[X4U] Setting up wireless printing

[Jeff Carruthers]

On Dec 5, 2009, at 1:28 PM, Mark Des Cotes wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I just bought my wife a new (refurbished) MacBook from Apple for  
> Christmas. This will be her/our first OSX laptop (we've owned two  
> previous old PowerBooks with OS9 on them). I know that one of the  
> first things she'll want to know how to do is print. Right now our  
> printer is plugged into our iMac via USB. I'm going to have to  
> purchase a new wireless router as the very old one I have is  
> Wireless B I think and it's slow as anything. Is Wireless N the  
> newest? What's the easiest way to set up the printer for my wife to  
> print from the MacBook? Should I be looking for a special type of  
> wireless router? I'm very knowledgeable when it comes to the ins and  
> outs of my Mac but I'm naive when it comes to the whole wireless  
> thing. I would prefer it if she didn't have to rely on the iMac in  
> case it's put to sleep when she needs to print.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark Des Cotes
>
Mark: the simplest and cheapest way to share the printer would be to  
'share" it over your iMac, using WiFi. There are two steps: turning on  
wifi sharing on your iMac; and then setting up the USB-connected  
printed as a shared printer.

This solution assumes that both machines have a WiFi adapter built-in  
and that the MacBook will be in range of the iMac, which acts like a  
base station.

The "easy" way to share both the printer and the internet would be to  
purchase an Apple basestation, with "N" wifi. The basestation would be  
connected to the internet router by ethernet and the printer would be  
connected to the basestation using USB.

Same assumptions about wifi as above, except that both computers would  
need to be within range of the basestation.

Good luck.

Jeff

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