AirPrint/HP ePrint Requirements Clarification regarding Network

Has she updated the firmware on this printer yet?

Is the iPad on a wireless network?

The iPad and the printer communicate via wi-fi and assume a wi-fi router is present. If there isn't a wireless router then printing can still be made to work, it's just a little off the beaten path.

As for HP not having AirPrint support, the most helpful AirPrint person on these discussion boards seems to be an HP representative.

I'm not sure about her particular model number. But I have a b210 with ePrint support, and it works perfectly. I don't have it hooked up to any computers. It is only connected to my network, via WiFi. My iPad and iPhones with 4.2 see the printer just fine - provided that it isn't in sleep mode. That may be something to check in the printer's settings. If it is set to sleep after 5 minutes, the iPad may not be able to see it. Mine works great, and I'm able to print web pages, documents, emails and photos to it wirelessly from all of my iOS devices.

Without a wifi network you need to have the C310 create one.

On the C310's touchscreen hit the wifi icon near the top left of the screen. Then hit 'settings'. Turn on the wireless connection. (If it is already on, then go to the bottom of the menu and set the printer back to factory defaults and then turn the wireless connection on.)

On the iPad go to Settings->Wi-Fi. You should see a network listed with a name similar to "HPC310a.xxx" Select that network.

Now you should be able to print from Mail, Safari, and Photos as well as the 50+ other AirPrint apps in the iTunes store.

Tim,

So long and short of it is there will be some additional changes needed. What you can do, is bring the iPad and Printer to your house, make sure they are both updated to the latest version (the Printer may actually need an update before it supports AirPrint, and depending on the firmware version probably should have an update anyway). Once both items are updated you are halfway there. You will also need to get your friend a wireless router (you should be able to find one fairly cheep). You'll need to setup the new wireless router and add both the Printer and iPad to it. Then you can take everything back to her house, and set it up again. Your friend will have to switch from 3G to wireless when she wants to print, and back to 3G to use the Internet.

The longer answer is that the Printer requires an Internet connection of its own for ePrint or the firmware updates to work. Without an Internet connection, any of the online services in the Printer, including ePrint can not function. And unfortunately you can't share the Internet connection from your iPad to your Printer.

As for AirPrint, both the iPad and the Printer have to be visible on the same network. When the iPad is connected to 3G, it is not connected to a local network and hence is not visible to the printer. Neither the iPad nor the Printer is capable of creating a Wireless network on their own, and hence the reason a Wireless router is also needed.

I understand what setup you are trying to achieve, and unfortunately its not an easy problem to solve today without a little effort.

If you have any additional questions please feel free to post them back and I'll see what I can do.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

rbii,

You're right, I think the C310 does still have Ad Hoc networking (I don't have one at home to try, but I'll try when I'm back in the office on Wednesday). However the problem is in the event of the iPad joining an Ad Hoc network, you will still have to disable 3G. This is due to the fact that the Ad Hoc network has no gateway associated with it. While you'll find the Printer in the printer browser from the iPad (because Bonjour still works), the iPad will prefer to route all of its IP traffic over 3G network since that is the only connection with Internet connectivity. So while that setup works, and the user may find the Printer, without the extra step of turning off the 3G network, you won't actually be able to print.

As long as their is a router providing a DHCP address and a gateway that the iPad can talk to, even if there is no Internet connectivity to the router, once you join the Wireless network the iPad will attempt to route over the Wireless network first, so you will not have to turn off 3G, simply turn on and off wireless.

Note this problem only exists for iOS devices with an active 3G network.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

Andrew,

First and most importantly thank you for all of the help you offer on these discussion boards. We very much appreciate all of the time you spend here.

I do have a C310 and I gave it a try in ad hoc made while I had a 3G signal and I was able to print successfully. Your description sounds correct and perhaps there is something peculiar about my setup but I was able to get printed output while connected to the printer's ad-hoc network.

rbii,

More likely my system then yours. Remember I am usually working with unreleased printers and features that I can't talk about yet, so I don't always have the right information for older (as in whats being sold now) printers. As I said, I will give it a try when I'm back in the office next week, but I believe your setup is correct, and works without issue. And I will make sure I make note of this setup for future reference.

Thanks for your help.

Andrew

Tim,

Yes if the radio had been working, you should have seen that SSID in the iPad's network preferences.

Just trying to help.

Andrew

Tim,

There have actually been a couple of updates during production of this unit, and one firmware update that is available when you check for product updates (if your device is old enough), however, none of them are needed to enable AirPrint, the C310 came with AirPrint support out of the box. That's probably the reason support told you there were no updates.

Andrew