iMac's sleep mode means no printing

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Hello, I guess this will strike most of you as being glaringly obvious but to me, it isn't.

I have my printer connected to my iMac and using Bonjour, I managed to set it up so that I can print from my XP laptops...that is, unless the iMac is asleep after having been idle, in which case, bonjour can't find the printer. As I typed that, it was screaming out 'DUH!' but when I had the printer connected to my PC desktop (which the iMac has replaced) I didn't have this problem as the PC didn't sleep when idle.

I wondered what my options are?

I shouldn't stop the iMac sleeping should I but is there anyway to get it to wake up on a print request or do I need to buy a hub and connect that to my router?

Thanks again

JJ
 

dtravis7


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Only thing I can think of is open System Preferences, Energy Saver and set Sleep to never. It's a slider in the Energy Saver settings.

By the way, Windows can sleep and even Hibernate also and will do the same thing if set up like that.
 
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No harm done, just a little more power used. You can still set it to turn off the screen but not sleep.
 
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Oh ok, that would be the easiest solution so I'll do that for now but would you recommend I get a network printer though? I only need an inkjet good enough for photographs.
 
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An explanation of 'how' might require another thread in the networking forum, but in principle is it possible to connect a Time Capsule to my netgear router/modem and my printer to the Time Capsule and use the Time Capsule as a network drive and printer for all the machines? I wouldn't need to have my iMac on just to print then would I?

This is an idea based solely on looking at a picture of the ports on a Time Capsule so I'm probably way off.
 

cwa107


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An explanation of 'how' might require another thread in the networking forum, but in principle is it possible to connect a Time Capsule to my netgear router/modem and my printer to the Time Capsule and use the Time Capsule as a network drive and printer for all the machines? I wouldn't need to have my iMac on just to print then would I?

This is an idea based solely on looking at a picture of the ports on a Time Capsule so I'm probably way off.

Yes, it's possible to do that - but I'd recommend replacing the Netgear with the Time Capsule altogether (unless it's an all-in-one router with a modem integrated).
 
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yeh it is an all in one router..Id rather keep that if possible as it works great with my xbox360. That would work out ideal then as it was looking like I'd end up getingt a network drive and a network ready printer, but if it's possible to do that with the Time Capsule, I'd be killing 2 birds with one stone. Would I need to do anything clever to be able to access the Time Capsule from my XP machines?

If it would be better for me to ask in the networking forum just say :)

Thanks

JJ
 

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