An Apple ate me for lunch today...

[ld13]

​

I got a 911. I show up. "Our Macs have to jump through hoops to print and we don't like it". :wtf: Fine, not 911, but fine. So I get handed an Apple... Mac... Book... thingy. Awesome. Took me a few minutes to get a lay of the land though. You sit with this desktop-y-looking desktop, a toolbar at the top with word/excel menus and not a single menu in sight. I did eventually stumble onto the bottom start-menu-scroller and the micro-(i)con apple in the left corner. From there I was able to get to the printers and found out that this mac was running vegemite 10.10 or something.

When they want to print they have to walk to the HP p1102w and press a wifi button, then temporarily switch the wifi on the mac to the temp wifi spot created by the printer and then switch back once they have printed. This is beyond crazy. Thought I would set up the wifi properly via the PC but the app that you use to set up the wifi for this printer series keeps on crashing :wtf:. Could not install the latest printer bundle as this would mean at least one reset and this is the "server" so that was out of the question.

I thought the clever thing to do would be to point the mac to the windows share of the printer. It then asked for a username and password to access the PC. Since no one knew of any password I enabled the Guest account on the Windows 7 PC and tried logging into the PC from the Mac - without any success. Found that the main admin account does not have a password in any case. Could not explore this angle of attack further as I had to hand over use of the PC again. Probably need to check the permissions on the shares. That left me with plugging the printer directly into the Mac. Only thing that happened was some popup informing me that blah blah blah flashdisk blah error blah blah - cannot recall the error. It was as if the mac detected some kind of a faulty flashdrive instead of a printer! :wtf:

When all else fails? Read the manual.

Big help that was. Check that the OS is up to date. Done. ... blah blah blah flashdisk blah error blah blah

Probably need to try a new USB cable and pack some extra luck next time.

 

[ozziej]

Um. Instead of whining about it, ask for help. Just because YOU don't know how to use Mac OSX , there is no need to make stupid comments about lack of menus. Not all computers works the same way.
I would suggest that you try and get the printer connected to an existing wireless network, which it should be able to do. Then, the printer would be accessible via all the machines.
Alternatively , download the drivers for the printer for either the Mac or PC. Imagine that. Then like you thought, share it via usb. I would try wifi first as it's easier.

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

27-01-2015 05:00 AM

Um. Instead of whining about it, ask for help. Just because YOU don't know how to use Mac OSX , there is no need to make stupid comments about lack of menus.

And a very good morning to you too .....

OP, I am sorry to hear of your frustration.

 

[DA-LION-619]

Could of been a virus

 

[Lord Flacko]

You could just add the printer to your network. Simple process.

 

[Venomous]

Um. Instead of whining about it, ask for help. Just because YOU don't know how to use Mac OSX , there is no need to make stupid comments about lack of menus. Not all computers works the same way.
I would suggest that you try and get the printer connected to an existing wireless network, which it should be able to do. Then, the printer would be accessible via all the machines.
Alternatively , download the drivers for the printer for either the Mac or PC. Imagine that. Then like you thought, share it via usb. I would try wifi first as it's easier.

I have found (not often) that there are issues with that printer model and some wifi networks. It seems to be easier if you add the printer to the network via cable(wall socket, direct into router, etc, etc, ....), then it still prints even if your laptop, phone..... are connected to the network via wifi.

 

[ozziej]

And a very good morning to you too .....

OP, I am sorry to hear of your frustration.

Yeah, I was a bit grumpy

However, just get a bit irritated when people moan about the fact that they don't have some knowledge. If your client is asking for help with something you don't know, then don't moan about it, learn.

 

[SauRoNZA]

This sounds like a badly configured printer setup to me and not a Mac problem.

Join the printer to the existing wireless network either via cable or wireless and then point the machines to its IP.

It should in fact just pop up on all the machines once on the same network.

If it's AirPrint enabled even easier. But I doubt it considering the issues mentioned already.

And open your goddamn mind and LEARN about OSX. I look at people I used to work with that were all like "oh but it's a Mac problem, I only know Windows" and they are still stuck in the same jobs at the same company probably earning almost the same salary 10 years later.

 

[creeper]

I have found (not often) that there are issues with that printer model and some wifi networks. It seems to be easier if you add the printer to the network via cable(wall socket, direct into router, etc, etc, ....), then it still prints even if your laptop, phone..... are connected to the network via wifi.

