Ok Mac Expert Peeps, Teach Me How To...

Install an IP printer in OS X with a printer connected to an Airport Express.

I was recently reminded of this issue I've had ever since I've had my Macbook. I've spent about an hour or so screwing with it months ago then just got sick of it and gave up, cause I got it working in XP under Parallels in just a few minutes.

So anyway, I have an HP Photosmart 7360 connected to my Airport Express. Airport Express IP is 192.168.1.1.

I've installed Laserjet 4x00 series printers many times on my Macbook via the printer's Jet Direct (creating a TCP/IP port for the printer) and never had any issues at all; after typing in the IP in OS X, it almost instantaneously recognizes the printer (it'll report back, 'HP Laserjet 4250' or whatever).

But when I type in the IP address of the Airport Express, it sees nothing. And I don't know of a way to force OS X to just accept the settings and use the driver of my choice. This is exactly what happens in XP; it won't directly recognize the printer or Airport Express, but it will accept the settings I give it, and it works perfectly.

I'm not near my Macbook right now so I can't be more specific at the moment, but when I get home later I'll be more detailed as needed.

So yeah, why is it that my printer hooked up to an Apple print server works perfectly fine in Windows but not in Apple's own OS?

Obviously I'm doing something totally wrong but I have no idea what.

 

Soo.... 94 views and not a single reply? Surely I can't have you guys stumped here...

 

I am not familiar with Airport Express, nor your printer. But shouldn't the Airport Express assign a dedicated IP to the printer? Besides, can't bonjour handle that?

 

I'm not familiar with Bonjour; I've heard the name before but I have no clue what it is.

The Airport Express is (among other things) a wireless print server. You plug a USB printer into it and then it will send along print jobs to it. It is not a router, so to my knowledge it cannot hand out [static] IP addresses to any devices connected to it.

Since I have successfully installed many IP printers on my Macbook it hasn't really occurred to me that I could be configuring it wrong for the Airport Express, sure it's a different piece of hardware but since it's really just the same thing I wouldn't see why the configuration would have to be different, especially when it works flawlessly in Windows.

 

See if these links help :

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/bonjour.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(software)

 

Okay, so from what I gather from that Bonjour is basically a simplified discovery method for networkable devices.

From the first link, Apple's webiste:

"Zero configuration, anywhere.

Even Windows PCs can take advantage of Bonjour. For free. The Bonjour Setup Wizard makes setting up a printer in Windows as easy as in Mac OS X (we can’t make it as beautiful, unfortunately). Bonjour for Windows includes a plug-in for Internet Explorer, so you can set up a Bonjour-enabled device without knowing its IP address. You can even print to printers connected via USB to an AirPort Extreme Base Station or AirPort Express"

I take this to mean that an Airport Express is "Bonjour-enabled." So by extension, I expect that I should be able to see the printer in either the Network Connection section in the Finder or in the Print & Fax section of System Preferences, yet I see nothing. But I do know that the Airport Express is working perfectly fine because I can still print from XP (from Parallels or my desktop) and log into it via the Airport Admin Utility (and see "HP Photosmart D7300 Series" detected in the USB Printer section).

Harumph.

 

So I completely reset and re-configured my Airport Express, and after doing so the (Bonjour) printer appeared in the add printer menu. I can't imagine what setting could have been off to prevent it from working initially, but it appears that the e-enema worked.

 

I have yet to see a router that CAN'T hand out static IP addresses.

 

Glad it worked. Sometimes the Mac way is so simple that we get confused with it.

 

That's interesting, because it's actually the opposite, I dunno what I was thinking when I typed that.

Static IPs are configured at the device and the way the router is configured determines what privileges and access the device with that IP. Routers only hand out dynamic (DHCP) IPs.

But again, an Airport Express is not a router. It's a range extender/print server/itunes music delivery device thingy. The one RJ-45 port it has is disabled while it is connected to a wireless network.

 

Yeah I dunno what was going on with it, but since I never knew it was supposed to operate that way so I never knew something wasn't working right.

Regardless, it should've allowed me to manually add it the way I was trying to, there's no reason why OS X shouldn't be able to recognize an Airport Express from its IP address.