AirPort Extreme and USB Printer

[airomero83]

This might be a dumb question but tried searching but no luck. Plan on getting an AirPort Extreme in the near future but first I need a printer. If I were to purchase a regular printer for (non-wireless) and then plug it into the USB port found on the APE...would I be able to print wireless specifically from my iOS devices? Just wanna see if I can save myself a few extra bux by not getting a wireless one.

Thanks for the help! 🙂

 

[BreakGuy]

Any USB printer should work fine as that's the entire point of the AirPort - to turn a wired printer into wireless one.

 

[miles01110]

... that's the entire point of the AirPort - to turn a wired printer into wireless one.

I think the "point" of an AEBS is actually to serve as a wireless access point/router, but ok. Some older printers don't work with the USB ports on modern routers, but it shouldn't be an issue if you buy a recent model.

 

[BreakGuy]

I think the "point" of an AEBS is actually to serve as a wireless access point/router, but ok. Some older printers don't work with the USB ports on modern routers, but it shouldn't be an issue if you buy a recent model.

The AEBS has many points. Routing is only one of them 😉

 

[njaremka]

...If I were to purchase a regular printer for (non-wireless) and then plug it into the USB port found on the APE...would I be able to print wireless specifically from my iOS devices? ...

everything i have read suggests this feature is not implemented into the current versions of the airport base stations. if you want to print from an iOS device, you need to purchase a printer that has this feature.

wireless printing to a printer connected to an airport base station is only supported for OS X devices.

 

[Macman45]

^^

In short, if you don't want to use third party apps like printnshare on your iOS devices, buy an Aiport capable printer.

The little apps are okay, but fall down document formatting sometimes.

 

[airomero83]

everything i have read suggests this feature is not implemented into the current versions of the airport base stations. if you want to print from an iOS device, you need to purchase a printer that has this feature.

wireless printing to a printer connected to an airport base station is only supported for OS X devices.

Thank you! This was the response i was looking for 😀