turn on the printer in range of your wireless router Access Point.

• Check if the printers WIFI is running, check for the green LED under the USB port on the back of the printer to light up. A new SSID called SETUP should be on air in the 2.4 GHz band. (We might need this SSID later on.)
• If it does not light up, press and hold the Go button for 10 long seconds to turn on the printers WIFI.
• Next, press the Go button 3 times within 2 seconds and the "network status page" will be printed.
• Now check the settings on the paper. If they are all wrong you might want to reset the printer to factory defaults.

If you wish to reset the print server back to its default factory settings (resetting all information such as the password and IP address information), please follow the steps below:

1. Turn off the printer.
2. Make sure that the front cover is closed and the power cord is plugged in.
3. Hold down the Go button as you turn on the power switch. Keep the Go button pressed down until all the LEDs light up, and then the Ready LED turns off.
4. Release the Go button. Make sure that all the LEDs turn off.
5. Press the Go button six times. Make sure that all the LEDs light up to indicate the print server has been reset to its factory default settings. The machine will restart.

Don’t forget to turn on the printers WIFI after the reset if needed. IP range 169.254.x.x is given when DHCP fails.

If you have an open network with DHCP and without security, the printer has already connected to the network and you will see the Brother HL-2135W if you add a new printer in Ubuntu. (Wait for it.) But many wireless Access Points have a password so:

• Check the IP address on the "network status page" you just printed and open it in your browser. It will open the printers web-control site. (A website inside your printer.) The standard password is admin/access.

Now this will work if you are very lucky but most wireless network cards are not in the same IP range as the printer so then there is still no connection yet.

BRAdmin Light works perfectly under WINE (Install wine in Terminal with " sudo apt-get install wine") and finds the wireless printer too.

It uses its own port (631) to do that. BRAdmin Light is on the CD that came with the Brother HL-2135W and on some download-sites.

Make a wireless connection in Ubuntu to the printers SSID called "SETUP". You might want to edit the network connection in your Ubuntu to connect successfully. Here are the settings:

Start BRAdmin Light by pressing the Icon in the dash and it will discover the printer.

With this tool you can set the printers network settings into the same IP range as your laptop or PC so you can connect to the web-control with your browser.

• In the web-control site you can set all kind of settings like wireless settings, IP, Subnet Mask, Gateway, SSID and DHCP.
• Set the printer to use the correct gateway and subnet mask and then set it to DHCP (under TCP/IP settings) and press submit to apply. 
• Now go to "Network Configuration" - "Configure Wireless" and set up the access to your secured wireless router. (Use infrastructure Mode.) Press submit to apply the new settings.
• After this is done, Reconnect Ubuntu again to your own wireless Access Point.
• Reboot the printer or power it off and on again. The printer will now connect to your wireless Access Point and receive an IP from its DHCP server. 
• Restart BRAdmin Light and it will again find the printer, this time is in the correct network IP range.
• Any computer in the network can now connect to the web-control site of the printer with an internet browser.

If you now add a printer in Ubuntu the Brother HL-2135W will magically appear under network printers as long as the PC or laptop is connected to the network. (Wait for Ubuntu to scan the network.)

As Ubuntu driver choose the jetdirect driver (The one with the ip address.) Then choose Brother foomatic.


Please let me know if this was any help.