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Can anyone help with Airport Express

Bulldog VII

Bulldog VII

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 10, 2007
396
0
London
Dear all

I am having a nightmare trying to set this up :mad:

About a month ago I bought an airport express dongle to make my USB printer wireless. I got it out of the box & plugged it into the main

There what should happen & what does happen differs & I can't find anywhere to help me!.

I did as the book suggested plug the USB cable from the printer in the airport & nothing. It is saying that it can not find a network?? My wifes laptop finds the network fine.

The book suggests that you manually install it & when I follow that the manual installation tab is not available.

Before I through it in the road I was wondering if anyone had any suggestion? I have reset it as well

Thanks in anticiaption
 
It doesn't appear in the menu. I keep searching for it with the utliity, but it's not there??

In the menu bar it shows the network
 
This means it can't get an IP connection. Is your Airport network protected by an Access Control List? You'd have to disable this to allow the AE to join the network. Have you tried connecting it directly by Ethernet in order to set it up?
 
I have just tried it with the ethernet connection in the back of the AE & it initially found it, but then when it rebooted it was unable to find it again??

I think that it is broken & I'll have to take it back to the apple store??
 
i Went to the apple shop today & got a new airport express base station & guess what still doesn't &%&* work:mad:

I have plugged the new one in & I get the flashing amber light again. I have tried it in a few different places round the imac & each time the same

All I want to do is print wirelessly

If I explain my set up someone may have an idea??

My internet comes into my house to a wireless router. To this I have my imac & my old PC attached via ethenet connectors (there is only room for 2 out out if the router & I need both plugged in)

I plugged my USB printer into the airport express base station & I am told that this is all I need to do??

My imac is about 10 months old as far as I am aware can connect wirelessly (I did have it connected at one time to my router, so I know it can)

Any ideas would be appreciated so i can use my printer on my network

Thanks
 
I'm not sure that you can use an airport express to print wirelessly if it doesn't have an ethernet cable hooked up to it.

Your iMac should have wifi so I would disconnect the ethernet cable from the iMac and plug it into the AE. Then you should be able to set up the AE as well as the printer. Then turn on wifi in iMac and access the internet wirelessly instead of via ethernet.
 
Bulldog VII said:
I plugged my USB printer into the airport express base station & I am told that this is all I need to do??
Click to expand...

No it isn't.

You should look for the application in the application>utilities folder called "airport setup assistant" or something of that ilk. Run that, then plug in the printer, once you have set it up.
 
Didn't work with the ethernet connector in the Airport Express base station, but the computer works find connected wirelessly to the net

Anyone else with any ideas??
 
I have two AE's and this is how I set mine up.

Plug in the AE, press the little reset button on the bottom and hold until the status light blinks really fast then let go.

Go to the iMac, Airport menu. You should see a wireless network that says something like "Apple Network XXXXX" where the X's are seemingly random characters. Join that network.

Run the Airport utility, it should see the AE. Click the manual setup on the AE.
(Directions here list the tab at the top, then the tab in the pane).
Airport - Wireless: Set the wireless mode to "Join a wireless network" then but in the WEP/WPA2 settings that your other computers use to join the existing wireless network.

Plug in the printer, go to the "Printers" tab and it should show up ready to be configured. (if not, an 'update' of the AE from the utility should get it to see the printer right).
 
Hi I have now managed to get the Airport Express to join the network, as the previous post says, press the reset button with it all plugged in.

Next problem, will not %*^$ print, done as the manual says, plug in the USB socket & then add to mains (green light is on on the AE)

Search for printer with bonjour & he presto nothing

HELP!!
 
The network you are joining - what IP range does it distribute?

Probably the 192.168.x.x range. Airport expresses are picky when it comes to joining them. The express likes to use 10.0.1.x addressing when it sets itself up as a router, and expects the same when it joins an existing wireless network.

If you're having trouble and pulling your hair out like I did, do this:

Stick a pen cap or other tip into the reset button of the express while it's unplugged. Holding this button in, plug in the express, and hold it there for about twenty seconds. This will hard reset it.

Set up the express as if you wanted it to create a wireless network. I know you don't want this, but you have to do this first. Under the 'Internet' tab (not exactly sure where, but search for it) there will be an option for 'DHCP', and to change the network addressing scheme from the 10.0.1.x default to one of the other local addressing schemes. Change it to match the one for your router.

After changing settings and pressing Update, the router will reset. After it resets, unplug it and plug it back in. The only option you need to change now is instead of having it create a wireless network, have it join your existing one.

Now the airport express and your third party router should play friendly. It should also fix the printing issue once you plug the printer back in (unless there is some other problem involved).
 
I've managed to join the network with the AE (eventually) & this is fine. The problem I now have is printing.

I have followed the instructions & the printer is shown on my printer list, but when I go to print anything the printer comes up with a communication error.

my ip address does start as you say
 
There's a little trick here which might help: open AP Utility, double-click on the AE, click on Music, uncheck and recheck Enable AirTunes (any change to the settings enables the "Update" option), then click on Update. No guarantees, mind, but it usually works for me.
 
Hi

Thanks for that, I tried it to no avail. Next to the music is the printer button & that is shown with my printer on it.

This is so frustrating :(
 
I would try unplugging the printer, turning it off, unplugging the AE, resetting it, plugging in the printer and turning it on again. Mine can be really flaky at times, and I have to go through the whole routine to get everything working after a dropped connection.
 
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