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Hope this isn't off topic, printing related....

SheerLuckHolmes

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We bought an Epson wf 520 wifi ready printer. I wanted to print from my roomates Dell laptop, my iMac and my iPad.

Printer prints fine through USB cable, but my Cisco router will not find the printer to allow it into the home wifi. Got Cisco assistance online, they say its an Epson problem. Emailed Epson and they say to just follow the instructions on the install CD and when you get to downloading the drivers, do that and all will be solved. When I get to that point there are no drivers offered to be downloaded. NONE! I mail that to them and they get giving me the same answer and will not respond or acknowledge that there are no drivers offered.

I'm stumped. Any suggestions? Can't take it back because my roomate has been printing like crazy through the USB has used up most of the ink and loves the printer. Since it is working fine attached to their laptop, doesn't care about the wifi.

Damn roomate, can't shoot 'em, would leave too much of a mess.
 

Tim SPRACKLEN

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OK - I commiserate with you and your feelings about room mates!!

As you probably know, Apple have their own proprietary printing protocol called 'AirPrint'. Only a few printers support it at present - HP is one of those that do and you can see the list at the Apple web site

Apple - iPad - Print right from your iPad with AirPrint.

If you had a printer that was there, then you could print directly under iOS 4.2 and 4.3 from apps that support in-app printing, such as Apple's iPad iWorks suite ('Pages', 'Numbers' and 'Keynote'). Not all apps support in-app printing, so you need to check out whether the app you're interested in does. For example, Apple's native iPad 'Calendar' app does not support in-app printing.

If your printer is not on the list then there are third-party apps that can help. Some printer manufacturers have released apps for PCs with their printers connected (i.e. Lexmark). On these models, an app on your PC or Mac 'pretends' to be an AirPrint printer and the app translates the AirPrint printing protocol into a form that the printer understands.

However, there are standalone apps for the iPad and 'Print N Share' is one of the best known. It can print directly from the iPad to a WiFi printer without any PC being involved. It does this by cleverly inserting itself into the printing menu of apps that support in-app printing and 'pretends' to be an AirPrint printer. It then, similar to the previous case, translates the AirPrint printing protocol to a form that your printer understands.

Most all WiFi equipped printers are supported by 'Print N Share' but even those few that are not are able to print via a PC using, again, a small (free) app that's available from the developers of 'Print N Share'. Once again, this app sits on your PC or Mac and links your iPad to the printer via your PC - meaning, too, that the printer can be WiFi, USB or even Bluetooth. The downside is that the PC has to be switched on.

One 'issue' that sometimes confounds users of 'Print N Share' is that this only works under iOS 4.2 or 4.3 - the iPad's 'multi-tasking' operating system (OS). 'Print N Share' needs to be loaded and running before you can print!! So, if you're going to be doing some printing, you need to first of all fire up 'Print N Share' and leave it running in the background. You can check whether it is running by double tapping the iPad's 'Home' button, to see the tasks that are 'loaded' in the 'Multi-task' menu bar. For various reasons, it's helpful if 'Print N Share' was loaded quite recently. If you haven't printed for a while, use the multi-task bar to 're-activate' it.

Hope this helps, but don't hesitate to post any more detailed questions that you might have.

Tim
Scotland
 
OP
S

SheerLuckHolmes

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Thanks for your response. I looked a 'Print 'N Share' but do not completely understand. Are you saying that I do not even need the wifi?
How is the iPad going to communicate to the printer without going through the wifi?

I have wifi only iPad.
 

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