A printer that changes its address every few weeks disappears from every PC in the house. One reservation in the router ends that for good.
Reserve the printer's **MAC address** in the router's DHCP table, then add it by **IP address** with a **Standard TCP/IP port**. Discovery and WSD break silently; an IP port survives reboots and router swaps.
Print the network configuration page from the printer's own menu. You need the IPv4 address and the MAC address; the MAC is what the router reserves, the IP is what the PC connects to.
Open the router's DHCP page, find the printer in the client list and add a reservation. Pick an address outside the dynamic pool so a guest phone can never be handed the same one.
Router > LAN > DHCP > Address reservationReboot the printer and ping the address from the PC. A reply proves the reservation works; no reply means the printer fell back to a different lease or the Wi-Fi dropped.
ping 192.168.1.60
Test-NetConnection 192.168.1.60 -Port 9100Use **Add printer manually** and choose the IP option. Discovery hands you a WSD port that depends on name resolution and fails quietly months later; a fixed IP port does not.
Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners > Add device > Add manuallyPick the vendor's basic driver or the generic PCL6 entry from Windows Update. A full suite with scan utilities and shopping widgets adds services that start at boot for features you may never open.
Rename the queue so it is recognisable in every app, then set paper size, duplex and colour as defaults in **Printing preferences**. Per-app dialogs then need no changes.
Printers & scanners > your printer > Printing preferencesThe reservation was not saved, or the printer moved to a different MAC after a Wi-Fi change. Check the client list and reserve the new MAC.
The port only exists on the first machine. Repeat the manual add on every PC; sharing one queue from a single PC creates a new dependency.
Scans do not travel over port 9100. Install the vendor scan tool or configure scan-to-folder on the printer with an SMB share.
Deep sleep ignores the first job. Enable wake-on-network or SNMP in the printer's power settings.
Fixed IP. WSD depends on discovery broadcasts, which routers and firewalls filter differently on every network.
That works too, but then the address lives in a device menu nobody backs up. The router reservation is easier to audit.
Remove the printer under **Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners** and delete the reservation in the router. Nothing else changes.
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