Airport Extreme -- secure printer sharing

[dylpkls91]

EDIT: Please disregard the title of this post, I meant Express not Extreme!

Hi all,

I want to buy an Airport Express to connect to my university's wired network so I can have a wireless connection, use my speakers wirelessly, and print wirelessly. However, as far as I can tell, there is no way to password-protect the printer sharing feature, meaning that my printer would be free to take print jobs from anyone on my building's network. Can anyone confirm this or set me straight?

Thank you!
dylpkls91

 

[Intell]

I think you might be a bit confused. To stream music wirelessly you need the Airport Express not the Extreme. I believe you can connect the Ethernet jack on the Express to your Uni's jack and use the Express as an wireless router. This will allow you to secure the shared printer and music. When you set it up make sure you select create a network. Also you should enable WPA2 on the network to make it secure. If I have time I'll show you how you should setup your Express for want you want.

 

[dylpkls91]

Oh shoot. I definitely meant the Airport Express, thanks for catching that. I know printer sharing will work fine with the Express, but I am not sure if the printer sharing feature can be password-protected so pranksters can't use up my paper and ink (I've seen it done before). I could always turn off my printer in between uses, but that kind of defeats the purpose.

 

[skorpien]

If you do as Intell suggested and set up the Express to create its own network, nobody will be able to use your printer but you and all those that have your password as they would need to be connected to the network that the Express creates.

 

[dylpkls91]

I would do that, but the problem is that my school requires students to use their routers in "bridged" mode only (so I can't avoid my printer being seen by all on the network).

 

[Intell]

My Uni doesn't allow routers at all. Yet everyone has one. All you have to do is set it up with the NAT turned on and give it a name like Fred's Macbook or something.

 

[dylpkls91]

Unfortunately, that won't work either-- if you try browsing to any webpage through a NAT'd router, it gets replaced with a page that says "Error - your are behind a NAT device" etc. etc. Not to mention people have gotten their ethernet jack disabled for trying to keep a non-bridged router going.

 

[Intell]

That's when you put your laptop outside of the NAT. Here's how I think you should setup the Express. In the fourth image in the 192.168.1.2 make sure you enter your Macbook's IP address after it has been connected to the wireless network.

 

[Intell]

Setup continued: In the Printer tab you'll have to setup your printer. Also don't forget to fill in the password boxes with good passwords. I used the name Fred as a place holder for your own name. It is not my name.