Many Airport related questions.

Comments

• Reply 1 of 5

  eugene Posts: 8,254member

  June 15, 2003 5:36AM

  Quote:
  

  
  Originally posted by vaultingat
  
  
  
  1) Will we be able to plug the dell desktop directly into the airport base station? Will this result in any complications or will it just act like a normal ethernet port?
  
  
  
  2) The printer we all currently share is an HP 2110psc. it's not on the airport extreme usb printer compatibility page. does this mean it probably won't work? does anyone have experience with this?
  
  
  
  2.5) If it did work, would the dell be able to get in on the printer sharing as well?
  
  
  
  2.6) It's a printer/scanner/copier thing. If it did work would the scanning functions also be accesible from any of the computers? Are any of the supported printers multifuctional. If so, does that mean that scanning can be wirelessly done by anyone on the network?
  
  
  
  3) if the answer to question 2 is "no", are we better off just getting an old airport station, since none of us have extreme cards anyway?
  

  
  

  
  
  1) Yup. You can plug a computer to the LAN port on the basestation...or a hub or switch for more than one computer.
  
  
  
  2) I just set one up in my house with an LaserJet 1200, which is on the list. It works really well for the Macs.
  
  
  
  2.5) I very much doubt it. I haven't found a way to print from a PC.
  
  
  
  2.6) Very unlikely.
  
  
  
  3.0) Only if you can get it really, really cheaply. I got the more expensive Extreme base because it has an external antenna connector. I'm using a rather large omnidirectional pole antenna on it to almost triple the range of the wireless network. The new bases also allow you to set-up other basestations as relays without actually having to plug them into a terrestrial network.
• Reply 2 of 5

  vaultingat Posts: 76member

  June 15, 2003 5:52AM

  thanks eugene.
• Reply 3 of 5

  posterboy Posts: 147member

  June 15, 2003 1:12PM

  To answer the #2 questions, If the 2110 is not listed on the compatibility site then it probably wont work. You could try it anyway, but I have never seen a multifunction unit work correctly on a print server of any type. Not to say that it isn't possible, just that none of the manufacturers seem to place any kind if priority on that kind of functionality.
  
  
  
  Assuming for a moment that you did get the printer working on the base station, then no you would not be able to get the scanner part of it working over the network. I have never seen this done either.
  
  
  
  Again assuming that the printer would work for sharing, there is a way to get the Dell working with it, but the Printer would have to be plugged into the Dell directly and be shared to the TiBooks, or the printer would be plugged into one of the TiBooks and shared to the Dell. You can do a brief search on MacOSXHints.com for more info on that.
  
  
  
  And I would just get the new Extreme Base Station. The USB Print server will come in handy later if you get another printer, say a photo printer maybe? Also, as Eugene mentioned, the possibility of getting an antenna is quite attractive.
  
  
  
  --PB
• Reply 4 of 5

  shalmaneser Posts: 44member

  June 16, 2003 4:28AM

  Quote:
  

  
  Originally posted by Eugene
  
  3.0) Only if you can get it really, really cheaply. I got the more expensive Extreme base because it has an external antenna connector. I'm using a rather large omnidirectional pole antenna on it to almost triple the range of the wireless network. The new bases also allow you to set-up other basestations as relays without actually having to plug them into a terrestrial network.
  

  
  

  
  
  vaultingat: It's worth noting that the antenna connector is only available on the more expensive (US$50 more) Dialup-capable edition of the Extreme Base Station, so you'll want to get that one. I have the Broadband-only version and would dearly love to be able to extend the range, but I can't, since someone at Apple thought it was a bright idea to restrict that option to the modem model. (Rant: Where is the logic, other than sheer money-grubbing, in forcing people who need superwide networks, presumably more broadband than dialup users, to buy a modem in their base stations...?)
  
  
  
  Then again, my Extreme Base Station has also been incredibly flaky in terms of sustaining a signal (it "fades out", spikes, and drops out all the time), so I would proceed with caution. I hear other people have also had the same problem.
• Reply 5 of 5

  vaultingat Posts: 76member

  June 16, 2003 5:45AM

  this unreliability of the extreme base stations is what's worrying me. As far as the antenna connector goes, i'm not too concerned. this is my first apartment and will, without question, be small enough for one base station (sans antenna), and since we won't be able to use the usb printer server anyway, and none of use have extreme cards, i'm thinking about just picking up a snow station on ebay for $150 (or whatever they go for these days.) I realize that the extreme base stations will get their fix soon enough (or will they?) and that I may someday have a computer with an extreme card and a printer that's compatible but, at this point, i'm wondering if it's worth the hassle, both in price, and in (almost certain) difficulty with this base station... Thank you all for your help though.
  
  
  
  ~felipe