Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

DBursey · Dec 15, 2002, 10:07 AM

I find USB printer sharing a little inconvenient (actually the wife does, but anyhoo ... ) I have two airport equipped macs, a new (snow?) airport, and an hp deskjet printer USB connected to the emac.

I'd like to connect the deskjet wirelessly so that It'd always be available. Are there good solutions for this? Do I need a wireless enabled printer, or can I get a wireless adapter?

All comments welcomed

pete · Dec 15, 2002, 10:35 AM

I was JUST about to post the exact same question. Thanks!

Aaron · Dec 15, 2002, 10:52 AM

I think what you guys are looking for is a wireless print server. Its a little box that you plug your printer into via parallel or USB, and then the box gets an IP address from your Airport and becomes a network node you can print to.

Go to your printer manufacturer's webiste and search for print servers, and see if any of them support 802.11b. I know both Epson and HP make one. They're expensive though - somewhere in the $250+ range.

Aaron

aaanorton · Dec 15, 2002, 11:22 AM

It doesn't actually need to be wireless. Any compatible print server should work. The server would then need to be wired to one of the base station's ethernet ports.
If you want the BS and printer to be in different locations, you may want to look into wireless options, instead of running cables.

rdcrosse · Dec 16, 2002, 10:47 PM

http://linksys.com/products/product....6&prid=438

My friend uses this one and even though it doesn't officially support any Mac OS, it is configurable through a web browser so you shouldn't have a problem. I believe street price is ~$80. The only drawback though, is that it is "wireless ready" which means it doesn't come with the card. If you are not using the other ethernet port on your base station, you can plug in this print server there or else you would have to buy the wireless network adapter (card ~$60). Or, you could buy yourself a simple multi-port router (very cheap these days) and plug your modem to that and then connect the base station, print server, etc. to the router.

Hope this helps.

Weedon · Dec 20, 2002, 04:15 PM

Originally posted by DBursey:
I find USB printer sharing a little inconvenient (actually the wife does, but anyhoo ... ) I have two airport equipped macs, a new (snow?) airport, and an hp deskjet printer USB connected to the emac.

I'd like to connect the deskjet wirelessly so that It'd always be available. Are there good solutions for this? Do I need a wireless enabled printer, or can I get a wireless adapter?

All comments welcomed

I'm not sure what you mean by USB printer sharing. But this is what I do: I have my Lexmark printer attached to my iMac, and printer sharing checked in the network preferences. With this set up, I can print wirelessly from my iBook with no difficulty.

Hope that helps.

DBursey · Dec 20, 2002, 07:23 PM

I have the same type of setup. What I really want is the convenience of not needing the USB host mac to be on/awake in order to print.

When I have time, I'll look into the wireless print server. Thanks for the replies.

DBursey · 05:52 PM

Oops. Double post :o

Weedon · Dec 20, 2002, 08:48 PM

Originally posted by DBursey:
I have the same type of setup. What I really want is the convenience of not needing the USB host mac to be on/awake in order to print.

When I have time, I'll look into the wireless print server. Thanks for the replies.

A suggestion: what I did was set my iMac to never sleep. The screen blanks out after 15 minutes, but the iMac is always awake and so always ready to print.