Mac guys: How can I print over wireless to new HP printer?

[LeeH]

I just bought a new HP 5610xi printer. Hooked it up to my Dell running windows XP with no problems. Now we need to get it to print from my wife's G4 iBook over our Linksys 802.11b wireless router. We had the old (worthless, disposable, etc) Epson printer working fine but can't get the iBook to see the new printer.

The printer is set up for sharing through windows. We hooked the iBook up directly to the printer so the drivers would load using the Mac disc that came with the printer. It printed fine while hard wired. Any suggestions?

[slodave]

Originally posted by LeeH

The printer is set up for sharing through windows. We hooked the iBook up directly to the printer so the drivers would load using the Mac disc that came with the printer. It printed fine while hard wired. Any suggestions?

Even though I don't know Mac... You mention hooking the Mac directly to the printer. You need to be able to connect to it as a network printer. The drivers may have been loaded, but my guess is that the Mac is trying to print to a printer that it thinks is directly connected to it, not networked. Are there any options on the Mac install that deals with networked printers?

Dave

[jyl]

I have no personal experience doing what you describe, but searched on Apple Support and found these threads

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1631762&#1631762

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1321758&#1321758

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1128393&#1128393

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1632625&#1632625

which pointed me to this site

http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/hpijs/

Searching "hpijs" on Apple support also turned up some stuff.

In the past, I've found printers to be the most frustrating peripherals to deal with, on my Macs. The printer companies introduce new models monthly, it seems, the drivers aren't always up to date, sometimes special features like 4x6 photo paper trays don't work, and so on. Good luck.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Lee,

We've got DSL and a Belkin Pre-N wireless router with both Macs and PC's connected. Also have an HP 1320 laser printer with a Belkin Wireless Print Server attach. The PCs connected fine, but the Macs required a little finagling with an assigned IP address using a third party app called gimp print.

I've got the original dmg file I can send you, but a quick google of gimp print yielded the below.

Hope this helps.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15970

http://members.cox.net/18james/osx_printer_sharing.html

[LeeH]

Thanks for the help. Later last night I noticed that the print jobs my wife had try to send to the HP printer were qued for printing, but they were shown as "raw data." We'll work on this throughout the day. Anyone else with suggestions please chime in.

[jyl]

OS X includes the Gimp drivers, but possibly not the latest ones. The Gimp drivers may or may not support networked printing to the OfficeJet 56XX series of printers. Try anything that sounds similar - anything with a 5XXX number. If that doesn't work, try the hpijs drivers.

[LeeH]

There's nothing even close to Officejet 5600 on the printer list on her iBook. She's using OS X 10.3.9. We know enough about this stuff to be truly dangerous so pardon the questions...

Is a Gimp driver different than the OS X driver for this machine that's available from HP?

If we find and download the HPIJS driver to the iBook how do we set up the iBook to see and use it?

[jyl]

OK, I know not much and wish nostatic or someone like that would chime in -

but -

The problem is probably that HP's OS X drivers for this printer do not support networked printing.

Gimp is a set of open source printer drivers that Apple includes with OS X. It does, or can, support networked printing in cases when the printer manufacturer hasn't bothered to do it.

Gimp drivers are included with OS X but possibly not the very latest. Find the Gimp website, get the latest drivers, and try them.

"Try them" means when you set up the printer in Print Utility, select the Gimp driver for that printer or some other HP printer that seems sort of close. Another OfficeJet, say.

hpijs is another set of open source printer drivers, that was initially released by HP. It does, or can, also support networked printing. If Gimp doesn't work, get these and read the release and install notes carefully. I think there may be a couple different things you need to install.

Honestly, I find dealing with printers in Mac OS X rather frustrating. There are all these setting choices and I don't understand any of them, so I just try them all. If I understood what was going on, I'm sure it would all be clear.

Where is nostatic anyway?

If you don't get a better answer, go to the Apple Support site and search in, or ask in, the discussion forums. The brief search I did suggested that people have dealt with, and succeeded with, this issue before.

[LeeH]

Thanks John. The strange this in that we had our Epson set up and working fine. If my wife hit print on the iBook the job went straight to the printer just like it was hard wired. I guess we sort of expected the same results out of the HP.

[Moses]

I have my HP printer connected to an Airport Express unit. That connects wirelessly to my 802.11 network. No problems.

[jyl]

Originally posted by LeeH
Thanks John. The strange this in that we had our Epson set up and working fine. If my wife hit print on the iBook the job went straight to the printer just like it was hard wired. I guess we sort of expected the same results out of the HP.

I replaced my HP Photosmart printer with an Epson RX620 all-in-one. I always had trouble getting that HP to work well with the iBook, and browsing Apple Support forums showed many other people had issues too. But I wasn't seeing near as many complaints about the Epson.

I hope you can get it to work. I'm sure it is doable, but you may have to get deep into the intricacies of printer drivers, protocols and settings. The complexity of the whole thing is disappointing, very un-Mac-like.

[jyl]

Originally posted by Moses
I have my HP printer connected to an Airport Express unit. That connects wirelessly to my 802.11 network. No problems.

Moses, you mean your printer is connected to the USB port of the little Airport Express device? Do you have an Airport Extreme at the center of your 802.11 network? Can you tell me more about the settings, etc?

[Moses]

Originally posted by jyl
Moses, you mean your printer is connected to the USB port of the little Airport Express device? Do you have an Airport Extreme at the center of your 802.11 network? Can you tell me more about the settings, etc?

Downstairs I have a HP printer hidden behind a counter. We have 2 wirless laptops that use that printer. The printer is connected (USB) to the Airport Express which communicates with the Airport Extreme upstairs. I'm pretty sure the Airport Express will connect to any 802.11 network, but check to be sure.

With your situation, I'd go online with the G4 and download the latest HP driver for your machine. Then it should be a simple matter of selecting the new printer. Use MacHelp (it's on the G4) to see how to add a printer.

[LeeH]

Originally posted by Moses
With your situation, I'd go online with the G4 and download the latest HP driver for your machine. Then it should be a simple matter of selecting the new printer. Use MacHelp (it's on the G4) to see how to add a printer.

We've done that, but our printer still doesn't come up on the list of choices. Is MacHelp different than the regular help menu?

[Moses]

How, exactly is the printer connected to the wireless network?
Is the G4 accessing the internet wirelessly?

[LeeH]

The G4 is conecting to the net via the wireless router with no problems. The printer is hooked up to the PC, but is set up for sharing. Like I said, we had our Epson configured this way and it worked fine.

[Moses]

Originally posted by LeeH
The G4 is conecting to the net via the wireless router with no problems. The printer is hooked up to the PC, but is set up for sharing. Like I said, we had our Epson configured this way and it worked fine.

If it's not a wireless printer, you need to connect the printer to your wireless network at a USB hub. It sounds like your printer is not even part of the wireless network.

[Moses]

Sounds like you need one of these;
It doesn't sound like your printer is connected to your wireless network.



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