Ticket Options
Question Profile
| DATE | Aug 9, 2006 |
| TICKET | #27615 |
| STATUS | Closed |
| SUBJECT | Airport won't speak to Ethenet printer |
| CAT | Computers, Operating Systems, Applications or Connected Devices |
| TYPE | Peripherals: Printers, Scanners or other Connected Devices |
| DESC | Laser Printers |
| DESC | |
| PLATFORM | Apple Macintosh (PowerPC G3,G4,G5) |
| MODEL | |
| PROC | |
| RAM | |
| DRIVE | |
| NAME | di |
| USERNAME | Delaware |
| TECHNICAL | |
| ISSUE |
Question Details
TICKET ARCHIVE -> Airport won't speak to Ethenet printer
Delaware - Aug 9, 2006 - 4:30 pm
How do I get Airport to speak to my Ethernet printer?
I only have a basic Airport card, (not Extreme) and no Airport Hub. My Airport speaks to a DSL 2Wire homeport device that is connected to a PC. My serial port laser printer is connected to my G4 via AsanteTalk with an Ethernet cable. Therefore I can print documents residing on my hard drive, but I can’t print directly from the Internet. This is a drag. Formerly, when I was connected to DSL via a USB cable, I could print pages straight off the Internet, but a certain party took away my USB phone cable and “improved” my network with an Airport card. Now Print Center recognizes the Internet document I want to print, but it just hangs there indefinitely acting busy. There must be some code or address that makes this work. In System Preferences, both Built-in ethernet and Airport are checked under Network Port Configurations. Almost everything is greyed out on the Airport Admin Utility, probably because I don’t have a hub.
I only have a basic Airport card, (not Extreme) and no Airport Hub. My Airport speaks to a DSL 2Wire homeport device that is connected to a PC. My serial port laser printer is connected to my G4 via AsanteTalk with an Ethernet cable. Therefore I can print documents residing on my hard drive, but I can’t print directly from the Internet. This is a drag. Formerly, when I was connected to DSL via a USB cable, I could print pages straight off the Internet, but a certain party took away my USB phone cable and “improved” my network with an Airport card. Now Print Center recognizes the Internet document I want to print, but it just hangs there indefinitely acting busy. There must be some code or address that makes this work. In System Preferences, both Built-in ethernet and Airport are checked under Network Port Configurations. Almost everything is greyed out on the Airport Admin Utility, probably because I don’t have a hub.
ScottW - Aug 10, 2006 - 4:43 pm
Hi,
I'm guessing based on info you provided, you have an older Apple Laser printer, maybe a Personal Laserwriter 320? You can or used to be able to print to it off of the Ethernet connection because of the AsanteTalk bridge device, which bridged two different types of networks, Ethernet and Localtalk (or serial as you mention).
The AppleTalk protocol doesn't cross routers unless the router specifically forward Appletalk and you won't find such features except in higher end routers, like Cisco routers.
When you where on Ethernet, you where all on the same network and Appletalk worked fine printing to the printer. When you went with the airport connection, you introduced two new things.
1) Different network interface on your Mac which requires you to setup Appletalk to work over that connection.
2) A device acting like a router, your DSL 2Wire.
Even if you have taken the steps to turn on Appletalk for your Airport connection, the router is not allowing Appletalk to freely flow to your Ethernet segment, unless it is in "bridge mode".
If, by chance it is in bridge mode, check #1 above. If #1 is configured right, then the issue is #2.
Many wireless routers/gateways allow "bridge" mode, including Airport Express and Base Stations. The wireless connection becomes just an extension of the wired network, much like your Asantetalk makes the localtalk connection an extension of the ethernet network.
If your 2Wire is handing out DHCP addresses like 192.168.1.x, but your local Ethernet network is 192.168.0.x, then you know where your problem is.
Check to see if your 2Wire supports bridging your wireless and wired networks. It may or may not, I don't know. If you know the model number of your 2Wire product, then we can look up those details online. You can also get on the Admin config of the 2Wire and snoop around and see if you see any settings for "bridging".
Don't confuse bridging your outside Internet connection with your local internal network, as this is NOT what you want to do.
I'm guessing based on info you provided, you have an older Apple Laser printer, maybe a Personal Laserwriter 320? You can or used to be able to print to it off of the Ethernet connection because of the AsanteTalk bridge device, which bridged two different types of networks, Ethernet and Localtalk (or serial as you mention).
The AppleTalk protocol doesn't cross routers unless the router specifically forward Appletalk and you won't find such features except in higher end routers, like Cisco routers.
When you where on Ethernet, you where all on the same network and Appletalk worked fine printing to the printer. When you went with the airport connection, you introduced two new things.
1) Different network interface on your Mac which requires you to setup Appletalk to work over that connection.
2) A device acting like a router, your DSL 2Wire.
Even if you have taken the steps to turn on Appletalk for your Airport connection, the router is not allowing Appletalk to freely flow to your Ethernet segment, unless it is in "bridge mode".
If, by chance it is in bridge mode, check #1 above. If #1 is configured right, then the issue is #2.
