Wireless Printing

The AirPort Express and AirPort Extreme Base Stations both have USB ports to which you can connect a wide variety of USB printers, which wireless and wired clients using Mac OS X 10.2.3 or later can use. The base station automatically recognizes the printers and makes them available to other nodes on the network.

To set up wireless printing, open the AirPort Admin Utility, select the AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme base station to which the printer is attached, click Configure, click Base Station Options, click USB Printer, and then verify that the printer's manufacturer and model appear in the dialog.

For the client to print to the base station's printer, from any Print dialog choose Bonjour Printers from the Printer pop-up menu, then choose the printer listed by the name of the AirPort Extreme or Express Base Station that it is connected to.

Here are some tips for setting up and using a printer connected to the base station:

• Wired and 802.11b wireless clients running Mac OS X 10.2.3 or later can also use a USB shared printer. The client does not require an AirPort Extreme Card.

• Make sure the printer works by testing it with a direct USB link to a Mac before you put it on the network.

• If the highest quality setting causes problems, try printing at a lower quality setting (accessible from the Print dialog).

• To perform tasks such as cleaning inkjet nozzles or printing a test page, connect the printer directly to a Macintosh. You cannot access the printer's utilities over the shared AirPort connection.

• When using the printer over the shared AirPort connection, you may not see printer error and status messages such as the out-of-paper warning.

• Clients need to readd the printer in Print Center, since it is now on a different connection (Bonjour).