wireless printing using iMac airport card

[bigjnyc]

hey guys so a buddy of mine just converted and purchased a 21.5" iMac this weekend, he took advantage of that rebate offer on printers and picked up the black HP wi-fi printer. Anyhow he does not have an airport extreme or any type of wireless router since his iMac is right next to his modem, so he is using Ethernet.

So I tried setting up a wireless network using his internal airport card in his iMac and this worked out great i enabled internet sharing and printer sharing. For some reason when i try to connect his printer with his network it says that the network is not within reach even though the printer is right next to the iMac. Am I doing something wrong? is there something I'm missing? I know the wi-fi network is working properly because he is able to connect with his iphone and I was able to connect with my MBP.

 

[Hellhammer]

Why don't you just connect the printer with USB for example? I was setting up my printer yesterday and found out that it doesn't support OS X 10.6 and if I want to use it wirelessly, I have to connect it with USB first so that they will recognize themselves.

 

[SachaS]

What printer has he got bigjnyc?

I have the new iMac and a printer the floor above me. I didn't even need to insert the driver install CD. Just looked for wireless hardware, it picked up the printer and worked in five seconds flat.

Instead of trying to get it working on the wireless network why not try and get it working with the iMac itself? I.E. go into System Preferences, Printers and Fax, click the + tab on the bottom left hand side, and it'll locate the wireless printer?

 

[bigjnyc]

What printer has he got bigjnyc?

I have the new iMac and a printer the floor above me. I didn't even need to insert the driver install CD. Just looked for wireless hardware, it picked up the printer and worked in five seconds flat.

Instead of trying to get it working on the wireless network why not try and get it working with the iMac itself? I.E. go into System Preferences, Printers and Fax, click the + tab on the bottom left hand side, and it'll locate the wireless printer?

I didn't know you can do it that way, I thought you had to set up a wireless network before it will connect with your iMac. He has the HP C4780 basic all in one wireless printer.

 

[SachaS]

I have the HP C4500. It should work like I described, and you won't need to install the annoying HP software included with the install CD that clogs up the Dock whenever you print something. (And also takes about 20 minutes installing doing God knows what.)

Yeah I didn't know either, when I first bought the printer I installed it from the CD onto my Mac Book Pro and it took ages, had to plug in the USB cable, **** like that. Tried it out the way I described when I got the iMac and it worked in (literally I'm not exaggerating) 5 seconds flat.

Sacha

P.S once it's installed that way you have an option box to tick in the Printer and Fax preferences called 'Share this printer on the network', and a tab 'Sharing Preferences'. Which I imagine is designed for sharing it through the iMac with other computers.

 

[bigjnyc]

I have the HP C4500. It should work like I described, and you won't need to install the annoying HP software included with the install CD that clogs up the Dock whenever you print something. (And also takes about 20 minutes installing doing God knows what.)

Yeah I didn't know either, when I first bought the printer I installed it from the CD onto my Mac Book Pro and it took ages, had to plug in the USB cable, **** like that. Tried it out the way I described when I got the iMac and it worked in (literally I'm not exaggerating) 5 seconds flat.

Sacha

P.S once it's installed that way you have an option box to tick in the Printer and Fax preferences called 'Share this printer on the network', and a tab 'Sharing Preferences'. Which I imagine is designed for sharing it through the iMac with other computers.

Thanks alot. I'll try to stop by his house this evening and i'll try it this way. So should I remove all the HP software that was installed when I ran the setup CD or will that not interfere with this process?

 

[SachaS]

That's up to you. I personally would uninstall all the HP software because every time you print or scan something 3 or 4 icons pop up on the Dock. Without the software installed from the CD it works perfectly AND those annoying HP icons don't show up on the Dock.