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Bonjour for Windows/Airport Extreme - can't print from Windows machine

C

cbsnbiker

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 16, 2007
117
56
I'm helping a friend with her home network. She has an Airport Extreme wired to a 17" G5 iMac running Tiger and a Pentium running XP SP2. A couple MacBook Pros connect by wireless. She has an HP LaserJet 1320 plugged into the Airport Extreme.

All the Macs are playing nicely.

The Pentium's Internet connection works fine, but it won't print.

A while back I installed Bonjour for Windows on the Pentium. I gather it worked for a day or so, then stopped working. Earlier today I uninstalled and reinstalled Bonjour. No dice. The computer won't acknowledge that there is a printer on the network, and won't let me install one.

There is antivirus software and a firewall on the Pentium. (I don't remember which software packages offhand.) The correct port is open for Bonjour.

Any thoughts?

Also, any recommendations for attaching an HD to the Airport, for backups and file sharing? If I hook up a hub, how many peripherals can be attached to it, and how many can be shared by the various computers?

TIA.
 
Are the Macs on your network able to print? I recently tried to do the same exact thing as you, with no luck. I called up Apple to ask what was up and they said that many printers just aren't configured to work with Bonjour. Mine was a Lexmark X4850. Out of all of Lexmark's printers, the Rep. said that only a couple were listed.

If you must, then use printer sharing. It just uses any old network and not the functionality of the Airport Extreme's USB port.


Also, plugging in an external HDD to the Airport Extreme does work.. if you're lucky. When I used it, I was lucky to get 1.5mb/s transfer rates and after about a minute it would just hang.. and crash the entire network. If you call Apple they'll reccomend using only the latest firmware, but I've had o.k. experiences with using firmware 7.1 and 7.0 (higher transfer rates, but even less stability).

I do know you can hook a hub up to the AEBS, but as to how many things you can hook up to it.. I have no idea. I personally wouldn't reccomend doing this since the base station is already unstable enough - without hooking up multiple peripherals to it. The Apple Rep. I talked to didn't know about any future firmware updates, and that wireless is in no way a perfect technology, so just wait it out.


Hope this helps! :)
 
Torrek said:
Are the Macs on your network able to print? I recently tried to do the same exact thing as you, with no luck. I called up Apple to ask what was up and they said that many printers just aren't configured to work with Bonjour. Mine was a Lexmark X4850. Out of all of Lexmark's printers, the Rep. said that only a couple were listed.

If you must, then use printer sharing. It just uses any old network and not the functionality of the Airport Extreme's USB port.


Also, plugging in an external HDD to the Airport Extreme does work.. if you're lucky. When I used it, I was lucky to get 1.5mb/s transfer rates and after about a minute it would just hang.. and crash the entire network. If you call Apple they'll reccomend using only the latest firmware, but I've had o.k. experiences with using firmware 7.1 and 7.0 (higher transfer rates, but even less stability).

I do know you can hook a hub up to the AEBS, but as to how many things you can hook up to it.. I have no idea. I personally wouldn't reccomend doing this since the base station is already unstable enough - without hooking up multiple peripherals to it. The Apple Rep. I talked to didn't know about any future firmware updates, and that wireless is in no way a perfect technology, so just wait it out.


Hope this helps! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, all the macs print just fine. It was almost effortless setting them up.

My previous message may not have been clear: the Pentium is wired to the Airport Extreme. So is the iMac. Only the laptops are wireless. I don't know if that makes a difference in terms of stability.
 
If you were to call Apple I'd be willing to bet they'd say it has something to do with your firewall. I would try disabling it temporarily and see if Bonjour works, and if so then you've found the problem. If not, then all I can say is make sure you're using firmware 7.2.1, the latest version of Bonjour for windows, the latest drivers for the printer, and if so then reinstall said software/firmware. If the Windows machine is the only one that isn't working then it's definitely something with that computer. You can try calling Apple, but they really can't troubleshoot too much with Windows.
 
Hello:

Just a quick follow up.

I found this thread while doing a search on a similar problem.

After turning of Zonelabs firewall my XP Media laptop saw the bonjour printer. If I can now only print with speed instead of the 5 to 120 minutes for a page to come out.
 
Here's my solution

1 - Install Bonjour for Windows
2- You need to have the printer's drivers already installed before you run the Bonjour Printer Wizard. Click "Have disk", find the driver, click ok. In the next window, click on the printer in the left window. This will show the printer driver in the right window (it took me 30 minutes to figure this out).
3 - Open the Printer Control Panel. Right click on the new printer and select Properties.
4 - Click on the Ports tab. Change the Printer Name or IP address to the static IP address you assigned the new printer (before you even began my procedure here). Click ok.
5. I also included the static IP address in Zone Alarm Security Suite firewall tab as a precaution.
 
I decided to post this solution here for anyone else who might have this same problem. I have macs and pc's plugged into a Time Capsule (Airport), then of course one day the PC couldn't print via Bonjour.

In my situation, the solution was quite simple (I say that after trying to figure out for weeks what the issue was :confused:) - As I found out later, this had something to do with Windows Printer Ports handling

  • First - completely remove the printer
  • Open Printers and Faxes (Start > Settings > Printers & Faxes)
  • On the File menu, click Server Properties, and then click the Ports tab
  • Look the port that starts with IP_XXXX.local (Standard TCP/IP Port) - this is the local hostname from your Time Capsule (or Airport Extreme)
  • Delete this port
  • Add printer again via Bonjour - This time hopefully it should work for you.

