Wireless Printers & Dorms

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I am going to say right here & now that I am no techie by any means. I've been having more comp. problems than usual (ones I had b4 at home to a lesser degree) in my dorm. I cannot get my printer to print & my iChat refuses to properly work after 9 pm and sometimes randomly otherwise. I don't know about the iChat issue (its not as big as the other one) but I need to be able to print papers! I have a HP Photosmart C4580 All-in-one printer and a OSX Macbook. I get stuff about the printer trying to connect and "Printing page 1, 100% complete" when the page hasn't even moved inside the printer let alone been printed on in the printer icon. I also had an issue at home which I am having again in my dorm where my printer would not stay on (I have to pull the plug out of the power strip & replug it in to get it to run). Any suggestions for the technologically handicapped college student? I'll be printing everything in the library 'til I figure this out.

Don't try the wireless printing. Your printer should have come with a USB cable that can connect to your laptop. Plug it in when you need to print something.

Without more information, I have no idea what could be going wrong with iChat.

Thanks
And the iChat thing is basically after 9 pm while in my dorm I usually get a pop up from the iChat icon saying it was unable to connect and to "please try again". Usually happens anywhere from 2-7 times in a row or 'til I give up. It's fine in the mornings & pretty much all hrs. before 9pm though.

One way to test if ichat or if it is your network. download a program for the mac that does the same things as ichat.
http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php
That program does mostly the same things as ichat. If you still get disconnected using that program could be your network.
And here is a link about networking on a mac.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1507

I just found out that my school's network & my comp. are both fine. Turns out the email access account website is the fluky thing (found out b/c my one relative is dating an IT guy on campus). I definitely need to find my printer USB cord though... going home this weekend & I probably left the cord at home to get the printer to run w/o being wireless

You can pick up USB cables almost anywhere; Best Buy, Radio Shack, even grocery stores sometimes...

What you're describing is what sounds like sort of a print queue; the software sends the print job to storage, where it interfaces with the printer, which can't keep up with the speed of the software anyway. The storage receiving the print job is where the 100% message is coming from.

Yes, but the interface on the printer end is proprietary to each vendor, so it's hard to just pick up a replacement.

The cord you're looking for is probably a bright silvery color. At least, that's what the cable for my HP Photosmart looks like.

My hp printer failed to include a usb cord. It uses a usb type B on the printer end, and type A end plugs into the computer. The now standardized usb for cell phones on the other hand, is called mini usb.