Cannot print to my HP 2550n LaserJet connected to the USB port of my AirPort Extreme

This thread was moved from "Installation and Configuration in Mac OS".
Alicia

I have recently purchased a AirPort Express Base Station, and am trying to print to my HP Color LaserJet 2550n from Windows XP running under Parallels. The printer is connected to the USB port of the AirPort Express Base Station. Since Friday I have among other things, followed Apple’s instructions which say to:

If you use Windows XP, you can print to a USB printer connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station. Just follow these steps:
1. Click Start and point to Printer and Faxes.
2. Click Add Printer, follow the onscreen instructions.
3. Select "Local printer attached to this computer."
4. Deselect "Automatically detect and install my plug and play printer."
5. In the "Select the Printer Port" screen, click "Create a new port."
6. Select Standard TCP/IP Port from the pop-up menu.
7. Click Next, and follow the onscreen instructions for the Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard.
8. In the Printer Name or IP Address field, enter 10.0.1.1. "IP_10.0.1.1" is generated as the port name.
9. Select Standard for Device Type, and choose your printer from the list.

I have installed Bonjour for Windows. What I find perplexing is that when I start the Bonjour Printer Wizard it shows the printer, but after 13 seconds the printer disappears from the Shared Printers list.

Apple’s tech support says that this is a Parallels issue. I don’t really agree, but what I can do? Anyway after working on this for 3 days, I would really like to find a solution. 


 

Workaround

I have the exact same configuration - and problem. I have never been able to get my Bonjour attached CLJ2550 to work correctly in Parallels. It does however work when running BootCamp.

The workaraound is to set up printer sharing in OSX. When running the Bonjour Printer Setup under Parallels, you will then see your printer as yourprinter@yourmac. This will work just fine.

Remember to download the PostScript version of the printer driver. Printing with Bonjour from Window does not work using the PCL driver.

-nilsk

 

Thank you nilsk. If I could just confirm something, we have four computers, three Macs and my son's Toshiba laptop with Windows XP Media Center Edition. All computers except for my MacPro connect wirelessly to the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS). Right now the printer is attached to the AEBS’s USB port, and it is accessible by all computers except via Parallels and for some reason the laptop running Windows XP MCE.

One solution would be to install Windows XP using Boot Camp. Then for her printing tasks my wife would just need to boot into Windows via Boot Camp, and she could do everything else in Parallels. Would we need to do a new install of OSX to install Boot Camp at this point?

A second option would be to use the printer sharing in OSX, but wouldn’t this involve attaching the printer to one computer that would need to be on in order for someone at another computer to print to that printer?

A third solution would be to try to do what we had before with our two Linksys routers. In this configuration, we had an Ethernet cable running from the fourth LAN port of the first router to the first LAN port of the second router. I believe that this caused the second router to act as a switch. The reason for this past configuration was protected us from threats my son might encounter in web-sites he went to. Also this router had to use WEP security for our children’s Nintendo DS gaming devices which is very weak under attack and could expose the rest of the network to some serious threats. This would probably be my last choice as tech support at both companies say that they can’t advise me about the other company’s router which is somewhat understandable.

Finally thank you for the information about using the PostScript version of the printer driver, I never knew whether to use this or the PCL driver.

 

I still have a setup that is quite similar to yours I have two mac portables and a Toshiba Laptop running wirelessly on an airport network.

To get this working you need to first setup the printer on each of your Macs using Bonjour and the PS-driver. Next, on each Mac you are running BootCamp you need to set up printer sharing.

Having done this, you will find "yourprinter@yourmac" in the Bounjour printer setup wizard when running Parallels. It is important that you choose the printer on the Mac (the yourmac part of the printer name) which you are using at the time when running BootCamp. That will ensure you have access to the printer regardless of any mac being turned off.

To make the USB printing work on the Toshiba, download Bonjour for Windows on it as well. I have no problems accessing my printer from our Toshiba running WinXP Home using Bonjour. You just have to make sure to use the PS-driver.

Another minor point when attaching the print to the AEBS, you will not have access to the HP-printer status and supply-level info from your computer anymore. You will have to check this manually on your printer by pressing the big button (I think, check your manual) for a few seconds.

 

Thank you again nilsk. I received another link addressing the same issue. Between both posts I got my device running. All I did was to enable print sharing on my wife's iMac which FWIW connects to the AEBS wirelessly. Then I started Windows XP running under Parallels, and ran the Bonjour Printer Wizard. I had two options and selected the "yourprinter@yourmac". I referred back to your email where you advice to "make sure to use the PS-driver" made sure that I chose the correct driver. Thank you so very much. I truly appreciate your help and am going to post this to the Apple discussion, with a link to this thread.