Wireless Printer Setup w/Airport Extreme "g" Base Station

[pigoo3]

Hello folks. Sadly my networking expertise is not nearly as good as my Macintosh computer knowledge...or maybe what I want to do is a bit unusual.

I have a USB laser printer that I would like to include in my home wireless network.

I have a cable modem & wireless router in my basement...and the router does have a network password to login.

What I want to do (I think that it can be done) is use an older "cone-shaped" Airport Extreme "g" Base Station as a wireless network bridge or network repeater (hopefully one of those is the correct terminology)...plug my USB printer into it...and then have the printer on the 1st floor of my home (instead of the basement) for wireless printing.

So I guess the important questions are:

- Is this possible to do?
- If so...how is it done?

If I forgot to include any important or critical info...please let me know.

Thanks,

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

Adding the Airport Extreme to your network should be no problem. I have a Time Capsule as my primary and an older Airport Extreme as the extended with my Satellite Receiver (Dish Network) attached via Ethernet.

Below is a link to instructions from the Apple site that I followed to set mine up.

AirPort Utility 5.1 Help: Extending the range of your wireless network

I should note, that for some reason I had to do the above about three times before it actually took. It kept dumping my changes to the network configuration.

After that, I suspect plugging your printer into the USB port on the new unit should be plug and play installation.

 

[pigoo3]

Adding the Airport Extreme to your network should be no problem. I have a Time Capsule as my primary and an older Airport Extreme as the extended with my Satellite Receiver (Dish Network) attached via Ethernet.

AWESOME...thanks a bunch for the help! I'm going to give it a try ASAP!!!

Here's a quote from the Airport Utility link:

A main base station is connected to the Internet and shares its connection with remote and relay base stations. A remote base station simply shares the main base station’s Internet connection. A relay base station shares the main base station’s Internet connection and transfers the connection to other remote base stations.

Do you know if the "main base station" needs to be an Apple product? I have a Belkin wireless router as my "main base station"...and will be using the Airport Extreme base station as my "remote base station".

Thanks again,

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

Do you know if the "main base station" needs to be an Apple product? I have a Belkin wireless router as my "main base station"...and will be using the Airport Extreme base station as my "remote base station".

Thanks again,

- Nick

I don't have any direct experience using a non-Apple base station. I had a Linksys Router before I got the Time Capsule, but that was also before I set up the WDS.
Since one of the main selling points of the Airport Express is for wireless remote printing, and I think it works with non-Apple base stations, I would think your proposed setup should work.

 

[pigoo3]

Since one of the main selling points of the Airport Express is for wireless remote printing, and I think it works with non-Apple base stations, I would think your proposed setup should work.

Yes...but I don't have an Airport Express...I have an Airport Extreme base station that I'm trying to use with my printer.

One of these:



- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

Since one of the main selling points of the Airport Express is for wireless remote printing, and I think it works with non-Apple base stations, I would think your proposed setup should work.

Yes...but I don't have an Airport Express...I have an Airport Extreme base station that I'm trying to use with my printer.

One of these:

Not these:

In any case...I will have to experiment to see what happens...thanks again for the help.

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

Yes...but I don't have an Airport Express...I have an Airport Extreme base station that I'm trying to use with my printer.

Understood . . . my point (not clear) was that Airport Utility should support using a non-Apple base station. Regardless, I hope everything works out.

 

[RavingMac]

Trying to find some more definitive answers - - I found the following (copied from posting on another site) that shows your hookup with non-Apple base and remote printer hooked to Airport Extreme is workable. See quote below from an 11/03/2008 posting on Wireless Forums (not sure of protocol here on whether I should link to site or list OP. If I should, let me know I will provide):

"I spent way too much time experimenting and most of the documentation
that I found was not helpful. I am posting this in hopes of contacting
someone that can finally help me set this up.

My objective is to have all my devices accessible over my wireless
network at home. I have it partially working but there are some
issues. Keep reading.

On one side of the house I have:
1 Linksys WRT54GS router connected to the Internet and broadcasting a
wi-fi network with WPA2 encryption
1 PC connected via Ethernet to the Linksys router
1 MacBook connected via wi-fi to the Linksys router

On the other side of the house I have:
1 Apple AirPort Express Base Station connected via wi-fi to the
Linksys router mentioned above
1 HP Photosmart 2570 series printer connected via USB to the AirPort
Base Station (This printer also supports Ethernet connection)
1 XBox 360 - currently not connected to any network"

I am still looking and will get back to you if I can find a good step-by-step that fits your application. BTW: His issue was the printer worked, but the built in scanner didn't.

 

[RavingMac]

This is part of what I am looking at. It addresses step-by-step setting up Airport Express to run off a Linksys base. It also mentions an earlier article (from 2005) that did the samething for adding an Airport Extreme as a remote to a Linksys base.
I know that neither or these is your exact situation, but should provide some food for thought.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060609053254368

 

[pigoo3]

Trying to find some more definitive answers - - I found the following (copied from posting on another site) that shows your hookup with non-Apple base and remote printer hooked to Airport Extreme is workable.

On the other side of the house I have:
1 Apple AirPort Express Base Station connected via wi-fi to the
Linksys router mentioned above
1 HP Photosmart 2570 series printer connected via USB to the AirPort
Base Station (This printer also supports Ethernet connection)
1 XBox 360 - currently not connected to any network"

I am still looking and will get back to you if I can find a good step-by-step that fits your application. BTW: His issue was the printer worked, but the built in scanner didn't.

Thanks a ton again...this is very encouraging. I really hate messing around with my wireless network...so it's sort of "scary" to mess with it if it's working fine.

BTW...the example from the other forum indicates that the person has a non-Apple router and using an Apple Express Base Station (not Airport Extreme).

Maybe it's really not important whether it's an Airport Extreme or an Airport Express Base Station...just that it does seem to be doable to use a non-Apple product as the "Main Base Station".

Thanks again for all the help,

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

This is part of what I am looking at. It addresses step-by-step setting up Airport Express to run off a Linksys base. It also mentions an earlier article (from 2005) that did the samething for adding an Airport Extreme as a remote to a Linksys base.
I know that neither or these is your exact situation, but should provide some food for thought.

Extend a Linksys WRT54G network via AirPort Express - Mac OS X Hints

Awesome again...thanks.

- Nick

 

[RavingMac]

The posting I quoted from above was actually titled as follows:

"Need help setting up bridge between Linksys WRT54GS and Apple AirPortExtreme

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I spent way too much time experimenting and most of the documentation
that I found was not helpful. I am posting this in hopes of contacting
someone that can finally help me set this up. . ."

It then goes on to list the Airport Express within the body of the quote, which you highlighted and I failed to notice.
So, I'm not sure based on this which unit he was using, the Extreme or the Express. I don't think it makes a difference. However, I have found postings that say that to use the setup you want your Belkin router must support WDS. Otherwise it appears you could ethernet between the Belkin and the Airport Extreme, if your layout allows.

 

[pigoo3]

However, I have found postings that say that to use the setup you want your Belkin router must support WDS. Otherwise it appears you could ethernet between the Belkin and the Airport Extreme, if your layout allows.

Hopefully my Belkin router supports WDS! Otherwise this is where the network headaches begin (not knowing that the hardware does or doesn't support something)...and then you try for hours trying to get it to work...not realizing it can't do it.

So thanks again for the "head's up".

- Nick