Sharing a Printer Connected to AirPort Extreme
October 4, 2007 | Filed Under Mac Switch | Leave a Comment
Sharing a USB printer plugged into my AirPort Extreme Base Station with both my MBP and the old Windows XP box was an absolute breeze on OSX, but not so on the Windows side of the fence.
After following instructions from the Airport Extreme mini-manual, OSX recognized the printer and was printing to it like the little champ that it is. The Windows box was a bit fussier. My HP Deskjet 5150 printer, a really basic little workhorse, has always worked well when connected directly to a USB port on Windows. The most current drivers are in place.
Once it was reconnected via Airport Express, Windows clearly *saw* the printer but refused to print any sort of document. Print jobs would just sit until one of those horrid info bubbles popped onto the screen to let me know the print job had failed.
Because I needed to print some documents which were on the Windows system last week when I first tried using the printer from the AEBS, I simply ignored the issue, plugged back into a Windows box USB port there and printed. No thought was given to sharing again until today. I decided to poke around and see if I could correct the problem.
Clues from this forum post on macosxhints.com solved my problem.
In my usual lazy fashion, rather than go back and make a new connection, I simply right clicked the name of the non-functioning AEBS connected printer in “Printers and Faxes” then clicked “Properties” in the contextual menu. I then clicked the “Ports” tab in the dialog box.
Once I was there, I noticed that, in the “Printer Name or IP” textbox, Windows had added the same name that it gave my port: IP_my-AEBS-name.local.9100
I left that as the port name, then changed “Printer Name or IP” to 10.0.1.1 . Windows had selected RAW from the two choices of RAW or LPR. I left it as it was for my first test.
Clicked “Okay” and tested the printer. Voile! That was all I needed to do. It appears that I must have let Windows automatically detect. My mistake was thinking it could do that properly just because OSX did. Becoming really tired of having to track down little tweaks like that constantly is one of the reasons I wanted to give OSX a try. (I had had people who know me well enough to realize I will beat them with some hard and heavy piece of misbehaving equipment swear to me that sort of function “just works” on a Mac. I haven’t had to beat one of them, yet.)
Even being a total MacRookie and not having had time to really dig into playing with my new MBP in the last few weeks, I am already finding that little things like that I have tried just work better and more consistently for me in OSX than they ever did in Windows. Here’s hoping I find more pleasant surprises in that direction when I stop flipping between the two systems and have everything transferred and set to suit me on the MBP.
*The* D.O.
Where to buy AppleCare
September 22, 2007 | Filed Under Mac Switch | 2 Comments
I know at least one of my partners in crime is considering purchasing AppleCare for her MBP. For her and for others who might be consideriing buying AppleCare, be sure to check the price at LA Computer Company.
Not only did they have the best price going when I was checking, their customer service and delivery time was excellent. I would happily purchase products from them again.
In case you are wondering, yes, this is a sealed retail box from Apple and registration came off without a hitch.
*The* D.O.
Airport Extreme Base Station: Success!!
September 15, 2007 | Filed Under Mac Switch | 3 Comments
Several of my buddies have heard me whining and moaning that nothing, but nothing was helping to force my new base station to talk to my ISP. The signal registered as strong between the base station and the MBP, but I had no connection to the internet.
When I decided to stop whining and reading this support document and that forum and everything else in between, I just started slamming and pounding. Plug/Unplug/Plug again. Do a hard restart on the base station with a good old bent paper clip a couple of times. Disconnect and reconnect DSL modem a few times. Reboot MBP a couple of times. Try following the same instructions and steps on Airport utility, again.
Cuss a bit but keep going.
Don’t ask me which slam kick started the connection, but one of them did.
Proof once again that sometimes duct tape, paper clips, Elmer’s glue and a hammer for threatening these electronic critters can be a girl’s best friend.
*The* D.O.
MBP: Done Deal!
September 10, 2007 | Filed Under Mac Switch | 4 Comments
For all of you out there who thought I’d never hop out the window and over the fence, here’s a picture worth a thousand words.
