After my Airport extreme gave up the ghost after a few short years of service, I broke down and bought a Dlink router wit fast ethernet and a USB port for a printer.
The question I have is, does anyone know how to get the printers to work with the wireless router?
DLink extreme can only be set up through the browser manually with the mac. The wireless works fine but it will not connect to my printers. Airport base station software does not recognize the DLink. I've tried an internet connection config that I found through Google for printer connection. It does not work.
Any Guru's out there familiar with this issue?
Quote from: GeekGirl on March 03, 2010, 06:12:39 PM
After my Airport extreme gave up the ghost after a few short years of service, I broke down and bought a Dlink router wit fast ethernet and a USB port for a printer. The question I have is, does anyone know how to get the printers to work with the wireless router?
My first thought would be to leverage the vendor. Does the D-Link manual for your particular router claim to support printing from OS X clients to USB-attached printers? If yes, do they provide instructions or a toll-free support number?
My second thought is that yes I totally agree that Apple wireless routers are roughly double the cost of say a D-Link or Netgear product. So it seems a no-brainer to pay, say $60 instead of $120. But another way to look at it is that you're paying $60 for the Apple wireless router, and another $60 to make USB-printing (or wireless iTunes streaming, etc) plug-n-play. Is that worth the 2nd $60? For me, yes it is. But I totally understand that that's a question that each person must answer for themselves.
With respect to the reliability of Apple wireless routers (and time capsules), Apple seems to have taken short-cuts in the power supplies of some models and if they fail, they tend to fail there. One trick, and again it's not available for everyone, is that when you buy a new mac, if you do buy it with AppleCare and buy the wireless router at the same time -- people have then been able to get AppleCare to cover the wireless router for the same 3-year period as their Mac. In my case I was able to get my original flying-saucer shaped Apple wireless router replaced under warranty (some years ago) just because I had a current Mac covered under AppleCare.
With respect to cost of Apple wireless routers, if you don't need any Ethernet ports for desktop computers -- i.e. all you need is a single Ethernet port to connect the wireless Apple router to your Rogers wireless modem or your Bell DSL modem, and all your computer(s) are wireless, then the Airport Express router starts at just $100. Of course as soon as you _do_ need additional Ethernet ports, you're looking at the more expensive Airport Extreme (like the one which died on you.) One final trick in addressing the cost of Apple wireless routers is to consider the Apple refurbished store:
http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_accessories
You may have to try the refurbished store over several days or longer to find the model you're looking for, as the items constantly change, but when you do find what you are looking for it will come with a full warranty and it will cost less than list price.
Finally, if you've lost patience with my lack of addressing your actual question, I'm sorry. Please post the actual model number of the D-Link router. Maybe a Google search can pull up some hobbyist who has taken the trouble to post a 'recipe' for OS X wireless clients to print through your particular D-Link's USB printing port.
Hi Ben. Thanks for your advice. The D-Link Model number is DIR-655. It is an Xtreme N Gigabit Router and cost $119 at Future shop. They didn't have any airport xtremes there. I would have bought one to save myself all the trouble of trying o configure the printing. The D-Link model was recommended by someone at PC Cyber and was the only one that had the fast ethernet and usb for printing. I have Googled a solution but the printer I am trying to sync is a Samsung ML-2510. I've tried the default printer shtick and internet but neither work for me. They all said that the tech support are not interested in supporting macs, so I'm not sure that it's worth the call.
Hi and welcome to MUGOO! Yes, your router works with a Mac, and yes, D-Link does support Macs - but you probably won't need to call them. D-Link routers use what they call SharePort to connect to USB devices through their routers, but you must install their SharePort software on your Mac. There should be some software in the CD that came with your router - and on it should be the Mac SharePort installer. If not, you can download the software directly from D-Link at this address:
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/shareport/macos_shareport_utility_110.zip
The manual for SharePort is separate from the main router manual, and it is a bit of a tough read, but if you are the only Mac or PC connecting to the printer, it's fairly straightforward. Again, if you don't have the SharePort manual for Mac OS X, you can d'load it here:
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir655/Apps/dir655_macos_shareport_manual_200.zip
They may not give the best technical advice, but Future Shop has a thirty-day return policy - you could return your router and get an Extreme. The Apple Store Rideau always has them in stock.
Good luck, any problems, we're here to help!
Happy Mac'ing!
