Airport Express and Canon IPF8100 Printer

Question

Airport Express and Canon IPF8100 Printer

Hello,

I need some help/advice in setting up a printer with my airport express.

The printer is a Canon IPF8100 wideformat printer, it's connected to a new Airport Express box via USB.

What I need to do is beable to print wirelessly to this printer as putting in a ethernet jack or a long USB cable is not on option.

I can add the printer in my printer list, and the express does say that it can see the printer when I go through airport utility.

Some advice or guidance would be wonderful.

If it helps here is out setup. 1 Airport Express contected to the printer, 2TB Time capsule acting as the main wireless routers and 2 mac mini's running 10.6.2

Thanks!

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 22, 2010 4:11 PM

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Answer 1

Bob Timmons

Level 10

185,024 points

Jan 22, 2010 4:19 PM in response to Shaun_Ellithorpe

Follow the Apple Printer Troubleshooting Guide to see if that will get things going correctly.

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Answer 2

KEO611

Level 1

0 points

Feb 10, 2010 3:34 PM in response to Shaun_Ellithorpe

I'm also having this problem!

Why aren't there any instructions in the Airport Extreme manual that explain how to connect a printer via Ethernet (not USB)?

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Answer 3

KEO611

Level 1

0 points

Feb 10, 2010 3:37 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately the troubleshooting guide is only for those trying to connect a printer to the Airport via USB. Why is the Ethernet connection getting overlooked?

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Answer 4

KEO611

Level 1

0 points

Feb 10, 2010 4:40 PM in response to KEO611

Ok, well I solved it on my end for now.

I called Apple Support and they told me there aren't instructions anywhere for how to connect a printer to the Airport Extreme via Ethernet because they can can only assist you if you're connecting your printer to the Airport Express via USB. If you're using anything besides a USB (Ethernet in this case), they "can't help." From what I understand, it has something to do with them (Support) being able to detect what's going on with your setup if your Airport is connected via USB, and they can't "see anything" if the connection is via Ethernet cable. She said I'd have to take it up with the manufacturer of the printer...

But--what I did instead--is I connected the printer to the Airport Express via the Ethernet cable, I went to "Print & Fax", deleted the old queue for the printer, added a "new" printer, and there it was, under detected devices via Bonjour!

Why couldn't she have told me to delete the "old printer" and add a "new printer" via "Print & Fax"?

Anyway, in retrospect, it was a relatively easy problem to solve (given my computer and my printer, a Samsung ML-2851ND). But with all these wires and configurations (not to mention excitement and expectation) etc, etc, things can get confusing.

Hope this helps!

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