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Airport Extreme with Printers??

W

Wongers1

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
33
0
Hi,

Im trying to find out whats the best option to add a printer to the network.

I have 8 Airport Extremes in a roaming network with one SSID covering the whole house.

I need to add a printer, so that everyone on the wifi connection can print from either an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC.

I am completely confused to whether or not I can use a USB printer connected to one of the airport extremes and allow all users to have access to the printer??

The Airport Extreme I want it connected to is in extended mode. All the others are ethernet wired.

or do I use an Airprint Printer HP Photosmart 7510 eAIO Wireless All-in-One Inkjet Printer to do the job? wirelessly or USB connection???
 
W

Wongers1

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
33
0
Tomorrow said:
Holy crap, how big is your house?!? :eek::eek:
Click to expand...

Its pretty big, lol!

----------

Does anyone know, whats the best way to do this?

If I wire up a USB printer to the Airport will I be able to print from all devices on the same network?

Or if I get an Airprint Printer, do I USB to the Airport Extreme or wifi to the Airport Extreme?

Whats the best solution??

Thanks Guys!
 
B

bt22

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2009
309
19
Alabama
While I do not have 8 Airport Extreme's I do have an HP printer with Airprint. The printer has built in wi-fi so it will connect to your wireless network. HP's install software and Lion do not play will together, but you can download the driver from HP. The printer will have to be wired to your computer via usb to setup but once setup it will work wireless. Then you will just select print from your device and it should print wireless. Mine works good.
 
W

Wongers1

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
33
0
bt22 said:
While I do not have 8 Airport Extreme's I do have an HP printer with Airprint. The printer has built in wi-fi so it will connect to your wireless network. HP's install software and Lion do not play will together, but you can download the driver from HP. The printer will have to be wired to your computer via usb to setup but once setup it will work wireless. Then you will just select print from your device and it should print wireless. Mine works good.
Click to expand...

Im running OSX Lion 10.7.4, would I have a problem setting up this HP Printer??
 
E

etchtech09

macrumors member
Jun 25, 2010
55
1
No, you will be fine

I had my Brother printer hooked up to my Extreme for a few months recently. It worked flawlessly on all my devices. Just go to printers and it you should be able to add it in just a couple of minutes.
 
W

Wongers1

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
33
0
etchtech09 said:
No, you will be fine

I had my Brother printer hooked up to my Extreme for a few months recently. It worked flawlessly on all my devices. Just go to printers and it you should be able to add it in just a couple of minutes.
Click to expand...

did you do it by USB or Wireless? and is your printer Airprint?

Thanks
 
B

bt22

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2009
309
19
Alabama
I'm running 10.7.4 also, so no you shouldn't have any problems. I'm fairly new to Mac computers so when I upgraded to Lion it was just a little tricky for me to get the printer setup, but that could just be me. I just had to connect the usb cable to my mac to get the initial setup to work. After that I removed the usb cable and it works great wireless. I have the HP C310 Photosmart printer. I have 3 iPhones a 1st gen iPad a MacBook Pro and Mac Mini and all work fine wireless. Hope this helps...
 
P

praetorian909

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2004
279
91
Wongers1 said:
Its pretty big, lol!

----------

Does anyone know, whats the best way to do this?

If I wire up a USB printer to the Airport will I be able to print from all devices on the same network?

Or if I get an Airprint Printer, do I USB to the Airport Extreme or wifi to the Airport Extreme?

Whats the best solution??

Thanks Guys!
Click to expand...

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I was just trying to see if getting an Airport Express (even the new one that came out June 2012) would make ANY USB printer Airprint-capable. From what I've pieced together online, it appears the consensus is no. The printer itself needs to be be Airprint-capable. [But if anyone can confirm otherwise, please let me know]

So probably for you, best way would be to get an Airprint printer and connect via WiFi to your network. Not sure if connecting via USB to your Airport Express would work, but anyhow there's no real need since the Airprint printers would inherently have built-in WiFi.
 
J

Juliemcg1

macrumors newbie
Sep 21, 2012
13
1
Colorad
praetorian909 said:
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I was just trying to see if getting an Airport Express (even the new one that came out June 2012) would make ANY USB printer Airprint-capable. From what I've pieced together online, it appears the consensus is no. The printer itself needs to be be Airprint-capable. [But if anyone can confirm otherwise, please let me know]

So probably for you, best way would be to get an Airprint printer and connect via WiFi to your network. Not sure if connecting via USB to your Airport Express would work, but anyhow there's no real need since the Airprint printers would inherently have built-in WiFi.
Click to expand...

Spend a few and get Printopia. It works just super on a network with Airport Expresses.
 
M

matspekkie

macrumors member
Oct 19, 2010
97
0
connecting your printer to any of the airport extremes will probably work fine except it wil only print. you cannot use multifunctionals/scanning with them being connected on an AE. You still will need the driver installed on the computer and best to set that AE to an fixed ip address in case it will not find it by itself. So best solution will be airprint enabled printer i guess if you are willing to print from iPhone iPad. As someone here also said you can use an app like printopia but this will require an computer to be on all the time.

Hope this helps with your selection.
 
W

Wongers1

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
33
0
praetorian909 said:
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I was just trying to see if getting an Airport Express (even the new one that came out June 2012) would make ANY USB printer Airprint-capable. From what I've pieced together online, it appears the consensus is no. The printer itself needs to be be Airprint-capable. [But if anyone can confirm otherwise, please let me know]

So probably for you, best way would be to get an Airprint printer and connect via WiFi to your network. Not sure if connecting via USB to your Airport Express would work, but anyhow there's no real need since the Airprint printers would inherently have built-in WiFi.
Click to expand...

I was never able to get a usb printer connected to a airport extreme to print wirelessly. The solution is to get an airprint printer. I think the apple marketing department should change the literature online as it clearly does not work like that.

The printer does not need to be connected to the usb port of the airport at all. As it uses the wireless portion of airprint to do it.

So airprint function connects to the wireless network.

I setup 15 airport extremes in total to create a roaming network with a single ssid, so anyone of the network can print to the airprint printer. It works very well, i must say!

Printing is possible from iphones and ipads no problem as well
 
Last edited:
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