In my case, I think changing the time capsules hostname might have led to this debacle in the first place.
 
another user with the same problem

dkobia said:
I decided to post this solution here for anyone else who might have this same problem. I have macs and pc's plugged into a Time Capsule (Airport), then of course one day the PC couldn't print via Bonjour.

In my situation, the solution was quite simple (I say that after trying to figure out for weeks what the issue was :confused:) - As I found out later, this had something to do with Windows Printer Ports handling

  • First - completely remove the printer
  • Open Printers and Faxes (Start > Settings > Printers & Faxes)
  • On the File menu, click Server Properties, and then click the Ports tab
  • Look the port that starts with IP_XXXX.local (Standard TCP/IP Port) - this is the local hostname from your Time Capsule (or Airport Extreme)
  • Delete this port
  • Add printer again via Bonjour - This time hopefully it should work for you.

In my case, I think changing the time capsules hostname might have led to this debacle in the first place.
Click to expand...

I have the exact same problem. My printer is connected to the Airport Extreme via USB, and I can print via a Mac laptop wirelessly just fine. But cannot print from a Windows PC which is plugged into Airport Extreme via a Ethernet cable. Btw, Internet works on my PC, via this same Ethernet cable that is connected to the Airport Extreme.

I tried all the above solutions - and out of luck. Bonjour detects my printer and installs it, but then when I try to print, nothing happens (eventually I get a Windows error message telling me that printing failed). I disabled my firewall, and rebooted my PC and it doesn't work. When I try to delete the port in "Start > Settings > Printers & Faxes / Server Properties", it tells me "The requested resource is in use". This is even when I had already removed my printer, and when nothing is being printed. Btw, my printer is "HP Deskjet F4400 series".

:confused:
 
same problems

Same problems here after trying the port removal and all other ideas. Printing thru time capsule; macs print fine only the Windows machine doesn't respond. Bonjour installs perfectly and finds the printer no problem, but printing is unresponsive. Have checked ports, tried uninstalling and reinstalling (including Bonjour), tried repairs, everything but no luck. Frustrating as printing from Windows was working on this machine up until a month ago, don't know what changed.:(
 
One of the undocumented features of A/Extreme print server function is the ability for Windows to use "standard raw port 9100" setups (this is called HP Jetdirect protocol on OS X). That doesn't rely on Bonjour at all.
 
bonjour for windows

The IP_xxxx.local port is already port 9100 raw config. Like the other comment I am not able to delete this port as it is in use (even though no printer is assigned to it.) Any advice on how to get this port released so I can try dkobia's suggestion?
 
peterhimes said:
The IP_xxxx.local port is already port 9100 raw config. Like the other comment I am not able to delete this port as it is in use (even though no printer is assigned to it.) Any advice on how to get this port released so I can try dkobia's suggestion?
Click to expand...

figured it out -- have to reboot the system after deleting the printer from the port.

In the end, relaunching Bonjour and reconnecting the printer did NOT work -- same result. I found that on the mac system the printer has a URL starting with dnssd:// -- tried to manually enter this into PC system but was rejected by Windows. I found that dnssd is the service discovery system used by bonjour. Any advice or ideas on where to go from here?
 
solved the problem

peterhimes said:
figured it out -- have to reboot the system after deleting the printer from the port.

In the end, relaunching Bonjour and reconnecting the printer did NOT work -- same result. I found that on the mac system the printer has a URL starting with dnssd:// -- tried to manually enter this into PC system but was rejected by Windows. I found that dnssd is the service discovery system used by bonjour. Any advice or ideas on where to go from here?
Click to expand...

Hi Peterhimes and others,

I was able to solve my problem. I can now print both from my Windows PC (running Windows XP, wired to the Airport Extreme Base Station) and from my Mac (connected wirelessly to the Airport Extreme Base Station).

The solution was not to use Bonjour at all, but to follow this procedure:

http://tech.ifelix.net/1004.html
(that is, add the printer as a TCP/IP printer in Windows)

When I did this, it still didn't work at first. It only started working once I changed the port from 9100 to 9101.

I used 10.0.1.1 as the IP address of my Airport Extreme Base Station.

Hope that helps you -- I am now a happy user :)
 
Same Problem...Problem Solved!

Thanks iFelix! I had the exact same problem with my Time Capsule and Airport Express (just replaced the latter with the former). My iMac prints wirelessly just fine but my PC just stopped one day with an error. I removed the printer and all programs and drivers and reinstalled everything. Bonjour found the printer with no problem just like before and installed it but it would never print! So frustrating given it worked just fine for a long time.

I used this same fix just to be thorough but what I should have done was just edit the port name in my printer/port properties. Instead of the port name: "IP_insertyourwirelessnetworknamehere.local.9100" Bonjour installs for you, use the actual IP address Airport utility tells you for your wireless network/router. Mine is the general 10.0.1.1 noted in iFelix's notes here:

http://tech.ifelix.net/1004.html
(that is, add the printer as a TCP/IP printer in Windows)

If you want to guarantee your printer will work in 5 minutes, follow the instructions at that link! I found that mine worked on both 9100 and 9101 so the port numbers didn't matter as much for me.

After a couple very frustrating months...thank you! Thank you!

I used 10.0.1.1 as the IP address of my Airport Extreme Base Station.
 
It works!

Thank you so much pixelator30! Your instruction guide completely worked. I have Windows 7 and the operating systems were close enough that I could still repeat the procedure. For anyone else who is having this problem, pixelator30's link works. :)
 
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