Setting up your store network

Everything that runs your till talks to everything else over your store’s local network. This page is the plain-language picture of how it fits together — it’s for whoever sets the network up: you, your IT person, or your installer. You only need it if you run a network printer; a USB printer plugged into the register isn’t on the network at all.

The pieces

• Router — your internet connection and your local network in one box. Everything else connects to it, by cable or Wi-Fi.
• Receipt printer — a network printer, wired into the router (or a network switch). See Choosing a receipt printer.
• Register tablet — runs Swann Retail on the store’s Wi-Fi and prints straight to the printer over the network.
• Print agent PC — only if you ring sales on the web register with a network printer: a Windows PC running the print agent, which passes receipts to the printer. A tablet-only store doesn’t have one. See Installing the print agent.

The one rule

They must all be on the same local network, so the register tablet (and the print agent, if you use one) can reach the printer. Wire the printer in with Ethernet — it’s steadier than Wi-Fi for a printer — and let the tablet use Wi-Fi.

A simple store looks like this:

Internet
   │
 Router ──── (network switch, if you have one)
   ├── Receipt printer     (wired Ethernet)
   ├── Print agent PC      (web register only — wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi)
   └── Wi-Fi ── Register tablet

Add a till and you add a tablet; a second counter that prints its own receipts adds a printer. They all join the same network the same way.

A brand-new store

If you’re setting up from scratch, Swann can supply a pre-configured router so the network is laid out and locked down for you out of the box — ask us about the setup kit. Otherwise your installer sets the router up; we don’t tie you to a particular make or model.

Keep it private

The printer’s port has no password — that’s normal for thermal printers, but it means the network has to keep the printer reachable only from the devices that print to it — your register tablets, and the print agent if you use one — not from every phone and laptop in range. Once everything’s connected, work through Securing your store network — it’s the checklist that makes the setup above safe.