Wireless printing no-go

Thom · Oct 11th, 2005, 12:25 PM

Lexmark Optra M412 printer
Airport 108.11b wireless card
667 TiBook
Linksys SRX wireless router

Surfs fine both wireless and ethernet
Prints fine over ethernet
Won't print wireless.. have Appletalk turned on but get a "printer not responding" message

Suggestions?
Thanks in advance..
Thom

Stephanie · Oct 11th, 2005, 01:28 PM

Maybe the Linksys doesn't route Appletalk? I've found very few routers say they handle Appletalk. Assante does. SMC doesn't. Can you configure the printer as an IP (Unix) printer and print that way? That's how I print; my printers are all on the network and I have them set up on my Mac as IP printers, where I tell it the IP address of the printer.

Oh, another thing I just remembered, in your Network settings, you can only have Appletalk enabled on one device, so if Appletalk is active on your ethernet port it won't be active on Airport, or vice-versa.

-Stephanie

Thom · Oct 11th, 2005, 03:28 PM

But I can print through the Linksys router using ethernet, so Appletalk does work for both my printer and router, no? It's gotta be something else....

Rob · Oct 11th, 2005, 07:26 PM

Just about any router or hub will send Appletalk over regular wires. It's the wireless side of things where Appletalk isn't transferred.
When communicating wirelessly there is a translation that has to occur to send the signal via radio frequencies. It costs money to do have the hardware do the translation for other protocols such as Appletalk. Even Apple has gone fully to TCP/IP and supports Appletalk only grudgingly for older legacy devices. It's too expensive for most companies to add Appletalk support over wireless when the demand is miniscule. Keep in mind that both the wireless router and the wireless PC card have to support Appletalk over wireless for it to work.

Appletalk support over wireless is almost non existant if you have a newer "g" router or card. Support was a bit better with the original "b" standard. I've got an older SMC wireless router that sends Appletalk packets over wireless but I don't think any of the current SMC hardware does.
If you want a "g" router or card that supports Appletalk over wireless then you may have to stick with the Apple branded routers and Airport Cards.

I'm pretty sure that no Linksys routers have ever supported Appletalk over wireless. Use the TCP/IP protocol for printing (if your printer accepts it) as Stephanie suggested.

Thom · Oct 11th, 2005, 07:32 PM

Thanks for explaining that Rob. I guess I am SOL since I can't aford any more hardware. Or, will the IP adressing of the printer solve the problem for me? If so, how do I determine what IP address to assign the printer?

Rob · Oct 11th, 2005, 07:50 PM

The Lexmark site says it works over TCP/IP and also has Postscript Level 3. If you're working in OSX then you might try deleting the printer, turning off Appletalk, and then reinstalling the printer. It won't have any other option than to work via TCP/IP. If you're really lucky OSX may be smart enough to figure this all out without you having to do manual settings.

Better yet, have a look at your printer manual. Printer controls may need to be adusted on the printer itself to switch from Appletalk to TCP/IP. My guess is that the printer will do the switch automatically.
Usually you can get the printer TCP/IP setup info from a startup page. You just need to figure out how to get that page printed (it should be in the manual).

Thom · Oct 21st, 2005, 11:49 AM

Just an update on the fix for my problem... While connected over cable (ethernet) and using Printer Setup Utility, I added my printer again, only this time as an IP printer. I used the current IP address my router has assigned to it. (I know, the address may change on a restart of the router). So now I have my printer showing up as two printers, both over ethernet (for my wife's work laptop wish is locked and can't have it's printer settings changed) and as an IP printer for my TiBook. Works great! Thanks to those who offered help. Appreciated!

rollee · Jan 18th, 2006, 09:49 PM

please check pm.

Thom · Feb 25th, 2006, 06:09 AM

Further update.. one can also print wireless by creating a new printer of type LPD/LPR. This is key for anyone using Tiger since apparently Tiger does not support IP address printing.

james_squared · Feb 27th, 2006, 11:58 AM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by Thom
	Further update.. one can also print wireless by creating a new printer of type LPD/LPR. This is key for anyone using Tiger since apparently Tiger does not support IP address printing.

Tiger does, in fact, support IP printing. If it didn't, then I would not be able to print at work!

James