Getting AirPrint to work on all network printers?

[Hal05154]

Hello All,

I just saw this dedicated AirPrint daughter board, so I thought I would repost some info I found on network printing with the iPad. I hope it helps.

I trolling over at ModMyI, and came across this post from one of their members. My boss has been going buggy because he can't print from his iPad, so I've been keeping an eye out.

Now, I'm not tech head, but if I follow this right, you can print to all networked printer this way from you iPad.

Mac users go here:
High Caffeine Content: Return AirPrint sharing to Mac OS X v10.6.5

or

AirPrint Hacktivator Netputing

Win Users go here:
How to Install AirPrint to Enable Wireless Printing on Windows? | Jaxov

The original post from ModMyI is here.

Hacktivate AirPrint on Mac, Windows Shared Printers

I hope this helps! I'll be using it when I get my iPad (22 days & counting!)

Hal

 

[Mixz1]

Well, yes, provided you have a machine up and running. It would be nice to be able to print to a networked printer with nothing else booted up. I'm certainly not going to create the AirPrint folder on a server.

Since the App Store sells wireless printing enabling software, it's clear the hooks exist in the OS and Apple has crippled it. Why? I don't know.

 

[Hasty]

Probably legalities over drivers given how much litigation is currently going on.
Overall impression is of a late holdup. Hopefully they'll get it sorted soon.

 

[Hal05154]

I think this will be a help to people (like me!) with older equipment and wireless home networks. The computer my printer is hooked up to is on all the time anyway.

 

[Mike_73]

It would be a help, but unfortunately, my Samsung printer shows up on iPad but doesn't receive any information when I try printing.
With 4.2 GM and iTunes 10.1 beta it worked.
Apple has me really pi**** here as I was bying their office apps exactly for the reason of printing from my iPad.
Now I have an "Office" on my iPad and always have to sync with my PC. Pointless, as I'm running a full blown office suite anyways.

 

[Al Rogers]

I went messing around with my HP D110 eprint printer and now I cant print from my PC or laptop,I can send an email to the eprint center and it prints but not direct from my printer or ipad. All I get is cant find printer or net work, however the status sheet from network test I print says everything is OK. It prints fine when I hook up the USB cable to the PC and laptop,however my cable is not long enough when I travel so I think a call to HP is in order.

 

[Al Rogers]

I went messing around with my HP D110 eprint printer and now I cant print from my PC or laptop,I can send an email to the eprint center and it prints but not direct from my printer or ipad. All I get is cant find printer or net work, however the status sheet from network test I print says everything is OK. It prints fine when I hook up the USB cable to the PC and laptop,however my cable is not long enough when I travel so I think a call to HP is in order.

Update to the above post.
After a couple of hours of frustrating trouble shooting (which is almost useless,) I read a report that most Routers are the problem with the wireless hook-ups,so I read upon routers and did what they said would fix my problem and what do you know, my printer works fine and my Ipad finds my printer and prints.,my room is full of sheets of paper after trying all my programs to see if they would print. make sure you hold down the button for 30 seconds or disconnect the power from the wall. Hope this will help you all out

 

[Jim Breezy]

Instead of fretting about airprinting and all that entails, why not just get a piece of software that will allow you to print seamlessly from you ipad or iPhone. I use Printopia. No extra steps to print. just select the action icon, select your printer and finally select Print. It easy as pie. Also the is another piece of software that will work almost the same way. It's called FingerPrint. They both worked great. I was able to print on a network laser printer and also my color inject that is connected via USB to my iMac.

 

[Mike_73]

Jim, how are those apps working? I bought an app for that recently, and the next best thing this app could do for me was sending my pages document via e-mail.
I'd need something similar to the apple airprint function.
Open document -> select print -> chose printer -> print.
Is there an app that doesn't need any client software on a running PC?
I have a win7 laptop that is running connectify. So it's actually acting like a hotspot. I have my samsung all in one color laser hooked up via USB.

