Can you use a USB hub with Airport Express ?

[Devil's Refugee]

Hi,

I want to buy an Airport Express, connect to a USB hub and connect a scanner and separate printer to the hub.

Will there be any problems with this, or does the AP only expect one device to hang off the USB connection ?

 

[gsahli]

The USB connection on the Express is ONLY for one printer. You can't scan via an Express, either. (You can connect a hub - but the Mac will only see one printer if you try more than one.)

This issue is all about drivers. Express printer sharing works because Apple software redirects USB print driver output from Mac-to-Express (just like Mac-to-Mac printer sharing works). You would need a network-capable driver to do scanning.

Read second paragraph:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107418

HTH

 

[itickings]

Hi,

I want to buy an Airport Express, connect to a USB hub and connect a scanner and separate printer to the hub.

Will there be any problems with this, or does the AP only expect one device to hang off the USB connection ?

As gsahli stated, you can't scan via an Express, and only one printer can be used. Even getting an "All in One"-printer with a scanner won't help, only the printer function will work.

Technically you can connect an USB hub, but it is only useful to connect an Keyspan Express Remote and one printer at the same time (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107857).

 

[Devil's Refugee]

Could you connect the scanner via ethernet cable ?

Didn't really want to connect the scanner physically to the laptop every time I wanted to use it....oh well

 

[itickings]

Could you connect the scanner via ethernet cable ?

If the scanner has an ethernet port, sure.

There are scanners (as well as "All in One"-solutions) with built-in ethernet and/or wlan support. Such units will allow remote scanning.

I've seen USB servers which allows one to connect USB devices and connect to them over ethernet, but I haven't tried them, and would be surprised if they work well with Macs (or even Windows). Anyway, considering the cost of such items, it would probably be cheaper to buy a network enabled AiO...