Change the Printer's Hostname on a Network

What is a printer hostname?

A printer's hostname is the human-readable name the device broadcasts on your network. When the printer joins Wi-Fi or Ethernet, it assigns itself a name such as BROTHER-9C4A2E or EPSON0F1A23, and that name is what shows up in your router's connected devices list and in the discovery tools your computer uses to find printers.

Discovery relies on standards like mDNS and DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD), which are part of IPP Everywhere, a standard that lets computers and mobile devices find and print to networked printers without vendor-specific software, as the Printer Working Group explains. The hostname is also used by the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), which most modern printers support, to route print jobs; see our network protocols guide if you want the details.

Why change the hostname

A default hostname is long and tells you nothing about where the printer sits or what it does. If you have several printers in a small office or a home with multiple floors, names like BROTHER-123456 or EPSON0F1A23 make it hard to tell which machine you are sending a job to. Renaming the printer to something like front-desk-canon or garage-brother saves you from sending a large batch to the wrong device. The same is true for wireless printers, which appear in discovery lists by name before you tap or click them.

A clearer name also helps when you troubleshoot. When you look at a router's client list or check a print server, a recognizable name points you to the right device faster. The same name is what appears in the Bonjour discovery panel on macOS and in the IPP Everywhere discovery used by Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS, all of which find printers through DNS-SD.

In larger offices, the hostname also feeds the print server or the router's DNS. A naming scheme like floor-room-printer (3rd-floor-conf-room) makes it trivial for anyone to pick the right queue. This is especially relevant for all-in-one printers, which combine print, scan, and fax and often appear multiple times in discovery lists, once per function.

What you need before you start

Changing the hostname is done in the printer's embedded web server, not in the driver on your computer. Open a browser, type the printer's IP address into the address bar, and the server's login page appears. If you do not know the address, print a network configuration page from the printer's control panel or check the router's client list; our guide on finding a printer's IP address walks you through both.

You may also need the printer's admin password. Most devices have a factory-default password printed on the label or listed in the manual. If you changed it before, keep it available. It is a good idea to set a static IP for the printer before renaming, so the name stays paired with the same address and your saved queues keep resolving.

How to change the hostname

Log in to the embedded web server and look for a section labeled Network, TCP/IP, or Wireless. The Host Name field is almost always under one of those headings. The exact wording varies by manufacturer, but the field is usually a small text box near the top of the network settings page.

Type the new name. Keep it short, avoid spaces, and stick to letters, digits, and hyphens or underscores: desk-print is safer than desk print. Some devices accept only a limited character set; if you enter an invalid character, the page will reject the entry. Save or Apply the change when you are done.

Most printers then reboot or rejoin the network automatically, which takes under a minute. Do not pull power during this time. If the printer does not reboot on its own, restart it manually from the control panel. While you are in the web interface, check the power management settings too; ENERGY STAR certified imaging equipment is designed to wake up and return to sleep quickly, so the brief network drop is normal.

After the hostname changes

Once the printer is back online, the new hostname replaces the old one in the router's client list and in discovery tools. Your computer may still point at the old name, so remove and re-add the printer to update the queue. Our guides on adding a printer in Windows and adding a printer on a Mac cover both paths, and the offline printer guide helps if the device shows as disconnected.

On mobile devices that use Mopria or AirPrint, the new name appears the next time you scan for printers; most phones and tablets refresh the list automatically. If a job fails right after the rename, wait a minute for discovery to catch up, or use the IP address as a fallback connection while you confirm the name is broadcasting.

Hostname vs IP address vs MAC address

It is common to confuse the three identifiers a printer uses on a network. The hostname is a name you can read and change. The IP address is a numeric address that can change unless you reserve it. The MAC address is a permanent hardware identifier burned into the network interface; it does not change no matter what name you give the printer.

For everyday printing, the hostname is what you see in discovery tools. For troubleshooting, the IP address matters. For controlling which device gets which settings on the router, the MAC address is what you use to make a DHCP reservation. If you want a quick reference, the network protocols guide explains how they interact.

What to pick for your use

Questions

Do I need to know the IP address to change the hostname?

Yes, in most cases. The hostname is changed through the printer's embedded web server, which you reach by typing the IP address into a browser. If you do not know the address, print a network configuration page from the control panel or look in the router's client list.

Will changing the hostname break existing print jobs?

It can interrupt jobs that are mid-flight. After the change, the printer usually reboots and reconnects to the network, so queued jobs may fail. Send the job again once the printer is back online.

My printer's hostname keeps resetting. Why?

This happens when the printer is set to get its address from DHCP and the router assigns a new address, or when the device resets to factory defaults. Set a static IP, and the hostname usually stays paired with the same address.

Can I change the hostname on a USB-only printer?

A USB-only printer does not have a network hostname because it is not on the network. You can still rename the queue in the operating system, but that is a local label, not the hostname the network sees.

Does the hostname affect the MAC address?

No. The MAC address is a hardware identifier assigned by the manufacturer and it never changes. Renaming the hostname does not affect the MAC address or any other hardware identifier.