Dan
Thanks Dan. I didn't find the mac software on the cd but, I did download it. I installed it and it crashed my mac pro. I suspect maybe a conflict with the print driver or drop box. I did finally get it to work but there was no connecting device showed up. I tried following the trouble shooting instruct by going into the config files. Scarry... I am tempted to take it back and buy another airport, but the DLink does give a much better performance than the airport ever did.
Browsing through D-Link's forums, it seems the shareport utility is not working for any Mac users, and D-Link does not seem to be in any hurry to fix it - the last posts from frustrated users are from June '09!
If your Extreme was a couple of years old - i.e. the flying saucer model, it didn't have 802.11n, which is why your D-Link seems faster. All new Airports, Extreme or Express or Time Capsule, have 802.11n dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz). How many computers are you attempting to connect wired vs wireless? Ben's advice about the Airport Express may be quite appropriate if you're only connecting computers wirelessly, and has Airtunes - an audio port on the Express which you can can send your iTunes music stream through to a remote audio system. The Express' ethernet port is used to connect your to your ISP, the USB port WORKS, and the wireless connection is fast, but the antenna is not as good as the Extreme's. However, you mentioned "fast" ethernet, so I think you may need wired ports for file sharing between wired computers or some other purpose - is that right? If not - get the Express...
Dan
Hi Dan. The airport extreme was the latest fastest Airport Extreme Base station square model. I need the usb port for the printer and a fast wireless streaming video capability. I'm not so sure the airport express can handle that.
If I bought an express and used it in tandem with the D-Link wireless, would that work?
I just thought of another issue that made me think it might be Bell sympatico that could be the culprit in the poor performance of the airport extreme.
I started noticing the drop off of signal a few months ago when some unknown neighbor connected an unlocked Linkses wireless on a rogers account. My signal drop off became unbearable to the extent that I thought it was the airport extreme. I have Googled this and found that several others have had the same drop off issues, blaming it on Bell with their PPoE protocal. I also came across a DHCS issue in discussions. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2288123&tstart=0.
Quote from: GeekGirl on March 05, 2010, 01:15:05 PM
I also came across a DHCS issue in discussions. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2288123&tstart=0.
Wireless InterferenceI just skimmed the link above and it seems to be a discussion about DNS, which shouldn't be relevant
if the issue is potential wireless interference from your neighbours.
When you click on the airport menubar, do you see your neighbor's wireless LANs? (I see at least 4.) If you instead first hold down the Option key and then click on the airport menubar, you'll be able to see details such as the channel each of the other LANs are on and what frequencies (2.4 GHz vs 5GHz) they are using. If you are lucky enough that most of your neighbours are using the 2.4GHz, you could configure your basestation (including the ones from Apple) to use only 5GHz to reduce or eliminate any interference.
Multiple Ethernet Ports on Wireless Routersre: Dan's question, do you have at least 2 ethernet-attached computers in your home setup as well as your wireless computer? And is that why you want to ensure you have hi-speed Ethernet in your wireless router? Because at least 2 of computers are ethernet-attached and you want them to communicate between each other at the maximum possible rate? I ask for clarity, because as I'm sure you know, for communication to The Internet from either ethernet-attached or wireless computers, your Bell DSL modem or Rogers cable modem is normally the slowest link.
DNSFinally, if I can switch from the question of wireless interference, back to the topic of DNS, while DNS is not normally a factor in slow wireless connections, there can be an
indirect connection. When you open your browser and type in a URL, part of the delay before the web page is served is the time it takes for your ISP's DNS server to look up the IP address. When you hit the browser reload, the IP address will have been cached, and the time it now takes for the page to be reloaded won't include your ISP's DNS lookup delay. If there is a big difference in the two times, it's possible your ISP has a slow DNS server. In this case what some folks are doing is pointing to a different DNS server, other than their ISP's. For example Google provides DNS servers at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html
Now where do you enter the alternate DNS server addresses? It shouldn't matter, but over the years I've had examples where I enter them in the wireless computer's network config, and they are overruled by the wireless basestation's DNS entries, and vice-versa. In a 'belt and braces' approach, I've sometimes changed them in both locations.
Good luck.
P.S. Dan, appreciate your insights and experience on this thread.
Quote from: GeekGirl on March 05, 2010, 12:28:09 PM
If I bought an express and used it in tandem with the D-Link wireless, would that work?
While such a setup could be made to work I'd advise against this complexity unless you absolutely need it*. Can you share your home setup details? How many wired and wireless computers are you networking?
