IOS – print to an Airport-shared printer from Linux? from iOS

airportiosprintingunix

I'm considering buying an Airport Express for wifi in my house. I'll plug my printer into the USB port, so I can print from my Mac over wifi.

Two related questions:

  • Will I be able to print from my Linux box, which is connected via ethernet to the same router as the Airport Express will be? (In the past, I've just plugged the USB cable into whichever machine, Mac on Linux, needed to print, so it certainly does support the printer.) My thinking is that, if I can reach it over the network, I can print to it, but it's not clear from the documentation if it allows printing from the ethernet port, or if it only uses that for WAN communication.

  • Will I be able to print from iOS 4.2 from my iPod Touch? There's not much AirPrint documentation yet — really just a press release. But it's not clear to me what it allows. It says you can print to any shared printer, but then says HP's new printers will be the first to support it. Which is it? Can I print to my HP printer that's shared over an old-fashioned Airport Express?

Thanks!

Best Answer

I found a document called the "AirPortExpressSetupGuide.pdf", which has an answer to the first part of my question:

All of the compatible computers on the AirPort network, both wireless and wired, can print to it.

So there seems to be no restriction on where you can print from.

iOS seems to have removed the ability to print to any printers except the 2 new ones HP is selling, so that's out. Oh well.

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