Hardware & network overview

This section is for setting up the hardware and network that run your till — the receipt printer, the cash drawer, and the store network they sit on. It’s for whoever does the setup: you, your IT person, or your installer. Once it’s in place you won’t touch it again day to day.

The one decision that shapes everything

What you ring sales on, and how you connect your receipt printer, decides which parts of this section you need:

• Tablet POS — the tablet prints straight to a network printer over your store network. There’s no print agent to install and nothing to pair: you need the printer, a store network that keeps the printer private, and each till bound to its printer on the tablet (see Stations). Skip the print agent page.
• Web register, USB printer — plugged straight into the register computer. The simplest setup: no print agent, no store network to lay out. Good for a single till with the printer right at it. You can skip almost everything here — just pair it in the app under Receipt printers & devices.
• Web register, network printer — a browser can’t send receipts straight to a network printer, so this goes through a print agent (a small program on a store PC) as well as the store network. Read Receipt printers & devices first — it covers what the agent does and doesn’t print.

What’s in your setup

• Receipt printer — a standard 80mm thermal (ESC/POS) printer. See Choosing a receipt printer.
• Cash drawer — plugs into the printer and pops when a cash sale ends; not a separate device on the network.
• Print agent — for the web register with a network printer only, a small Windows program that relays each receipt to the printer. The tablet doesn’t use one. See Installing the print agent.
• Store network — the router (and any switch) that connects the register tablets, the printer, and (if you use one) the print agent PC together. See Setting up your store network.

A note on safety

A network printer’s print port has no password — that’s normal for thermal printers, but it means the network is what keeps the printer (and your cash drawer) reachable only from the devices that print to it — your register tablets, or your print agent — not from every phone and laptop in range. That’s why Securing your store network is part of the setup, not an extra. A brand-new store can get a router pre-configured by Swann with all of this done out of the box — ask us about the setup kit.

Setting it up, in order

1. Choose a receipt printer — what to buy, and the cash drawer that pops with it.
2. Install the print agent on a store PC (web register with a network printer only — skip this on the tablet).
3. Set up your store network so the tablet and the printer (and the agent, if you use one) all talk to each other.
4. Secure your store network — keep the printer reachable only from the devices that print to it.
5. Run through the go-live checklist before you open the doors.