SOLVED: How To Get The IP Address of a WSD Port Monitor

About a decade ago we wrote an article explaining the differences between in an IP printer port and it WSD port monitor. However we have received lots of requests from people asking how to get the IP address of a WSD port.

So we’ll answer the question directly in just a second but it’s important that you understand that a WSD print port monitor really doesn’t have an IP address. WSD doesn’t even have to be for just printers; it is designed two plug and play and manage external devices without using an IP address.

That being said most printers that are connected order WSD port monitor will also have an IP address associated with them because other systems like that printer zone management interface often require it. For example virtually all modern printers have a little web server built into them and you can HTTP into them to make configuration changes to the hardware.

One way to get the IP address that’s associated with your WSD connected printer is too:

1. click the START button
2. type PRINTERS and click on PRINTERS AND SCANNERS
3. Select OPEN PRINT QUEUE
4. click PRINTER in the top left hand corner
5. then click PROPERTIES
6. the IP address of your WSD printer is in the location field

Another way to determine the IP address of your WSD Printer is in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Enum > SWD > DAFWSDProvider 

Click through the URN entries until you find the printer in question.  You will notice that this information is identical to the print queue information, because the print queue dialog box is pulling the information from the registry.