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How to connect a network scanner in Windows 7. How to turn a regular scanner into a network scanner

It often happens that in addition to a remote printer, you also need a remote scanner to work. And if setting up a printer on a local network is not difficult, then with a scanner everything is much more complicated. The fact is that Windows OS does not provide tools for sharing the scanner. This is done at the level of its drivers. Therefore, to open access via a local network, you need to use third-party programs.

The Blind Scanner utility is great for this, it works exclusively with scanners, making them visible to all computers on the network. The program is installed on each computer in client mode, and on the computer to which the scanner is connected - in server mode.

After installation, the program will automatically start the server service and will work minimized to the tray. By opening the program window, you can see the operating mode of the service, its status (active or not), as well as the scanners connected to the computer.

The utility is active and accessible over the network. Now it needs to be installed on all computers from which the scanner will be accessed, in client mode.

After the installation is complete, the “Scannito lite” program will launch, in which you need to select BlindScanner Pro.

A scanning window will open in which you need to search for the program server. To do this, you need to open the settings (as in the screenshot) and enter the local address of the computer to which the scanner is connected.

After this, a connection attempt will be made. If everything is entered correctly, then after a couple of seconds you will be able to see the scanner itself in the field.

We select the scanner model in the drop-down menu, after which you need to set the settings: resolution, color mode, paper size and contrast and brightness settings.

Now you can start scanning. Upon completion, the result will be displayed in the preview window, after which you can save it to any directory. Just like a printer, only one computer can access the scanner; the second must wait for the first to finish working.

This is the easiest and at the same time reliable way to share access to the scanner. It can be used both in the office and on a home network when it is not possible to move the scanner from place to place. Also, any program that supports scanning, for example, ABBYY FineReader, can act as a client.

The task of how to scan over a network using a USB scanner is not as difficult and complicated as it seems to many users of office equipment at first glance. First, you will need to select a router and flash its firmware. Find out how to set up a network scanner or multifunction printer with scanning capabilities in more detail below.

First of all, download the “OpenWrt Backfire 10.03.1-rc5” firmware from any reliable web resource.

  • Start installing the firmware using a special recovery utility for your router model - usually Firmware Restoration.
  • Organize a connection between the router and your computer using any LAN port.
  • Put your router into recovery mode. To do this, turn off its power and press Restore or Reset (depending on what is written on the button of your device).
  • After that, turn on this device and hold the button until the power indicator starts blinking.
  • Settings related to IP addresses should not be made. You can only assign your personal computer an address that will be different from the standard “192.168.1.1”.
  • Open the firmware recovery program and first disable the firewall - if you do not do this, the utility will still urgently ask you to do so.
  • Select the previously downloaded firmware file, which has a .txt extension. After this, wait a few minutes until the installation comes to its final end and the router appears at the IP address “192.168.1.1”.

First steps to set up

  • At the first stage, change the router password in the corresponding tab.
  • Configure access to the World Wide Web and DNCP servers. If you are not satisfied with “192.168.1.1”, then you can safely change it. In the future, you will need to configure the device specifically for this IP address.
  • The next step is to configure the packages. Click on “Update package lists” and use “Filter” to find packages nano, sane-backends, sane-frontends, xinetd, kmod-usb-printer, and then install them. Once this process is complete, be sure to reboot the router.

Setting up scanning

  • To successfully solve the question of how to scan over a network using a USB scanner, connect to your router via SSH.
  • After that, you can either be lucky or not. In the second case, you will have to make additional settings.
  • Now you have to start editing “/etc/sane.d/xerox_mfp.conf”. Add these two lines to this file: “usb 0x04e8 0x341b” and “usb libusb:001:004”.
  • Save your changes, and then check if the configured scanner is detected.
  • At this stage, you need to start setting it up locally. Add this line “192.168.11.0/24” to the file “nano /etc/sane.d/saned.conf” - in this case you need to specify the subnet of your router.
  • A small change will also have to be made in the “nano /etc/xinetd.conf” file. To do this, you need to add “service saned” to it, then between the opening and closing brackets “(…..), enter this code (without quotes):

"socket_type = stream
server = /usr/sbin/saned
protocol = tcp
user = root
group = root
wait = no
disable = no"

  • Finally, launch xinetd in a mode called output. debugging information. After this, you must make sure that the service is actually running. If this does not happen, then open the file “/etc/services” and if the line “saned 6566” is missing, be sure to add it.

Install SaneTwain

  • Download SaneTwain and install it. To do this, you need to run the file “scanimage.exe”.
  • After this, indicate the address of your router in the settings window that opens and restart the program.
  • Most likely, after restarting SaneTwain, you will encounter a server connection error. To solve this, pay attention to the “syslog” entry, which is located in the web interface. Then add to "host" an entry with the name for the device's IP address "root@OpenWrt:~# nano /etc/hosts".
  • Add the line “192.168.11.1 OpenWrt” there, and then restart the xinetd add-on.
  • Reboot SaneTwain - maybe this time everything will work as it should.
  • Open your router's web interface again and enable xinetd autostart there.
  • Copy the second file from the SaneTwain archive, which is called “sanetwain.ds” and send it to the twain_32 folder, which is located at this path: C:\Windows.

