My printer/scanner is running out of ink, so I reckon it’s about time to get a new one. The big complaint I’ve had with this HP Photosmart C4150 is that it doesn’t work with the Airport wireless router. I have to get up and connect my PowerBook G4 with a USB cord.
What are some printer/scanners that will work wirelessly with my Airport?
I’m pretty sure the C4150 works with Airport.
It doesn’t. But I do see there is a link to a list of compatible printers in this thread.
I have the Epson WorkForce 635. It’s fast, has fax ability, individually replaceable color ink tanks, and the software is lightweight. It has built-in networking too. It’s Epson’s higher-end business AiO, but there are less expensive models with reduced feature sets available.
I should note that there is a difference between a printer that has a built-in print server and a printer that can be shared with your Airport Express’ print server. Nowadays you shouldn’t bother with using your Airport’s print server. Modern networkable all in ones have their own print server and connect to the network wirelessly as would any other wireless device to support network printing and scanning.
So the computer just connects to them the same way it connects to the router? How does that work? Wouldn’t I have two connections at once?
I’ve looked at a couple of wireless printers after posting this thread. Seems some people have connections issues.
The printer just joins your existing network, wirelessly.
I’m wondering if you’re misunderstanding how WiFi works. It sounds like you think it’s a point-to-point connection, that only two devices at a time can communicate with each other, and that you’d have to disconnect from your existing network to connect to the printer. That’s not true at all. The printer connects to your existing wireless network. It is not an access point. It connects to your existing wireless network just like your laptop or any other wireless client. The laptop and any other computer you might use communicate with the printer using TCP/IP just like any other network device
As for regards to the possibility for issues, that’s true of any computing device.
No, I just wasn’t clear how ‘wireless printers’ work. It sounded like the printer had its own server and that one connects to that, rather than the printer connecting to the existing network. Since I never use my printer, I had no idea that wireless ones existed. I assumed they connected to the router via USB, and that you’d get to it through there.
You do connect to the server. But you connect over your existing wi-fi connection, just like you connect to the SDMB server over the Internet.
It sounds like you aren’t unfamiliar with the concept, but with the terminology. A device you connect directly to would be called a hotspot or access point, not a server. (Now that access point will often then connect to a server, but that’s talk for later.)
I remember when we set up our network, we couldn’t let the all-in-one printer join wirelessly, because all it would do was print. If we wanted to scan something, it had to be connected to a computer, because the wireless protocol didn’t support anything except printing. So we ended up hooking it to our desktop Mac.
Is that still the case? Or does the current wireless protocol allow you to control all the functions of an all-in-one wirelessly?
I’ve set up a number of HP WiFi printer/scanners that let you do everything wirelessly.