use wifi printer with os mountain lion without usb connection

as long as drivers for OSX exists and the Mac and the Printer are on the same wireless network, so they can "see" each other, there should be no problem. Airplay-compatible is only important regarding iOS, while OSX is far more tolerant when it comes to printers.

You might want to ask the vendor of your printer(s). Apple does only maintain printer drivers to make sure they are compatible with the current OSX release. Of course you can also use the vendors driver, but make double sure they are compatible with OSX , so that you don't end up having printer software for 10.5/10.6/7 installed on a Mac running 10.8 , because there could arise problems as Apple has switched the kernel extensions to be completely 64bit while formerly these were 32/64 fat binaries.

You may have tried all this, but this what works for me with my Brother DCP-585CW on my router connected network.

I only have the Brother software from Apple's support site installed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=answerlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.apple .com%2Fkb%2FDL894&answerid=16777219&src=support_site.downloads.search

Make sure that MAC Address Filtering is not enabled on the router as this will prevent connections, and that you have your wifi password.

On the printer's control panel press the Menu button and then navigate your way to the 'Network' option and select WLAN. Choose the Setup Wizard and the printer should find your network. Select it and the encryption method the router uses for wifi and then input your wifi password using the up & down/left & right arrows on the printer. OK it when you've added the password and hopefully after a few moments it will connect to the network.

Alternatively, there is another easier way of connecting if the printer and the router both allow WPS Pairing. You'll need to login to the router's wifi settings which should have blank box for inputting an 8-digit code. On the printer go through procedure described above up to and including WLAN. At the next screen, if WPS is an option select it and the printer should present an 8-digit code. Input that into the WPS Pairing box on the router's wifi configuration page, save it and hopefully you're done.

Then go to the Print & Scan preference to add the printer.

The printer has to connect to your wireless internet router first. Just because it says it is wireless does not mean you can print directly from the computer to the printer over the wireless system. Both the printer and the computer have to go through the internet router you have. And it doesn't matter whether the printer and computer are connected to the router by a ethernet cable or by a wireless signal.

I have no knowledge of the air print system.

So the first thing you need to do is connect the printer to your internet router and have it obtain a ip address from the router.

Then your computer, pad and other devices can then connect to the printer.

Certainly is strange that all wifi printers are failing. I have had printers that needed to be connected via USB whilst configuring for wifi (Lexmark springs to mind) but they retained the connection once the cable was pulled - as you would hope.

Everything on your network does connect through a router, I assume? I'm not sure I can add anything else as it sounds like you've tried everything to make it work.

FWIW, I'm running 10.8.3 and it's all behaving as it should. I see you're also on 10.8.3, when you upgraded from 10.8.2 (I assume you did), did you do it via the Software Update menu? If so, sometimes re-installing the update using the combo, which incorporates all revisions since 10.8.0 can iron out strange issues. Software Update only includes the changes from the previous point release and sometimes things break:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1640

Reading some of the articles about air print that system is not for printing directly to a printer. From the apple article "Air print basics" it states that the printer must be connected to the same home/business (I added business as the networking of both are the same) LAN (that is local area network. Your home network).

The air print feature is just a driver LESS (No speicfic or special drivers needed) system. It does not allow you to print directly to the printer. The printer must first be connected to the same network all other devices are connect to. Your home internet router.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4356

Maybe these will help.

HP – Printer Not Found During Wireless Installation

Network Printer Troubleshooting

I wasn't suggesting you were or are incompetent. But some people read this air print stuff and think it is for printing directly to a printer without having to connect both the printer and the computer/pad/whatever to a LAN.

Just trying to make that clear.

hernibs63 wrote:

Thanks for that. I did connect the printer to the router first. I do have an understanding of how networks work and am not incompetent.

hernibs63 wrote:

Thanks for that. I did connect the printer to the router first. I do have an understanding of how networks work and am not incompetent.

Good, add the printer via its ip address.

hernibs63 wrote:

I have unplugged printer, removed usb cable and restarted router. Connected printer using tcp/ip settings rather than network wizard and input ip settings, gateway and subnet details manually. I seem to have an wireless connection of sorts. However, now I am unable to print any page without authorising the computer to allow it first....

If anyone has any thoughts, that would gratefully received. Thanks and thank you to those who have replied so far.

Read the printer's manual. Typically you connect the printer to your wifi network from the printer's LCD display. Then you add the printer to your computer using system preferences. There is no need for any USB connections to anything.