Setting up printing

  • To configure printing, install the package called “luci-app-p910nd”.
  • Then go to the web interface and check the boxes next to Enable and Bidirectional mode. In the Device field, enter /dev/usb/lg0, and in Port, simply enter 0.
  • Then make sure that after rebooting the device the server starts normally.
  • Now set up the printer itself by filling in the fields with the port name and IP address. In addition, you will also need to enter the port number.
  • At the end, you can do a test print to make sure that all of the above steps were performed correctly and correctly.

If necessary, you can clear space on your router for other software applications. The idea is to remove all those backends that are no longer useful to you. To do this, connect via ssh. You can find backends here: “/usr/lib/sane/”. The most important thing in this matter is not to get carried away with cleaning and thus not to destroy the files that are really necessary for the normal operation of the equipment.

Thus, setting up a scanner via USB so that it can be used over a network is not so difficult. Of course, the average user may encounter a number of names that are incomprehensible to them, so it is very important to follow the instructions and strictly move step by step towards solving the problem.

For some multifunctional devices, manufacturers provide software that allows you to click on the “Scan” button, the document ends up in a specific folder or network resource, and then an employee can easily receive this document over the network. But not all devices have such functions, so in this video we’ll look at a program that allows you to perform remote scanning, i.e. over the network. It does not require physical presence at the computer to which the scanner or multifunctional device is connected, so as not to disturb the working employee.

And we will use the TWAIN Web program, which can be downloaded from the official website of the developers http://unit6.ru/twain-web. The main advantages of this program are that it is completely free and easy to use, since it only requires installation of the server part on the computer to which the scanning device is connected.

As for the requirements, the scanning server must have the operating system Windows XP or older, as well as .NET Framework 2 and higher installed, and the client must have only a browser and access to the scanning server.

Download the program and run the installer ( Advanced settings \ Leave the path the same \ Specify the port). By default, port 80 is specified, but I do not recommend specifying it, since this port may already be occupied by Skype or a web server. If you know for sure that neither the web server nor Skype will be installed on this machine, then you can leave the default port 80. I will indicate 81.

The page with the web interface for scanning is loaded. What we should pay attention to is the address http://127.0.0.1:81/TWAIN@Web. Actually, we will knock on the address of this page from other computers to perform a scan. More precisely, by correcting the IP address of the computer on which the program is running. Here we have the address 127.0.0.1, this is the address of the local machine, that is, now we have logged in to ourselves.

We will also need to create a rule in the Windows Firewall, or in a third-party firewall if you are not using the standard Windows Firewall. (Start\Control Panel\Windows Firewall\Advanced Settings\Incoming Rules\Create Rule\For Program or Port\TCP 81\Allow Connections\For All Profiles)

Now let's try to scan a document from a client computer; to do this, enter in the address bar http://192.168.0.4:81/TWAIN@Web(192.168.0.4 – IP address of the scanning server). The web interface was displayed, which means that the service was running on the server and the firewall let us through.

Scan options:

- scanner selection- there are usually 2 devices present here, this is the TWAIN driver supplied by the equipment manufacturer and the WIA driver. Personally, I was only able to scan through WIA, so that’s why we choose it. When switching, you can see what resolution range is supported, as you can see, the TWAIN driver produces some unrealistic numbers, and WIA is similar to the truth;

- name and number;

- DPI resolution- usually 150 is enough so that the file is not large and everything can be seen;

- color, output file type and paper size.

If you want to scan several documents in a row, then there is the “Batch scanning” item. Here you should specify the number of documents scanned and the delay between scans, i.e. the time it takes to replace the sheet on the scanner in seconds. This delay is also performed during the first scan so that you have time to get to the scanner and place the document there.

But there are some subtleties here; you can specify scanning of documents and saving them into separate jpeg files. But, in Internet Explorer, every time you will be asked to save the file or open it, you will still have to go to the computer every time to select an action. In this situation, you can save the documents as a pdf file, then only after scanning all the documents you will be prompted to save the document.

If you need to scan each sheet into a separate jpeg file, then you can use the Google Chrome browser, where documents are automatically saved in the specified folder, without asking. And in general, everything works more adequately in Chrome, as you saw in Internet Explorer, the file name and numbering did not work, but here everything is fine. It’s also worth considering that file numbering will continue from the last scan, even if you haven’t scanned for a week.

Now, we can simply create a shortcut on the user’s desktop to this page, and if you have a network with a domain, using Group Policy you can distribute this shortcut to all computers in a matter of minutes!