But I'll also look up the description of the apps you mentioned.

I just checked printopia, but couldn't see if it works with windows...

 

[Mixz1]

After a couple of hours of frustrating trouble shooting (which is almost useless,) I read a report that most Routers are the problem with the wireless hook-ups,so I read upon routers and did what they said would fix my problem and what do you know, my printer works fine and my Ipad finds my printer and prints.,my room is full of sheets of paper after trying all my programs to see if they would print. make sure you hold down the button for 30 seconds or disconnect the power from the wall. Hope this will help you all out

Congratulations. Could you tell us what changes you made to your router and what button or power you are talking about? Are you saying you reset your router. If you did that before the changes, fine. If you did it after your changes, wouldn't that just restore your router to its factory setup? Please explain.

 

[Al Rogers]

Mixz1,
After installing the printer at least three times,and knowing for sure that I put in the correct IP address,plus running a network test page on the printer this is what I done.
I dis-connected my Firewall,Virus program and Ad-Aware,went to my Router and held the re-set button for 30 seconds,went back to the PC and then clicked on the printer software to re-install from the USB,the program then found my printer and told me to remove the USB cable it then went on to install the printer through the wireless network,(which it could not find previously) it,also found the ipad so everything is now working.
Read the routers guide book, my reset button was a very small button on the back of the router,make sure you hold it in for 30 seconds not 15 like most techs tell you. Hope things work out for you,please post back if you get it up and running.


Al.

 

[Mixz1]

Mixz1,
After installing the printer at least three times,and knowing for sure that I put in the correct IP address,plus running a network test page on the printer this is what I done.
I dis-connected my Firewall,Virus program and Ad-Aware,went to my Router and held the re-set button for 30 seconds,went back to the PC and then clicked on the printer software to re-install from the USB,the program then found my printer and told me to remove the USB cable it then went on to install the printer through the wireless network,(which it could not find previously) it,also found the ipad so everything is now working.
Read the routers guide book, my reset button was a very small button on the back of the router,make sure you hold it in for 30 seconds not 15 like most techs tell you. Hope things work out for you,please post back if you get it up and running.


Al.

Since my router has several custom settings for things like wireless security and port forwarding, I think I'll pass on this solution. Holding in the reset button for 30 seconds would result in all my wireless devices being disconnected. Since I use password protection and do not use DHCP, relying on fixed IP addresses for every device in my net, this would not be a solution for me.

 

[Jim Breezy]

Printopia and Fingeraprint

Mike 73. Printopia and FingerPrint allow me to print to my network Laser (Brother HL-5370dw) and my Color ,All-in-one, Canon (MP560) connected to My iMac via USB, from my iPad as simple as selecting the action icon and then Print. I don't think that there is the equivalent for Windows that I know of. These are Mac programs. Sorry.

 

[Mike_73]

Thanks Jim. I found out that it's Mac only when I was checking the apps. Well, I'll either have to wait, or...
At least I'm glad I didn't spend $$$ for the BT-Keyboard while it worked with the betas I used. Without print capability on my printer, I won't do too much writing on the iPad.

 

[Mike245]

Mike_73

Mike,

I don't really know much about this stuff but, like you, I wanted to use the IPad as an input device with the BT keyboard (which I am right now). I initially used the Print Share App in order to use my Brother laser printer on my network by using Apple's Pages App (or any program or webb site) and copying the data and pasting it to Print Share then printing on my Brother. That process was painless and pretty quick; however, formatting was not possible.

Now I use an HP C410a via AirPrint (which I love!) to print direct using wifi; however, now and then I still print to the less expensive laser printer via Print Share.

Considering the low price of these HP printers and the incredible convience of using the Ipad as an input device with the BT keyboard, this turned out to be a great solution for me. I REALLY like the Apple BT with the Ipad.

Again, you guys are probably way passed my technical level but I thought I'd share just in case it might help.