How to Acces School Printer from my Mac

[organerito]

Hi,
I am a teacher. The school gives us slow Dell computers. I talked to the IT department. They don't to give access to macOS.
I use my Macbook Air M2 to do all my work. I just use the Dell computer to print worksheets for my students. Is there any workaround this?

Thank you very much!
A

 

[chrfr]

Hi,
I am a teacher. The school gives us slow Dell computers. I talked to the IT department. They don't to give access to macOS.
I use my Macbook Air M2 to do all my work. I just use the Dell computer to print worksheets for my students. Is there any workaround to this?

Thank you very much!
A

There are far too many variables to be able to give a useful answer here.

 

[pastoralbasement]

I agree, there with chrfr, there are too many variable to diagnose at this point. A few pointers:

• For security purposes, the school's network is probably divided into virtual networks (VLAN's). School-owned employee computers are probably on a separate VLAN from personal guest devices.
• There are various governmental and/or school regulations for the protection of student privacy that dictates the above VLAN separation.
• For your own legal liability, please ensure that you and your personal device are compliant with regulations regarding data privacy. For example, can it be assumed that staff are disallowed from downloading student grades, IEP's, and 504's onto a personally owned device (which probably lacks security management of the school's provided equipment)?

No response on data privacy is necessary on this thread, as legal topics would be off-topic here.

 

[organerito]

I agree, there with chrfr, there are too many variable to diagnose at this point. A few pointers:

• For security purposes, the school's network is probably divided into virtual networks (VLAN's). School-owned employee computers are probably on a separate VLAN from personal guest devices.
• There are various governmental and/or school regulations for the protection of student privacy that dictates the above VLAN separation.
• For your own legal liability, please ensure that you and your personal device are compliant with regulations regarding data privacy. For example, can it be assumed that staff are disallowed from downloading student grades, IEP's, and 504's onto a personally owned device (which probably lacks security management of the school's provided equipment)?

No response on data privacy is necessary on this thread, as legal topics would be off-topic here.

Ok! Thanks a lot for your post.

 

[chabig]

Probably the easiest way to do this without angering your IT staff is to use pdfs. You can make a pdf of anything on your Mac, email to your work address, and print.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Probably the easiest way to do this without angering your IT staff is to use pdfs. You can make a pdf of anything on your Mac, email to your work address, and print.

Your not going to get a better answer. Keeps your Mac off the school network and keeps your IT guy happy. Been using this workaround for years as more often than not my creation location and printer location are not one and the same.

That said unless those Dells are really old, it may be worth your techs time to try and determine why they are so slow. One possibility would be an overloaded wireless network, if you are not connected via ethernet. But I have zero information upon which to base that guess.

 

[organerito]

Probably the easiest way to do this without angering your IT staff is to use pdfs. You can make a pdf of anything on your Mac, email to your work address, and print.

That is what I do. I create all of my files on my Mac. I sync my files from iCloud to Onedrive. When I open the Dell computer, my files are already there. I just wanted to make thing easier.
Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[organerito]

Your not going to get a better answer. Keeps your Mac off the school network and keeps your IT guy happy. Been using this workaround for years as more often than not my creation location and printer location are not one and the same.

That said unless those Dells are really old, it may be worth your techs time to try and determine why they are so slow. One possibility would be an overloaded wireless network, if you are not connected via ethernet. But I have zero information upon which to base that guess.

The Dells are very old. They have HDD. They take a longtime to wake up.