Many wireless routers/gateways allow "bridge" mode, including Airport Express and Base Stations. The wireless connection becomes just an extension of the wired network, much like your Asantetalk makes the localtalk connection an extension of the ethernet network.
If your 2Wire is handing out DHCP addresses like 192.168.1.x, but your local Ethernet network is 192.168.0.x, then you know where your problem is.
Check to see if your 2Wire supports bridging your wireless and wired networks. It may or may not, I don't know. If you know the model number of your 2Wire product, then we can look up those details online. You can also get on the Admin config of the 2Wire and snoop around and see if you see any settings for "bridging".
Don't confuse bridging your outside Internet connection with your local internal network, as this is NOT what you want to do.
Delaware - Sep 29, 2006 - 6:38 am
Dear Scott W.
I had some other issues that delayed my reply and closed the case, but I still want to give you some feedback because I appreciate your quick response.
The Asante/Appletalk/Airport problem is related to a new one I have since installing OS 10.4. I sent in separate query to macosx.com on that, but here’s more:
First, my G4 has an HP 2100 Laserjet connected to built-in Ethernet via Asantetalk. Asante configures automatically using DHCP with an address like, 169.254.19.162 (it varies)
Second, internet access is via Airport which speaks to a 2WIRE HW1000 DSL router on a Windows PC downstairs. The IP address is 172.16.1.34
I figured out that I had created the Location wrong in Network Prefs. I had Airport checked to configure automatically, instead of using preferred networks. Second, having both Airport and Ethernet listed on the same location, I didn’t realize that there were separate Appletalk prefs for each of them, so Airport had Appletalk open, not Ethernet.
That fixed, I printed straight off the internet. Amazing.
I did look on the 2WIRE website for updates on the HW1000 but they only pertained to USB connection. I tried asking support at SBC DSL about a “bridge” setup for the router but they couldn’t help me, they could only read the short script they had for Mac installation, so “bridgework” is a little too sophisticated for me at the moment.
My new problem again concerns Airport. Connecting to the internet was fine until I upgraded from 10.2.8 to 10.4.7. Now, every time the computer starts up or if it has been asleep, Airport loses its network recognition. It reads “None of your trusted networks can be found, would you like to join an open wireless network named ‘default’?” It recognizes the neighbors' wireless networks, but never remembers our 2WIRE address. Each time I have to re-enter it under "Other". Then I select 40/128 bit hexidecimal WEP and enter the number in brackets on the DSL router. That works, but it shouldn't keep losing its connection.
My Airport card originally installed with Airport 3.3. It was upgraded automatically when I installed OSX 10.4. I read in some other Mac forums that this same problem—Airport losing its connection after sleep—was caused by various levels of upgrades from 3.3. But how to fix it with my setup?
Because I don’t have Airport Extreme or Base Station, most of the Airport Admin utility is greyed out. When I try to select a base station and enter the IP address and password for the 2WIRE I get an error message.
I had some other issues that delayed my reply and closed the case, but I still want to give you some feedback because I appreciate your quick response.
The Asante/Appletalk/Airport problem is related to a new one I have since installing OS 10.4. I sent in separate query to macosx.com on that, but here’s more:
First, my G4 has an HP 2100 Laserjet connected to built-in Ethernet via Asantetalk. Asante configures automatically using DHCP with an address like, 169.254.19.162 (it varies)
Second, internet access is via Airport which speaks to a 2WIRE HW1000 DSL router on a Windows PC downstairs. The IP address is 172.16.1.34
I figured out that I had created the Location wrong in Network Prefs. I had Airport checked to configure automatically, instead of using preferred networks. Second, having both Airport and Ethernet listed on the same location, I didn’t realize that there were separate Appletalk prefs for each of them, so Airport had Appletalk open, not Ethernet.
That fixed, I printed straight off the internet. Amazing.
I did look on the 2WIRE website for updates on the HW1000 but they only pertained to USB connection. I tried asking support at SBC DSL about a “bridge” setup for the router but they couldn’t help me, they could only read the short script they had for Mac installation, so “bridgework” is a little too sophisticated for me at the moment.
My new problem again concerns Airport. Connecting to the internet was fine until I upgraded from 10.2.8 to 10.4.7. Now, every time the computer starts up or if it has been asleep, Airport loses its network recognition. It reads “None of your trusted networks can be found, would you like to join an open wireless network named ‘default’?” It recognizes the neighbors' wireless networks, but never remembers our 2WIRE address. Each time I have to re-enter it under "Other". Then I select 40/128 bit hexidecimal WEP and enter the number in brackets on the DSL router. That works, but it shouldn't keep losing its connection.
My Airport card originally installed with Airport 3.3. It was upgraded automatically when I installed OSX 10.4. I read in some other Mac forums that this same problem—Airport losing its connection after sleep—was caused by various levels of upgrades from 3.3. But how to fix it with my setup?
Because I don’t have Airport Extreme or Base Station, most of the Airport Admin utility is greyed out. When I try to select a base station and enter the IP address and password for the 2WIRE I get an error message.
TechSupport - Sep 29, 2006 - 11:35 am
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