MacBook Pro -> G3 iMac -> Printer. Is this possible?

[SteveN]

Hello everyone,

First post to the Mac Help Forums and I hope someone can help me out, even if it's to say 'No, it's not possible'.

I have a question concerning printing over WiFi. I have the following set-up at home (which is near Berlin, Germany):
i) A WiFi DSL-modem/router attached to the DSL line and to which is attached my son's PC (ugh!)
ii) A MacBook Pro (with OS X 10.4.9) with an Airport card (usually in our living room). This is used a lot for internet/emails etc.
iii) An old G3 iMac running OS 9.2.1 (I think) in the study which also has an Airport card and has a USB printer attached to it.

I also have an old Airport base station (unfortunately, not Airport Extreme) and a WiFi router gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere.

At the moment, if I want to print something from my laptop, I have to either copy the file onto a USB stick and run upstairs, or take the MacBook Pro up to connect to the printer. This gets a bit tiresome when all I want to do is print out something from the internet or an email etc, particularly as I usually have to 'Print to PDF' first. Is there anyway I can configure the equipment above to allow me to print from the MacBook Pro with WiFi via the G3 iMac to the printer, with or without using the defunct airport base station and/or router? Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,


SteveN

 

[Switcher-Steve]

Hi,
I beleive that if you connect your USB printer directly in to the Airport base station it will make the printer available to all the computers on your network.

If your Airport base station does not have a USB port then one of these 'mini print servers' would share your printer over the network: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss...d-keywords=print+server&Go.x=16&Go.y=12&Go=Go

The advantage of this is that you don't have to leave the mac running which currently has the printer connected to it.

Hope this helps,
Steve.

 

[SteveN]

Thanks for the tip, Steve.

I think my old Airport base station is first generation without a USB port, but !'ll check again. I'll certainly look into some of the cheaper print servers you linked to, though - I didn't know they existed. Thanks again.

Cheers


Steve