Connecting to Xerox Phaser 3500N - Almost There

Question

Connecting to Xerox Phaser 3500N - Almost There

Hi,

I have a new Airport Extreme, and I have an Airport Express joined to the Extreme network. I would very much like to print to a Xerox Phaser 3500N, but have not had any success as yet.

I notice that the Airport Express has its own, unique IP address, as does the Phaser printer.

When I have added a new printer to the network, I have chosen "IP" on the "Print and Fax" setup pane, which I am assuming is the right way to go.

The "IP" setup asks me to choose a protocol, and I have chosen "Internet Printing Protocol - IPP" from the popup window. And there I am entering the IP address for the Airport Express. I am not at all sure this is correct, but then if not, what should be entered here?

Patrick

Macintosh G5, Mac OS X (10.5.2), Xerox Phaser 3500N, Airport Extreme Base Station, Airport Express

Posted on Feb 17, 2008 10:10 AM

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Answer 1

Henry B.

Level 9

78,731 points

Feb 17, 2008 11:37 AM in response to Patrick Murphy

This is a network printer (you paid extra for that "N" option), so for maximum performance you should be using its ethernet port to connect it to your network. Once connected to your network via ethernet cable, you should be able to follow the instructions provided by Xerox for configuring this printer with a Mac when connected via a network. There are two ways to cable this printer to your network:

1. cable it to the LAN port on your Base Station.

2. configure your Airport Express to "extend" the wireless network of your Bas Station, and cable the printer to the Airport Express ethernet port.

In both these cases, the IP address the printer is located at is configured on the printer itself.

If you connect this printer via USB to your Airport Express (with the Airport Express configured to either "join" or "extend" your wireless network - either configuration will work), then you would set this printer up as a "Bonjour printer" on the Mac - no need to specify its IP address since your Mac will find it automatically.

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Answer 2

Feb 19, 2008 7:11 AM in response to Henry B.

Hello,

I find it easy to connect the Phaser to the Airport Extreme using the ethernet port, so that is not really a problem for me. However, when I try to extend the network across the room to an AE, difficulties arise. Though I can see the AE in the Airport Utility pane, I have not been able to print to it.

One additional unfortunate feature of the setup was a dramatically reduced speed in my connection to the internet using the base station connected to my DSL.

In the past I have successfully used this same setup, albeit with a saucer-shaped graphite extreme and a different Xerox printer, though it took awhile to set it up initially with the software available back then. I don't recall an impaired connection to the internet with that setup though.

I'm not really interested in using the USB connection to the Phaser.

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Answer 3

Henry B.

Level 9

78,731 points

Feb 19, 2008 8:56 AM in response to Patrick Murphy

The "dramatically reduced speed" you observed is not surprising. When you set up the Airport Express as a remote base station in a WDS, the creation of the WDS reduces by half the effective data transmission rate of your entire wireless network.

I suggest you solve a couple of problems at the same time by using a wired-to-wireless adapter to connect this printer to your wireless network. These devices are also sometimes sold under the category of "wireless gaming adapters" since they are often used to connect devices like the XBox ethernet port to a wireless network. Use of such a device, rather than an Airport Express configured as a remote base station, will result in no loss of data transmission speeds on your wireless network.

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Answer 4

Feb 20, 2008 7:49 PM in response to Henry B.

That's a very interesting idea. I didn't know this device existed, and I'm going to give it a try.

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Answer 5

Feb 21, 2008 8:11 PM in response to Henry B.

Hello,

I purchased a Linksys Wireless-g Game Adapter. I've been able to connect to it attached to my Mac via ethernet and have used my browser to do some configuration, but now I'm at a loss as to what to do next.

The Linksys can be set up in either "ad hoc" or "infrastructure" mode, and I chose "ad hoc." Both the AE and the Linksys are on the same channel. The AE and the Linksys are using encryption.

But, what I want to do is of course use the linksys to transmit to the printer.

This is probably a silly question but I cannot figure out how to disconnect the Linkys from the ethernet connection to my mac, and plug it into the Xerox printer and print to it.

Any advice appreciated ...

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Answer 6

Henry B.

Level 9

78,731 points

Feb 21, 2008 8:45 PM in response to Patrick Murphy

You need to set up the "game adapter" for infrastructure mode - that is the mode required when you want the "game adapter" to establish a connection with an existing wireless network. When setting up infrastructure mode, you will also need to configure the device with the name of the wireless network it is supposed to join (ie the "name" of your Airport's network) as well as the same encryption type and wireless network password as you use on the Base Station.

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Answer 7

Feb 22, 2008 12:11 AM in response to Henry B.

OK...I did as you recommended, but my computer slowed down to a crawl. Airport crashed.

Using Airport Extreme 80211n is a bit of a challenge because it does not offer plain vanilla wep encryption. The choices are limited, and the closest one is something called "WEP transitional Security Network, and as far as I could figure out, entering a 13 character password to the "WEP (Transitional Security Network)" choice on the wireless security popup is the equivalent of 128 bit wep encryption. I think that's right.

So, on the Airport Extreme I have WEP Transitional - a 13 character password. On the Linksys I have 128 bit web encryption. I have the same password on the linksys and the airport. I have changed the linksys from ad hoc to infrastructure.

The linksys encryption page asks for four keys. I used the "Equivalent Network Password" from airport utility, copied that, and pasted it into the first key. Perhaps I should paste it into all four keys? The linksys also asks for a passphrase. I left that blank.

I have the linksys set for a static IP address. Should it be that or DHCP?

Message was edited by: Patrick Murphy

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Answer 8

Henry B.

Level 9

78,731 points

Feb 22, 2008 3:47 PM in response to Patrick Murphy

It is ok to just enter the WEP key into the first key entry. Since you are entering a WEP key, you can leave the "passphrase" field blank.

Setting the Linksys adapter for a static IP address is a good idea. Make sure it is outside the range used by the Base Station DHCP server - something like 10.0.1.251

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Answer 9

Feb 24, 2008 6:43 PM in response to Henry B.

Well, that was kinda fun. I managed to print "hi" on the Xerox printer connected to the Linksys game adapter. But I had to completely disable encryption on the Airport Extreme and on the game adapter for it to work at all. I'm pretty sure there's a setting somewhere that I am either ignoring or entering something incorrectly. Can't imagine what it would be, but as soon as I enter a password things get a little screwy. But my biggest concern is that the internet connection becomes noticeably slower with the addition of the adapter to the network, something I wasn't expecting or wanting. Any idea why that would be?

I think I could work out the wep problem eventually, but it wouldn't be worth it to me to do that unless the internet connection didn't take such a big hit.

Message was edited by: Patrick Murphy

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Answer 10

Henry B.

Level 9

78,731 points

Feb 24, 2008 6:55 PM in response to Patrick Murphy

Slowing of your internet connection not at all what I would expect either. I have to admit it isn't obvious to me why this should be happening.

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Answer 11

Feb 24, 2008 7:04 PM in response to Henry B.

OK ... well, with that news I think I'm going to pack up the game adapter and return it for a refund. No problem there as I made sure I could do that before I bought it. This has been kind of fun, actually, and I'm glad to have given it a try and appreciate your help. Adios ...

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