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WiFi hard drive AND WiFi printer?

PaulinMaryland

PaulinMaryland

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 17, 2006
231
0
Maryland, USA
My daughter will be taking her new MacBook unibody to college. I'd like to provide her a setup that's as wireless as possible--backup drive, printer, and speakers. For backup, I plan to get her an Airport Extreme base station and attach an external hard drive by USB.

Could the MacBook connect to the AEBS and a WiFi printer (like the HP Office Jet Pro 8000) at the same time?

Would the have to be on different bands--say, B or G for the printer, N for the Airport Extreme?
 
You can connect the printer directly to the AEBS, that's the setup I use in my house with a Cannon printer, works great. Not sure about the back up HD, I don't do that, I seem to remember some folks having issues trying to connect to one of those through the router.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable about HD's will chime in.
 
Connect the HD and the Printer to the AEBS by using a POWERED USB hub and she'll be able to use them both wirelessly at the same time
 
Oops, forgot AEBS only has one USB port, can't connect both HD and printer.

I'm fairly sure you can connect to the WiFi printer by making a part of the AEBS network, the connection would go from computer to router to printer, not from computer directly to printer. I think you can only be connected to one network at a time.

Don't take my word for it though, someone more knowledgeable would be better able to answer your questions. If someone from this forum doesn't chime in, then 800-MY-APPLE, and ask them the question.
 
jamin100 said:
Connect the HD and the Printer to the AEBS by using a POWERED USB hub and she'll be able to use them both wirelessly at the same time
Click to expand...

If that's true, then the AEBS is far more versatile than many have supposed. can someone confirm that this will work? If it does, I needn't confine myself to choosing a printer that uses built-in WiFi. If it doesn't, I'm back to my original question.
 
You can connect a theoretical maximum of 127 devices to the extreme with powered hubs ;)
 
dsnort said:
Oops, forgot AEBS only has one USB port, can't connect both HD and printer.

I'm fairly sure you can connect to the WiFi printer by making a part of the AEBS network, the connection would go from computer to router to printer, not from computer directly to printer. I think you can only be connected to one network at a time.

Don't take my word for it though, someone more knowledgeable would be better able to answer your questions. If someone from this forum doesn't chime in, then 800-MY-APPLE, and ask them the question.
Click to expand...

Thanks, dsnort. Your approach sure sounds sensible. I guess I'd definitely want the new, dual-band AEBS, so my daughter could back up rapidly at "N" speeds while the printer could quietly stay connected to the AEBS via B or G. Don't worry, I'll check with Apple before buying.
 
PaulinMaryland said:
so my daughter could back up rapidly at "N" speeds
...
printer could quietly stay connected to the AEBS via B or G.
Click to expand...

If you want to connect the printer wirelessly, you would have to have it join the wireless network that's coming from the extreme, but ...

if you put the extreme in N with B/G compatibility, and have a B/G device connect, you will be running at B/G speeds on all devices.

the fastest version of N is using 5GHz with wide channels, which is not B/G compatible. (B/G is 2.4GHz)
One note, the 5GHz signal doesn't go through walls well. In her room, she'll be fine, but 2 rooms over, she might not be able to get a signal.

so your best bet would be to hook the printer up to the extreme with usb, or if the printer has an ethernet port that would work too.

also, you should check into the college's IT rules. Some places get cranky if you add a wireless access point.
 
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