Problem with Printer Attached to Airport Extreme

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Level 2

188 points

Problem with Printer Attached to Airport Extreme

My Airport Extreme has two computers and a printer attached to it. When I initiaally set up my home network, I attached the printer to one of the ethernet ports on the Airport Extreme. Every few days or so, printing from one of the computers stops working. Only one of the two computers is affected. When I look at the printer queue, I see the job that won’t print and an error message that says “A communication error has occurred”. If I restart the Airport Extreme, printing resumes normally - until the problem occurs again a few days later. I now have the printer connected to the USB port on the Airport Extreme and have not encountered any problems (after one day of operation). I would rather have the printer connected to an ethernet port. Any assistance in solving this problem would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz (OS 10.6.6), MacBook Pro 2.2GHz (OS 10.6.6), iPhone 4

Posted on Feb 19, 2011 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

148,507 points

Feb 19, 2011 3:18 PM in response to ldamario

When connected by USB to the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS), the AEBS is sharing out the printer using its built-in print server function. On the other hand, when the printer is attached, it would be using it own internal printer-server to be accessible for network clients.

When connected by Ethernet, do you assign the printer a static Private IP address. If you don't, you should. It is possible if the printer has a dynamic address; when this address changes periodically, that is when it introduces the problem that you are seeing.

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Answer 2

ldamario Author

Level 2

188 points

Feb 19, 2011 4:08 PM in response to Tesserax

How would I go about assigning a static IP address to the printer?

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

148,507 points

Feb 19, 2011 4:45 PM in response to ldamario

The easiest way would be if you have an 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn) ... as this model allows you to provide reserved DHCP addresses. Is your an "n" model?

If not, then you would have to use the printer's administration interface to assign it a static IP address, SubNet Mask, & router IP address manually. The IP address should be one in the same subnet range as provided by the Extreme, but just outside of it DHCP range.

By default, the Extreme will provide IP addresses in the 10.0.1.2 - 10.0.1.200 range. You could then configure the printer to use 10.1.201.

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Answer 4

ldamario Author

Level 2

188 points

Feb 19, 2011 5:26 PM in response to Tesserax

I believe I do have an 802.11n version, based on what the setup guide says. Is there another way to confirm this? The current IP address of the printer is 10.0.1.4. How do I assign a static IP address?

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Answer 5

Feb 19, 2011 5:37 PM in response to ldamario

If you have the AirPort Extreme 802.11n, follow the instructions in this post except substitute the word "printer" for "receiver".

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2745693&tstart=0

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Answer 6

ldamario Author

Level 2

188 points

Feb 19, 2011 7:21 PM in response to Bob Timmons

I was able to set up the static IP address for the printer. I now have to use the printer for a while with this configuration to see if the recurring "communication error" problem has been eliminated. This may take up to a week. Thanks for your help.

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Answer 7

ldamario Author

Level 2

188 points

Mar 5, 2011 9:13 AM in response to Tesserax

I have completed a two-week test of using the printer with a static IP address. This did not solve the problem. I still get the communications error I mentioned in an earlier post. I still have the option of connecting the printer to the USB port for printing, but I would have to keep it connected to the ethernet port to be able to use the scan function. (My printer is an all-in-one.) Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Message was edited by: ldamario

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