Thus, you can scan even from devices such as phones and tablets, the only condition is that they are on the same network, and then continue through the browser.

If over time you need to change the port on which the server part of the program runs, you can change it at any time ( Start\Programs\TWAIN@Web\Configuration)

It is also advisable to specify automatic restart of the scanning service in case of failures (Start\Control Panel\Administration\Services\TWAIN@Web\Startup type: automatic\Recovery: for all failures - restart the service)

And if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact the developers, they welcome such initiatives!

When working in an enterprise, quite often you may encounter the fact that one office is equipped with only one printer, scanner or MFP. This is done by management for reasons of economy, but can cause inconvenience to employees.

If a local network is configured between office computers, then the issue of printing documents is resolved by providing access to the printer for all users, while it is not possible to share the scanner over the network using standard Windows tools. It’s good if there is a competent system administrator on staff who can cope with such a task. Otherwise, it will be easy to implement it yourself. This especially makes sense when employees' workplaces are located close to each other. Despite the fact that, unlike setting up a printer, the Windows system does not provide such an opportunity to recognize text from the scanner of another computer, there are enough programs from third-party developers whose work you can use.

First of all, you should familiarize yourself with the information about the installed device in the technical data sheet or on the manufacturer’s website. The fact is that some manufacturers of multifunctional devices and scanners of all types are developing their own software for network scanning, which allows you to configure both a barcode scanner and an MFP over a network. In this case, you just need to install such a program from a disk or download it from the Internet. If the manufacturer has not provided anything like this, then you can download the RemoteScan program, preferably the latest version, from the developer’s website (http: //www. remote-scan. com/) or from any other place. Don’t worry about the difficulties of setting up ports and other “scary things” because setting up a scanner from Epson, Canon, Samsung and other companies thanks to this program will be no more difficult than making tea.

RemoteScan installation consists of two stages - server and client installation. First, you need to install the server program on the computer to which the scanner is connected. After this, you just need to add the existing scanner in the settings. In some cases, you will also need to allow access in the firewall to port 6077. Since many computers need to connect a network scanner, the RemoteScan client part must be installed on all of them. The client program is installed automatically and does not require special settings.

Immediately after installation and restarting the computer, you can start scanning documents over the local network. Thanks to such simple manipulations, you can make the economical no longer inconvenient.

The Internet is replete with articles on the topic of setting up shared access to printers, but finding good instructions on the topic “How to set up shared access to a scanner on a local network” is quite difficult, which is why novice users encounter problems when solving the problem on their own.

The main feature in setting up shared access to a scanner is its drivers, which control the operation of the device. The user and the operating system interact with the scanner through drivers, so they must contain a mechanism to support shared access to the scanner for remote use.

To make sure that interaction occurs at the driver level, try launching a scan from a third-party application, be it the operating system's Fax and Scan tool or a graphics editor. Be sure to get into the proprietary utility from the scanner developers. Therefore, if at the stage of writing software for the scanner this point was not taken into account, which is important for old devices that are not supported by the manufacturer, then public access to such a scanner cannot be organized.

The technical documentation for the MFP should contain all the necessary information regarding the use of the peripheral device, including over a local network. If there is no such data or it is difficult for the user to understand it, this instruction will come to the rescue. It shows, using an example, how to connect and configure a scanner in the Windows operating system in order to scan documents over a network.

In our case, we used a PC with Windows 7 and an HP scanner. XnView and Blind Scanner were used as accompanying software to open public access to the scanner.

What is a network scanner?

Note that there are two methods to “share” the scanner on the network. The first is to connect the device to one of the computers on the network and configure it accordingly. The second is to connect the scanner to the network as an independent device and make the appropriate settings. The connection methods differ in that in the first case the device will not have its own identification number (IP address) by which other network users will access it. Requests will occur through the mediation of the computer to which the scanner is connected. We will focus on this switching method due to its prevalence and ease of implementation. The second case requires a special device that is equipped with an integrated network card for individual operation on a computer network, or a hybrid scanner. It can work either separately from a PC on a local network or connect to a computer via USB or Bluetooth.


The ability to use the scanner over a network requires that the computer controlling it be turned on and connected to the network.

Let's start setting up public access on the server

First of all, you should connect the multifunction device or scanner to the computer via USB and supply power to it, provided that the drivers are installed in the system. Otherwise, download them from the developer or device support website and install them. Then you should restart your computer and scanner.


Now you should install a utility with the option of scanning documents, if the system does not have one. You can use, for example, XnView.


Installing the application is very simple, so any beginner can follow all the instructions.

Client machine configuration

Then we switch to the computer from which we will perform network scanning and install the BlindScanner program on it, taking one point into account: in the component selection window, move the checkbox to the “BlindScanner Pro TWAIN driver (Client)” position.

Using the scanner over a network



As a result, we will receive a digitized document.