HP Printers with wifi are notorious for disconnecting from the wifi in 'power save' mode.

 

[stricken]

open terminal and type sudo ifconfig eth1 .... oh no wait.. sorry... you can't clicky yourself to a solution you whine. imho you can only start whining when you have recompiled a kernel module and still no beans... otherwise.. back to school buddy.

 

[ld13]

Oi guys. Lower them defenses already. This is not an attack on apple/mac. This is how I, as a first time user, perceived the platform. I also told you what I did, with the hope that someone might find the error of my ways and tell me you stupid n00b you, why did you not look at X or something. I do not see myself whining. My mate and I had quite a chuckle about how long I took to find the bottom slider menu. Read the post in a lighter light or something

I would suggest that you try and get the printer connected to an existing wireless network, which it should be able to do. Then, the printer would be accessible via all the machines. Alternatively , download the drivers for the printer for either the Mac or PC. Imagine that. Then like you thought, share it via usb. I would try wifi first as it's easier.

First thing I did was to try and get the printer connected to an existing wireless network as that would be easier. As mentioned already the app used for this exact purpose crashes as soon as I select the applicable wifi network. Second thing I did was to download the complete drivers package for the PC. Installed that, but could not finish as the installation wanted to reset the PC - not possible at that stage as they were eg. using the shares in the background. Looked for Mac drivers, but HP did not give me a link and instructed me to rather plug the printer into the mac and update the Mac as the drivers are included somewhere. That did not work for me at all.

If it's AirPrint enabled even easier. But I doubt it considering the issues mentioned already.

The sad thing is that is is AirPrint enabled but something is up and not working correctly. Will rerun the procedure to set up airprint again.

 

[koffiejunkie]

I would second the wireless option. It's been a good three years since I set up my wireless HP, so I may be missing some details, but basically you need to run the software installer with the printer plugged into USB in order to configure the wifi (SSID and passphrase). From that point on, the printer will show up on the network and if OSX happens to have native support for it, it should pick it up. If not, just run the software installer and that will catch it.

I have a new laptop at home that I haven't yet configured printing for. I'll give it a go tonight and report back on the process. In my case I know OSX supports my printer natively because HP has discontinued software updates for it, apparently because OSX support is natively

 

[Grant]

I got a 911. I show up. "Our Macs have to jump through hoops to print and we don't like it". :wtf: Fine, not 911, but fine. So I get handed an Apple... Mac... Book... thingy.

aaah
the perils of doing work for free !

 

[Aghori]

Get a pc or better yet, install debian!

 

[Rickster]

Fscking Apple products...always a problem.

 

[koffiejunkie]

So, I tried this out tonight. First problem was the printer wasn't connecting to the wireless. Turns out I've moved to an 802.11n wifi set-up since the last time I used the printer, and the printer doesn't do n. So I had to tinker with that a bit first. Now that it's connected, on to the Mac.

I have a new MBP I bought recently, which doesn't yet have the printer configured or the software installed, so this should be straight forard. Start her up, head over to the System Preferences, cand lick the Printers & Scanners icon:

Click on the + in the bottom left. It should show you something like this:

Click on the printer name, and you should be presented with the option to Download and Install - do that:

It will download the driver...

...and install the driver...

...and next thing you know, the printer is ready to use:

Simples

A word of caution: HP are scumbags. While my printer is a good five years old, HP has Windows 8.1 drivers available for download. Yet, they ceased development of the Mac software packge since OSX 10.7 (released in 2011). They argue that OSX supports the printer natively, which is true, but it doesn't come with all the goodies that the HP package comes with. Crucially, the "USB to Wifi" tool, which you use to configure the wireless on the printer (while plugged in via USB) is missing. It is in the HP's driver package for OSX 10.6, but only as part of the installer, not as a stand-alone tool you can run whenever needed.

Anyway, if the printer you're working on doesn't already have wifi enabled (and it sounds like it's USB plugged into a computer that's sharing it), I'd recommend downloading the Windows driver package from HP's website, of if it's already installed, look for a tool called "USB to Wifi" or something like that, and use that to configure the Wifi. It's a bit fiddly, and you might have to make two or three passes (it managed to crash my printer in the proces ), but it's the only way.

Fortunately, the USB and Wifi connections aren't mutually exclusive. It scan still be printing from the print server over USB *and* be available via Wifi at the same time.

Good luck!

 

[noxibox]

Get a pc or better yet, install debian!

Not downgrading just one, but two levels.