MP560 wifi connect to Macbook Pro

Hello and welcome to Apple Discussions.

The Canon wireless printers support infrastructure mode. This mode often consists of a wireless access point, such as an Airport Extreme. Connecting directly to your Mac is known as ad-hoc and the Canon wireless printers do not support this mode, as you have found.

However, if you were to enable Internet Sharing on your Mac, this effectively turns the Mac into a wireless access point thus allowing the wireless printer to connect directly to it. Note that when you do enable Internet Sharing, and you are using either an Ethernet connection or USB wireless device, you will want to configure the share with a password so that other computers cannot use your Internet. Also, if you are not connecting the MBP to the Internet at this site, you can still enable Internet Sharing on the MBP so that the MP560 can connect to it. Simply select the Ethernet port even if it is not being used as the port that is supposedly connecting the Mac to the Internet.

Have a look at this article for more information on OS X 10.6 Internet Sharing.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8156.html

Pahu

I had a very similar problem - the Canon IJ network tool was unable to detect my printer, even though I was able to see the printer's mac address when viewing my WAP Client list on the network.

Called Canon US tech support and was a simple "backdoor" fix, that took less than 5 minutes.

Here are the actions that allowed it to connect via the network;
- select the scanner icon in the top tile bar and activate the MP560 scanner
- then go to system preferences, print&fax, and add a printer, wait 5-10 seconds for the MP560/ canonijnetwork to show in the list, then select it (Note: do not select the MP560/Bonjour Scanner)

After those two steps all appears to be working well, and am able to use the printer to print from VMware fusion. And do not have to use my MBP as an WAP.

I did search online for 2 days this past weekend to find a solution, and do not know why Canon didn't have something as simple as this on their web site or in their FAQ/knowledge base. Thus the reason for posting here.

Hello Reed4,

What you have written is the standard procedure for adding the networked Canon printer. Had you found this web site with your searches you could have saved your weekend as I have covered this procedure numerous times for adding the networked Canon printer. And it is certainly not a 'backdoor' fix - the online manual explains these steps.

The issue for the OP is that judging by their post they don't have a WAP and therefore the printer will have a problem connecting directly to the Mac.

Pahu

Hello Pahu,

Well this may have been a documented procedure in the past, but is not readily available today, thus my post.

FYI - I just purchased my MBP & printer a week back, and this is not contained within any printed documentation I received with the printer, nor available at the Canon USA web site. When I searched Apple Discussions for MP560 and network connections, this was the only thread appearing that was anywhere remotely close to my situation. Maybe my search parameters could have been different and/or more inclusive.

During my discussion with Canon Tech Support, they did say that this was an issue using the Canon IJ Network Tool detecting the printer. They did not expand on why, but did imply that using the IJ Net Tool is what they promote on both printed and web documentation.

I agree that the OP's situation is different, and that he/she and others will find it very useful, including myself.

In future Apple Discussion searches, I will be sure to include your user name.

Reed4