Using airport to share printer and scanner from several workstations

I have a classroom with a dozen G5 Mac Pros running Tiger and we want to
allow them to use a couple of A3 photo-quality inkjet printers and a
couple of flatbed scanners.

I see that the airport base station extreme only has one usb port.

Is it possible to use one airport extreme base station to connect all of
these peripherals, add airport cards to each Mac Pro, and be able to use
any of the printers or scanners from any of the Macs?

What other equipment is necessary?
Should we look to buy any specific printers or scanners that will be
more compatible?
Is there some other approach that will work better?

Thanks for any advice.

In article <azhTj.10332$>,
Luis Ortega <> wrote:

> I have a classroom with a dozen G5 Mac Pros running Tiger and we want to
> allow them to use a couple of A3 photo-quality inkjet printers and a
> couple of flatbed scanners.
>
> I see that the airport base station extreme only has one usb port.
>
> Is it possible to use one airport extreme base station to connect all of
> these peripherals, add airport cards to each Mac Pro, and be able to use
> any of the printers or scanners from any of the Macs?

You can attach multiple printers and hard drives to the base station
with a USB hub. To the best of my knowledge the base station does not
share scanners.

You'll also probably be interested in this page:
<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070118020953464>

G

--
"Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?"
- Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix

Thanks, Gregory.
Do you have any ideas how a bunch of Macs could then share a scanner or two?

Gregory Weston wrote:
> In article <azhTj.10332$>,
> Luis Ortega <> wrote:
>
>> I have a classroom with a dozen G5 Mac Pros running Tiger and we want to
>> allow them to use a couple of A3 photo-quality inkjet printers and a
>> couple of flatbed scanners.
>>
>> I see that the airport base station extreme only has one usb port.
>>
>> Is it possible to use one airport extreme base station to connect all of
>> these peripherals, add airport cards to each Mac Pro, and be able to use
>> any of the printers or scanners from any of the Macs?
>
> You can attach multiple printers and hard drives to the base station
> with a USB hub. To the best of my knowledge the base station does not
> share scanners.
>
> You'll also probably be interested in this page:
> <http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070118020953464>
>
> G
>

In article <IikTj.93122$>,
Luis Ortega <> wrote:

> Thanks, Gregory.
> Do you have any ideas how a bunch of Macs could then share a scanner or two?
>
> Gregory Weston wrote:
> > In article <azhTj.10332$>,
> > Luis Ortega <> wrote:
> >
> >> I have a classroom with a dozen G5 Mac Pros running Tiger and we want to
> >> allow them to use a couple of A3 photo-quality inkjet printers and a
> >> couple of flatbed scanners.
> >>
> >> I see that the airport base station extreme only has one usb port.
> >>
> >> Is it possible to use one airport extreme base station to connect all of
> >> these peripherals, add airport cards to each Mac Pro, and be able to use
> >> any of the printers or scanners from any of the Macs?
> >
> > You can attach multiple printers and hard drives to the base station
> > with a USB hub. To the best of my knowledge the base station does not
> > share scanners.
> >
> > You'll also probably be interested in this page:
> > <http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070118020953464>
> >
> > G
> >

Would be nice if I only had to reply to the OP, once. You could use
a USB Server like the Keyspan US-4A to do that job. Works for "Me".

--
Bruce in alaska
add <path> after <fast> to reply

In article <IikTj.93122$>,
Luis Ortega <> wrote:

> Thanks, Gregory.
> Do you have any ideas how a bunch of Macs could then share a scanner or two?

That functionality (as well as printer sharing) is actually part of the
stock OS install so you could just hang the scanners off of a couple of
the machines.

Scanner sharing is accessed through the Image Capture application that
should be in your /Applications folder. I have no firsthand experience
with it; for my environment it's just as sensible to scan locally and
then transfer the resulting file to the machine where I need it (if
necessary). I'll fiddle with it if you need me to, though.

Greg

--
"Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?"
- Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix

In article <jollyroger->,
Jolly Roger <> wrote:

> In article <uce- >,
> Gregory Weston <> wrote:
>
> > In article <IikTj.93122$>,
> > Luis Ortega <> wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks, Gregory.
> > > Do you have any ideas how a bunch of Macs could then share a scanner or
> > > two?
> >
> > That functionality (as well as printer sharing) is actually part of the
> > stock OS install so you could just hang the scanners off of a couple of
> > the machines.
> >
> > Scanner sharing is accessed through the Image Capture application that
> > should be in your /Applications folder. I have no firsthand experience
> > with it; for my environment it's just as sensible to scan locally and
> > then transfer the resulting file to the machine where I need it (if
> > necessary). I'll fiddle with it if you need me to, though.
>
> Are you sure about that? If scanner sharing is built into Mac OS X,
> that's news to me!

I was looking at the config screen as I typed that message, and I recall
it begin there since at least the 10.3 era.

--
"Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?"
- Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix

In article <jollyroger->,
Jolly Roger <> wrote:

> In article <uce- >,
> Gregory Weston <> wrote:
>
> > In article <jollyroger->,
> > Jolly Roger <> wrote:
> >
> > > In article <uce- >,
> > > Gregory Weston <> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Scanner sharing is accessed through the Image Capture application that
> > > > should be in your /Applications folder. I have no firsthand experience
> > > > with it; for my environment it's just as sensible to scan locally and
> > > > then transfer the resulting file to the machine where I need it (if
> > > > necessary). I'll fiddle with it if you need me to, though.
> > >
> > > Are you sure about that? If scanner sharing is built into Mac OS X,
> > > that's news to me!
> >
> > I was looking at the config screen as I typed that message, and I recall
> > it begin there since at least the 10.3 era.
>
> What config screen?

In 10.3 and 10.4 it's the Sharing tab of Image Capture's Preferences
window (and I was on a 10.4 machine when I wrote that message).

In 10.5, it's accessed through the Sharing button in the browser window
that's accessible under the Devices menu.

And, following up the older message: I have firsthand experience with it
now. My MacBook running 10.5 was able to use the scanner connected to my
G5 running 10.4 without issue. But I still think it's more convenient to
use the scanner locally and transfer the result unless someone else is
using the machine with the scanner.

--
"Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?"
- Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix

In article <jollyroger->,
Jolly Roger <> wrote:

> In article <uce- >,
> Gregory Weston <> wrote:
>
> > In 10.3 and 10.4 it's the Sharing tab of Image Capture's Preferences
> > window (and I was on a 10.4 machine when I wrote that message).
> >
> > In 10.5, it's accessed through the Sharing button in the browser window
> > that's accessible under the Devices menu.
>
> Very interesting. I've never seen that before. Or maybe it's just I've
> never seen it *working* before. What's the trick to get the scanner to
> show up in the Devices list? My AGFA 1212u doesn't show up there.

From what I can tell it needs a driver that supports the Image Capture
Architecture introduced with OS X 10.2 or later, or alternatively works
with some (but implied by the docs, not *all*) TWAIN sources.

--
"Harry?" Ron's voice was a mere whisper. "Do you smell something ... burning?"
- Harry Potter and the Odor of the Phoenix