I have a Wifi printer & Imac: do I need airport extreme as well?

[cam247]

Hello everyone
My question is: I have the latest Imac and a new Canon pixma mp620 printer that has wifi. Having real problems setting up the wifi connection. The Imac can not see the printer or vice versa. Do I need a Airport extreme base station? seems a waste of money buying a wifi printer when a normal usb one would have done, plugging into the usb slot on the Airport extreme. I do not use a router as I have mobile broadband. The printer works fine when connected by usb cable. Any advice on Airport or setting up MP620 would be gratefully received. Have used macs for many years and always loved them...

 

[themoonisdown09]

It requires you to have a wireless network set up. Here are the notes from their website (it's in the fine print at the bottom as note #1):

Wireless printing requires a working Ethernet network with wireless 802.11b/g capability. Wireless performance may vary based on terrain and distance between the printer and wireless network clients.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...ategoryid=116&modelid=17406#ModelTechSpecsAct

You don't need the Airport Extreme Base Station, you could get the Airport Express or any compatible wireless router.

 

[cam247]

thanks for quick reply...

 

[i.shaun]

An airport express or Extreme can hook a USB Printer to a network, so you can wirelessly print. The printer needs to be close to the base station.


A wifi printer can be placed anywhere and connect to the network wirelessly as a client. It would still require a wireless router of some sort. Linksys or D-Link are fine, it does not need to be an airport base station.




On a personal note, D-Link and Linksys routers have broken on me in the past just at random. All connections cease, it won't even allow me to access the web-based configuration. I purchased an Airport Extreme and I love it's performance. I even do online gaming via PS3 over wireless and it still holds up fine.