Extreme newbie: Connecting printer wirelessly to iMac/Leopard?

[RPS]

I have years of Mac experience but never anything wireless, so extreme
newbie here in that department.

Trouble is, someone with even less experience, a friend's mother, wants
me to connect her iMac to a lexmark printer wirelessly.

Her iMac is the current 20" one, with Leopard. The printer Lexmark
4550, and has "wifi" written on it. The computer is connected
wirelessly to DSL---done by her son, now conveniently out of the
country ---so there a router, but so far her printers have been
wired. She wants to connect this one wirelessly (convenient placement).

I tried the standard installation with disc, but at some point I get
the message that the printer has not been added to Printer Setup
Utility. I looked in Applications/utilities, but couldn't find "printer
setup utility". Have they removed it in Leopard? (I am still with
panther in my computer.)

At some point, when she was clicking around, she said a box asked her
for the printer's IP address and neither one of us knew how to get
that.
At the back of the printer there is a label that says Mac and a string
of numbers but it doesn't look like an IP address to me.

So, if you are experienced with this sort of thing, please tell me what
do we have to do to connect this printer wirelessly to iMac/leopard?

 

[Tom Harrington]

I have years of Mac experience but never anything wireless, so extreme
newbie here in that department.

Trouble is, someone with even less experience, a friend's mother, wants
me to connect her iMac to a lexmark printer wirelessly.

Her iMac is the current 20" one, with Leopard. The printer Lexmark
4550, and has "wifi" written on it. The computer is connected
wirelessly to DSL---done by her son, now conveniently out of the
country ---so there a router, but so far her printers have been
wired. She wants to connect this one wirelessly (convenient placement).

I tried the standard installation with disc, but at some point I get
the message that the printer has not been added to Printer Setup
Utility. I looked in Applications/utilities, but couldn't find "printer
setup utility". Have they removed it in Leopard? (I am still with
panther in my computer.)

Try System Preferences --> Print & Fax.

At some point, when she was clicking around, she said a box asked her
for the printer's IP address and neither one of us knew how to get
that.
At the back of the printer there is a label that says Mac and a string
of numbers but it doesn't look like an IP address to me.

That'd be a MAC address, and the capitalization actually means something
(Media Access Control address, not Macintosh). Wireless routers can be
configured so that they only allow computers on a specific list to
connect. The computers are identified by their MAC address. If this
router has that option turned on, you'll have to enter the printer's MAC
address in the router's configuration. How to do that depends on the
router, but it's typical to have a web-based interface.

You may need to consult the printer's manual to see how to get it to
connect to the wireless network, especially if the network requires a
password. From looking at the Lexmark web site, it seems the printer
has a Wifi status indicator that can tell you a lot about whether the
printer's connecting to the network and what you need to do if it isn't.

 

[Tom Stiller]

I have years of Mac experience but never anything wireless, so extreme
newbie here in that department.

Trouble is, someone with even less experience, a friend's mother, wants
me to connect her iMac to a lexmark printer wirelessly.

Her iMac is the current 20" one, with Leopard. The printer Lexmark
4550, and has "wifi" written on it. The computer is connected
wirelessly to DSL---done by her son, now conveniently out of the
country ---so there a router, but so far her printers have been
wired. She wants to connect this one wirelessly (convenient placement).

I tried the standard installation with disc, but at some point I get
the message that the printer has not been added to Printer Setup
Utility. I looked in Applications/utilities, but couldn't find "printer
setup utility". Have they removed it in Leopard? (I am still with
panther in my computer.)

Yes; printer setup is now controlled by the "Print & Fax" system
preference.

At some point, when she was clicking around, she said a box asked her
for the printer's IP address and neither one of us knew how to get
that.
At the back of the printer there is a label that says Mac and a string
of numbers but it doesn't look like an IP address to me.

It should say "MAC", not "Mac". That is the network interface Media
Access Address. If you know how to access the wireless routers setup
page(s), you can probably find the DHCP association between the MAC
address and IP address.

 

[RPS]

Thanks. I have one basic confusion: Can the computer communicate
directly with the printer, or does it have to be via the router?

 

[Tom Harrington]

Thanks. I have one basic confusion: Can the computer communicate
directly with the printer, or does it have to be via the router?

You could probably arrange for the computer to communicate directly with
the printer if you needed to. But with the router present, it'll be
easier getting both connected to it than trying to make a direct link.