Last week I bought a brand new HP DeskJet 5850 Wireless Inkjet Printer from our local Apple store where it was a featured Apple-friendly printer. I bought it primarily because 1) I need a new printer and 2) it has a wireless networking option which would give me much more flexibility on where I could place the printer in my home office.
The other night I attempted to connect the computer to my new airport extreme equipped G5 on my airport extreme network. I followed the directions that came with the printer religiously. It didn't work. I could get the computer to see the printer if it was connected via an ethernet cable to my airport base station. But once I tried a wireless connection, Apple's Rendezvous couldn't find it. I think I spent around two hours in total trying to troubleshoot this stupid printer. So tomorrow it goes back to Apple. There is a 10% open-box fee on returns. Maybe they'll wave it given that the thing doesn't work as promised. But even if they don't, I'd gladly pay the $15 bucks to not have to endure any more of the headache associated with this printer.
I guess it pays to look at user reviews before one makes a purchase like this. Perusing CNET and ZDNet reviews, this model has been panned by users for the same problems I'm having now.
Update: Well, based on the comments I received to this entry I decided to try again. This time I contacted an Apple rep from the Apple store where I bought the printer and he walked me through the set-up. We still could not get it to work. The problem is that if the printer is connected via an ethernet cable to the base station an IP address is assigned to the printer and the computer can see the printer. The minute you take the ethernet cable out of printer and try to find it using the wireless feature the computer can't find it. I took the printer back to the Apple store; they gave me a full refund. I had a long talk with the local Apple genius at the Genius Bar and he admitted that he was unable to get any of the HP wireless printers to connect to the store network via the wireless option. Hard cable worked, wireless did not. I suspect that the problem has to do with compatibility with the airport extreme base station. (By the way, I did follow the suggestions listed by people who had commented on this entry and downloaded the latest driver. Still didn't work.) When questioned which of the printers showcased at the Apple store would run on a network, the Apple guy said that none of them would. He did recommend a Brother model from Apple's online store so I'm going to look into that next. I've given up on wireless for now.
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