...ben
*In my home setup, I have gone down the complexity road of having two ethernet-attached wireless basestations. But
only because my wireless basestations are older and don't have all the features found in the current Apple wireless base stations. If I were buying new, I could and would avoid the complications of my setup below.
I have an older Time Capsule, which is just an Airport Extreme + harddrive. I have a wireless-attached Mac-Mini to which I stream video for display on my TV. I therefore configure my Time Capsule to use 802.11n and 5GHz for best possible wireless performance to my Mac-Mini. (The 2.4GHz spectrum is full of interference from wireless phones, microwaves, door openers, etc.)
But I also have an iPhone 3G which doesn't talk 802.11n or 5GHz. If I had the latest Time Capsule or Airport Extreme, it has dual 2.4GHz and 5 GHz radios that operate independently. I could enable both radios and that single Airport Extreme would then support
both my Mac-Mini and my iPhone 3G, with each running at their
fastest possible wireless rate. But alas I don't have the latest Time Capsule or Airport Extreme.
What I do have is an older Airport Express, which is 802.11b/g and 2.4GHz only. So I've configured it to operate in Ethernet-bridge mode and plugged its Ethernet into one of the Ethernet receptacles on the Time Capsule. So my iPhone 3G connects to this Airport Express thanks to its 802.11b/g radio. And the Airport Express is Ethernet-attached to my older Time Capsule which in turn is connected to my Bell DSL modem. I have in this way combined an older Airport Express and an older Time Capsule to roughly achieve what is built-into the current Time Capsules and Airport Extremes. But it's a unnecessary hassle that I wouldn't recommend to someone if they had the option to just buy the current Airport Extreme.
Yes, the problem is "swamping", your radio signals get clobbered by neighbouring devices - TV remotes, cordless phones, bluetooth devices, your neighbour's wireless system, and everybody is trying to use the same spectrum. The solution is to "change the channel". All the 802.11 wireless systems use multiple, overlapping channels to "spread the spectrum", but by default everybody uses the middle channel - 6 - and most domestic devices cannot change the channel - but your router and computers can, and should. Because of the overlap, even nearby channels will cause interference, so the rule of thumb is to use channels 1 or 11 for your home network. The overlap between channel 6 and channels 1 or 11 is minimal, assuring your signal won't get "swamped". So, yes, you were probably getting swamped by your neighbour.
The newer 802.11n wireless devices can use a higher frequency band - 5GHz - avoiding the congestion in the 2.4Ghz band, and also minimising the overlap between adjacent channels. Theoretically, 802.11n can also transmit much further - 230 feet indoors versus about 140 feet for 802.11b/g. 802.11n is also significantly faster - 150Mbps versus 72Mbps, theoretically - your mileage will vary!
The new Airport Extremes, Express and Time Capsule all use 802.11n, with the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule offering simultaneous, dual-band setups (802.11g and 802.11n) both the 2.4 and 5GHz networks are on, allowing older devices to connect, while serving up 5GHz for the more capable devices.
Ben is quite right in noting that your so-called "high-speed" connection to the internet is the slowest link in your network - seldom exceeding 3-5 Mbps, so even the old 802.11b devices or he slowest 10Mbps wired link can sustain that kind of speed over moderate, indoor distances. Where 802.11 n and 100Mbps wired ethernet becomes useful is when you are transferring information between your devices, or playing media over your network. The 1000Mbps ethernet connection is not that useful, or necessary in most settings, and you will not notice much difference between 100 and 1000Mbps ethernet because none of your devices can deliver information that quickly. Long story short - 1000Mbps ethernet is moot for most applications, so don't be fooled by "specsmanship".
DNS, as Ben pointed out, may be a factor in the speed with which your network finds other networks on the internet, but has no effect once the connection is found . Part of the PPoE or DHCP protocols - the method your router/computer uses to connect to your service provider, is to get the DNS server addresses from your provider and load those addresses into your router. DNS services are provided by your ISP, and two servers are always given - primary and secondary in case primary is busy/broken, secondary is the alternative "fallback". You can add a third or more DNS address in your router's setup - like Ben's Google DNS servers, or you can add them to your computers list of DNS servers in the Network/Advanced panel in the System Preferences. However, as Ben also pointed out, this is somewhat automated, and difficult to over-ride.
Again, the big question is - will an Airport Express be sufficient for your needs, or do you need the wired ports on the Extreme? The little question - is it too late to return your D-Link?
Happy Mac'ing!
Dan