Airport Extreme and Canon Pixma MP610

i have same problem but with the Canon Pixma MP600R
huge waste of time... and I think I understand something
about networks - no installation has ever taken
me this long... and yes, I read all the manuals!

hope someone can help us

There's certainly something very odd happening with these printers. Mine is a Pixma MP800R, with an old-style Airport Extreme. It's been connected via wireless LAN to my MBP and iMac, and directly via USB to the eMac: the initial set up was easy and I had no problems. But a couple of weeks ago, after I put in a new printhead, the LAN connections died. I reopened the link to the iMac immediately, but no matter what I do the MBP refuses to connect. The Scan utility can see the printer, but its address is dimmed and there's an exclamation mark in the dialog box where there should be a checkmark. The Print utility can't see it at all. Yet I can "ping" the printer from the computer so the connection is alive. Canon support could only offer the advice to download a new set of software and reinstall - I'd already done that and doing it again had no effect.

My only solution is to share the printer from the eMac: the MBP sees that with no trouble.

If anyone has an answer to this I'd love to hear from them.

hey guys,

i had similar struggles, but now have:
PBg4 (tiger) and a macbook air (leopard) printing wirelessly (bonjour USB connection through a NEW airport extreme "n" model) on a Canon iP3500 printer.

1. downloaded latest drivers at "http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndex1Act&fcategory id=103"

for leopard, I downloaded the latest driver from the canon website. I chose the CUPS version (what this means, i don't know - they just said it was better for "air mac" printing, which is the Japanese version of "airport," i think)

for tiger, i used the latest regular driver (non-CUPS!).

2. connected printer to airport extreme via USB, turned it on

3. i installed as indicated on my respective hard drives.

4. opened prefs > print & fax

5. erased previous print queues (highlighted my printer in the selection box on the left, clicked ➖. I had to do this because of multiple failed install attempts in the past.)

6. clicked ➕ to add a new printer

7. "printer setup utility" opened, showed Canon iP3500 available via a bonjour connection

8. highlighted, added it

9. the default driver was "Canon iP3500." THIS WAS THE PROBLEM IN LEOPARD (tiger worked fine). i switched via the drop down selection to "Canon IJ" driver, which was the only other option.
this solved the problem.

Hope this helps. I know lots of people have had difficulty with Leopard and airport printing.
Just to illustrate the magnitude of everyone's frustrations, check out this link:

http://www.ifelix.net/tech/1013.html

Hope this helps someone out there.

good luck!

for some reason there were some graphics inserted in my reply above, and they don't display properly on my computer. the first was supposed to be a "minus" sign (to delete the old printer queues), the second was supposed to be a "plus" sign to add a new printer.

of note, i have an iMac g5 (tiger) printing wirelessly on a Canon Pixma mp970 through an old (chocolate-chip-shaped) airport extreme, but i needed to use an ethernet cable (wouldn't work thru USB) and set it up as a network printer. both scans and prints wirelessly like a charm, but it took me about 4h to figure out the setup.

i've been an apple devotee since my apple ][+, and look back fondly on the days when my apple stuff "just worked."

sigh...

i just noticed you're using a direct wireless connection to the printer...
my above answers all pertain to using a usb or ethernet cable connection to a base station.

iFelix lists the 600r as compatible with your type of wireless setup, though.

they note that the wireless protocol (b/g/mixed?) may make a difference.

hope all works out!

Thanks snowmaster.

I was struggling to get my Canon Pixma MP610 to connect to my new Airport Express (i thought it was going to be easy!). I followed your instructions (more or less) and it worked beautifully.

With the printer connected to the Airport via its USB cable and airport showing its happy green light, I opened Airport Utility and clicked on the printer tab at the top. The pane did show my printer listed (but it sure wouldn't print) and made sure both the tick boxes below for share printers over the Ethernet and WAN, and advertise globally using bonjour ticked. I then went to System Preferences and opened Printers. I clicked the + to add a new printer and a new pane opened that listed my Canon printer and its kind as Bonjour. It automatically searched for new drivers (I am not sure if it found any) and hey presto!

Everything worked. Printed beautifully.

Thanks for your help (and to hillslug99)

Wow! I spent several hours trying to fix the same issue, even with Canon Support trying ti fix it. My Canon Pixma MP610 worked, except that I have it connected to a Time Capsule. When I first installed the printer it worked great, then I had to scan a document, so I unplugged the USB from the Time Capsule and plug it directly my Macbook Pro. When I plugged it back to the Time Capsule, it just stopped printing I got a message "No pages found!

After reading this thread I just deleted the printer from the Printer list, added the printer again, but know I chose the Canon IJ Driver instead of the canon MP610 series driver. Now it works!! Though it's weird that it worked before with the original driver.

Thanks to everyone!

Thank you to everyone on this thread! I was having the "no page found!" message on my PIXMA MX700 printer. I set it up when I first got my new MacBook Pro (it took a little while) and then after a few weeks it went bonkers.

I took the advice above of using the Canon IJ Driver as well as going to Airport Utility, clicking on the Printer at the top area and selecting the "Share printers over Ethernet WAN port" I didn't advertise the printer globally using Bonjour.

Not sure which click of the button made the difference but it's working so THANKS!

~T

I'm having some trouble with my Pixma MP610.
I've followed snowmonster's instructions but i'm still getting this error:

"+Error Number : 306 A communication error has occurred. Make sure that the printer is plugged in, powered-on, and properly connected to your computer. Then try printing again.+"

Sometimes I will get this error when printing does actually work but then it causes the printer to stop his printing job directly. But 90% of the time this error shows up immediately.

I've also tried to print via an Windows XP machine but then i'm getting a "+printer not responding+" error.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Message was edited by: Goisje

I am having the same problem with my MP610... I have connected the printer to the usb port on the AirPort Express and have tried installing various drivers to try and fix the issue but have had no success so far.

My Airport Express is setup correctly (green light) and is found in AirPort Utility... additionally, when I go to System Preferences -> Print & Fax, the printer is there and found wirelessly... yet whenever I try to print I receive a "error number : 306..." in my print queue... also, depending on which driver I use, I receive a "Unable to send 1 bytes of print data! (USB write error)" error message on top of the "error number : 306"... sometimes I also manage to avoid any error messages where the status shows it is 'Printing' but there is nothing being printed...

Now, obviously this is a wireless issue, as the printer works when connected via usb directly to my MacBook Pro...

I contacted Canon Support, and was told that I would not be able to print via any AirPort connection as the printer itself is a "Host Based Printer" and was not designed to support networking and that my only other alternative/option to wireless printing would be to purchase a "USB printer server" that supports IP Address forwarding... (on a side note: does the AirPort Express not support this?)

The whole reason why I purchased AirPort Express was so I could print wirelessly from a regular printer by connecting it to its usb port... and looking at the Airport support page on Apple's website, it clearly doesn't mention anywhere that the printer needs to be network capable or that there would be any compatibility issues with regular printers... After-all, it revolves around the idea that all you need to do is connect the printer to the AirPort via USB and that it will take care of the rest when setup correctly...

So ultimately my question is, has anyone had any success in setting up a wireless connection with their 'Host Based Printer'/ordinary usb printer...? if so, how?!! please describe in detail :P lol

Also is that doesn't work, is there any way I can use the AirPort Express to wirelessly print using an IP Address without having to buy a 'USB print server'?

Sorry about the very long description... any help would be really appreciated!