• The printer is normally connected to your local area network (LAN) via a standard patch cable and either a network switch or hub.
• The printer can be directly attached to your PC's Ethernet port via a special cable called a cross-over cable.

What You Need to Know

Hardware Address
You need to know the printer's hardware address (also known as a MAC address). It is on
a label on the bottom of the printer, in the format: 00-20-4A-XX-XX-XX, where the XXs are unique numbers assigned to the printer.

IP Address
Your printer must have a unique IP address on your network. The Network Administrator
generally provides the IP address, subnet mask, and gateway. The IP address must be
within a valid range, unique to your network, and in the same subnet as your PC.

You have two options for assigning an IP to your printer.   If your Network Administrator assigns IP addresses manually (called a static address), obtain the required information from your administrator.

If devices on your network obtain their IP addresses from a DHCP server (called a dynamic address,) then you won't need to know what the IP address, subnet mask or gateway are as the printer will get them automatically.

Even though you are using an Ethernet network connection to connect your PC to the printer, the LabeLase® Producer software still expects to talk to the printer via a COM port.   To make this work, the software that you are about to install, called a Redirector, will create a "virtual" COM port that will fool Producer into thinking it is talking to a standard COM port, but will in fact use the Ethernet connection.

When you are ready to continue with the installation, click Next.

Select the method you will use and click the Next button.

Note that more than one printer may be found on your network.   You will need to know which printer you are connected based on its MAC address.   The MAC address was previously found on a label on the back of the printer.

Note that the IP address of any un-configured printer may not be valid for your subnet.  If that's the case, it will be shown in the color red.   At this point, the MAC address is more important than the IP address so select the printer by its MAC address.

Highlight the printer you are installing and click the Next button.

If you had previously selected the dynamic method (DHCP server) of configuring the printer's IP address, proceed to step 7f below.

If you had selected the static method (manually assigned) of setting the IP address, skip to step 7g.

The configuration of the printer's IP address, subnet mask, gateway and communications parameters takes several seconds.

Skip to section 7h to complete the installation process.

On this screen, enter the printer's static IP address, its subnet mask and default gateway.   When you first enter the IP address, the program will calculate the subnet mask for you based on the class of the IP address.  You may modify this computed subnet mask if you wish.

After entering the required information, click Next to continue with the configuration process.

Note that Windows may issue a warning that it has blocked the installer from acting as a server.  If you see this warning, tell Windows to unblock the program.

Click Next to continue.

When you click the Next button, the program will begin to install the COM Port Redirector (Redirector) software on your PC.   This is the software that will create the "virtual" COM port used by Producer to talk to the printer.

During installation of the Redirector, you may be required to reboot your PC.   If so, go ahead and reboot.  The LabeLase® Installer (this program) will run itself again automatically after the reboot and continue where it left off by running the Redirector.

Click Next to begin installing the Redirector.

We recommend that you keep the default installation folder and click Next to continue.

Click Next to continue.

We strongly recommend that you let the Redirector install itself in its default folder.  This will make it easier for the LabeLase® Installer to find and run the Redirector after it is installed.   If you choose to install it in a different folder, you will be asked to find the program when the LabeLase® Installer resumes.

Click Next to continue.

If you are told to reboot, we strongly recommend that you reboot your computer before proceeding.   After you reboot, you must run the  LabeLase® Installer again and proceed through the Ethernet setup process.   It will then be able to run the Redirector that was just installed.

This screen gives you an overview of the next process, which will be to run the Redirector and add a virtual COM port to your PC.

Please review these steps and click Next when you are ready to run the Redirector.

To begin, click the Add/Remove button on the toolbar.  This will open the Com Ports dialog that allows you to select the name of the new port.

Select an unused COM port and click the OK button to continue.

In order to create a virtial COM port (COM10 in this example) you must add an IP address to associate with it.  The address we are going to add will be the IP address that was previously assigned to the printer.

1 - Highlight the new port that you just added.

2 - Scroll the Settings page to reveal the Host and TCP Port settings.

3 - Enter the IP address that you previously assigned to the printer.   Note that the IP address shown here is for example only.  You must enter your printer's IP address.

4 - Enter 10001 into the TCP Port field.  This is the TCP port number that the printer will monitor for connections from the computer.

5 - Click the Save button on the toolbar.  This will save your settings and create the new COM port.   Note that if Windows warns you about security concerns with the new software, simply instruct it to "Continue Anyway".

Select File / Exit to close the program.   The LabeLase® Installer program will resume.

You must now select this new port to be used by Producer.   Click Next to continue.

Note that the actual list of COM ports will vary from this figure depending on the number of ports that are installed on your PC.   The port numbers shown are for demonstration purposes only.

The installer program detected the addition of COM4 when the Redirector was installed, so it has highlighted that port name in the list.   If you wish, you can now click Next to continue to the next step.

If you want to test the port to make sure it can communicate to the printer, proceed to step 7v below.

Note that if you are running this installation program for a second time, you may have already added the new COM port during the previous installation.   In that case, the installer will not detect the addition of a new port so you will be required to select it yourself in the list of ports before you can continue.

As you can see in the figure above, the program found a LL1000 model printer on the COM4 port.  It has displayed its model number, firmware version and the printer's serial number.

If you used the Find button, and the program successfully found and communicated with the printer, you will skip to Step 9 where you will install the version of LabeLase® Producer that is appropriate for your printer model.