| 50 Dylan CDs and an Icepick | 06 Apr 2007 2:55 p.m. PST |
Okay, so I've got two Intel Core Duo Macs in the house running off an Airport Express. I want to buy a color laser printer and connect it to the wireless network, so that my wife can print something from her MacBook, from wherever she's working in the house. I've got some picks for printers I like, all of which are "network ready," although I assume that's a wired network. So will one of you wise souls please advise me on how I should set myself up? |
| Grizwald | 06 Apr 2007 3:31 p.m. PST |
You will need a wireless print server, unless the Airport Express has a Cat5 ethernet port, in which case an oprdinary print server will do. |
| jlstuht | 06 Apr 2007 5:18 p.m. PST |
If you get a USB printer, just plug it into the Airport Express's port. It should appear in your print menus after a restart but at worst you may need to rerun your Airport Setup Assistant program. I have an Epson printer hooked up to my Airport Extreme and it's accessible from all 3 of our computers. |
| 50 Dylan CDs and an Icepick | 06 Apr 2007 7:48 p.m. PST |
I'm not sure I understand. If I'm hooking it up to the Airport Express (how?) then it's not really "wireless," is it? The A.E. is just a little 3" X 4" rectangle with only one jack that I can see: for the ethernet cable to go into. |
| jlstuht | 06 Apr 2007 8:16 p.m. PST |
The Express should have 3 ports on it – one Ethernet, one stereo jack, and a USB port. The wireless part comes when your computer has a wireless card in it. Then you can be anywhere in your house and have access to the printer (as well as your stereo to play your iTunes library and the internet if you plug your cable modem into the ethernet port). All this should be in your manual that came with the AE. |
| 50 Dylan CDs and an Icepick | 07 Apr 2007 4:44 a.m. PST |
I see. So the printer is wired to the A.E., which allows any other computer on the wireless network to print to it? |
| jlstuht | 07 Apr 2007 6:58 a.m. PST |
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| jackofclubs | 30 Jun 2007 6:25 a.m. PST |
Having an Airport base station myself, you need to connect a usb printer to it. Then, they appear in printing options on every computer on the network. |
 BrigadeGames  | 11 Jul 2007 8:38 a.m. PST |
Make sure you buy one that has Mac drivers. As a recent convert to the Mac side after buying my son one over xmas, we found out that our HP2550 color laser could not be shared to the mac since a driver did not exist (HP claims it was never intended for a mac). The only thing that worked was me replacing our router with an AIrport Express and connecting it to the airport. While the drver still wasn't available, the mac found it and used its own apple driver. That said, all my windows computers had to have their drivers updated to use it (the generic Apple COlor Laser writer works fine). So far very happy. BTW – the Airport Express gives me wireless speeds at N (1 Gig) Well worth the investment. |
| BrigadeGames | 11 Jul 2007 8:41 a.m. PST |
BTW
a wireless printer requires the printer to have a wireless card in it – typically not something you find in lower end printers. Most $500+ printers in the last few years have added a USB port and print server technology in the printer so they can be connected directly to a network. Also – The airport setup was so easy compared to the linksys router that I really thought I did something wrong. |
says 'thank you' one more time.
