Not Always On

It works fine with my powerbook. But you have to download the newest printerdriver 2.3.1 fra HP.

BR

Final

I use this printer with the 2.4 driver downloaded from HP....works just fine as a wireless printer, and can be managed from its web URL....very cool! I'm runnimg Mac OS 10.3.4 with a MacSense Router and an Airport Graphite Base Station in bridged mode. The printer works well with our upstairs iMac as well.

I have this printer working via a Netgear wireless ADSL router. I found the HP assistant didn't work to well. The option is to quit that and add it manually via system prefernces. As has already been mentioned you can give it a static IP address and configure it via Safari or another browser.

Hehe thank god for wired hardware eh ?

The printer works fine IF you set up an AD-HOC connection on channel 10 titled hpsetup. It's really tricky to get it to work with the internet SIMULTANEOUSLY. It took me more than FOUR HOURS to figure this out

I've just spent 4 hours trying to get mine working (again). HP 5850 does not like Airport's "Interface Robustness" option.

The 5850 cannot function in conjunction with personal firewall software. Try disabling your personal firewall in OS X (Sharing panel of System Preferences, Firewall tab) and then try finding the printer via Rendezvous in Printer Setup Utility. Firewalls equipped on wireless routers also apply to this.

I hope this helps.

I went ahead and purchased the HP 5850 even after reading the horror story above because I had a purchased my daughter a new Powerbook for college and it was only $100 at Staples. With Apple's reputation for connectivity, I figured, how hard can it be? After spending 6 hours getting nowhere, I relented and called HP. Much to my surprise, they picked up quickly, walked me through the installation, and everything works. The one caveat is that you cannot connect to a wireless network and the printer at the same time when you configure for an ad hoc network. You have to open Airport and select hpsetup to print, then go back to your network if you want to be online.

Hehe, UNFORTUNATELY, that seems to be the only way to get it done. I thought about returning mine and buying the identical, but non-wireless and not-as-cool-looking, HP 5150. But then I found the 5850 at SAM's CLUB for 50 bucks less and decided to return mine and buy the same one there. :-D I just ended up hardwiring it to my G5. Still, the 5850 has some redeeming qualities. It's photo-printing quality is AMAZING while it's quick-printing is stinkin' FAST! (21 ppm)

Elise, If it's any consolation (which I can't see that it would be) the 5850 was designed for PC users in mind. It also might be easier to set up with a bluetooth adapter, seeing as bluetooth was designed for peripherals and NOT networks. I'll try it out and let you know!

Good to know about its speed and quality. My beef is that I won't pay money for a printer that touts itself as wireless that is so ridiculously difficult to get it to work on a wireless network. Apple should not be selling this product in their stores.

I've fought this same stupid printer for many hours and have finally succeeded in setting up an infratructure wireless network. I can now simultaneously print wirelessly and access the internet through my AirPort Express. I used the intall CD and drivers supplied with my printer, and followed the procedure on HP's website. The URL is

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00109969

HP should really update their software.

BTW: HP's website also has instructions for ad-hoc wireless networking for this printer. However, I tried it once and it didn't work. I.e., I still had to disconnect from the internet every time I wanted to print wirelessly.

Elise!
I have never been more excited! The problem with the 5850 is that the documentation left out some information regarding the Network settings.
Before setting up anything else, you need to
-Create a new airport network and title it "hpsetup" on channel 10.
-After you activate that network, use the HP Printer Setup Assistant in Utilities.
-Choose wireless.
-After searching for printers, the 5850 will show up.....
-Click NEXT then change settings, then connect to printer.
-Change the communication mode to Infrastructure
-Then select Enter network name, then type in your network name.
-Apply settings

Here is the part that they left out:

-Then you have to go to System Preferences, then Network.
-In the SHOW box, go to Network port configurations.
-Drag the Airport connection to the top
-Apply

-Then change back from hpsetup to your regular Airport connection.

You may have to add the printer again through the Printer Setup Utility and add it from Rendezvous. But now you can use the printer like it's supposed to be used! Wireless!!!

Scott Abraham

Holy God this printer is infuriating! I've spent 5 hours simply trying to get it to show up on my girlfriend's iBook. It works fine with my PC, but it won't do a damn thing with the Mac unless it's directly connect with the USB cable. I've searched the web, tried all sorts of solutions, all for naught. What a waste of time and money this thing is. I'm one step away from smashing it with a baseball bat.

I understand the frustrations of trying to get a printer hooked into a wireless network. I finally gave up on trying to connect a 5 year old Epson printer to my airport express. Drivers seem to be out of date with current technology on both PC and Mac. I did hook up an HP6100 successfully to the airport express, but I wanted a different option since I was using that AE for streaming music to my stereo. It wasn't a great spot for a printer. I tried to use a wireless print server, but for various reasons, it didn't work with the wireless Actiontec modem I have. Finally, I decided to try the 5850 hoping to eliminate the need for another print server. I use PC's and and iBook in the same house and wanted to be able to print from any computer to this printer. I'm a novice with all of this, but after many struggles with the other options I mentioned, this 5850 setup was fast. However, I first setup this printer using my old Pentium 2 computer. I plugged the ethernet cable from the modem into the printer. After that, the PC setup was quick, and the iBook setup was nearly as fast. Perhaps that's the missing link in all of this. I didn't begin with the Mac.

Am I the only one missing the fact that this is NOT a wireless printer? The router is wireless, but you have to hard wire the printer to the router. How on earth can they call this wireless when it has to be wired to a router? My router is wireless but the printer sure as hell isn't. What BS from HP.

Am I the only fortunate one who has had zero, and I mean zero problems with mine? Using it with a 12" Rev. A AlBook. I have been using it for two weeks with nary a problem, even shows up as a Rendezvous printer. I followed these instructions from the HP website:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00109969

A simple two minute fix for hp 5850. the definitive and easiest way to solve this problem can be found on the trouble shooting Q&A article in practically networking.com by mr.Ron Pacchiano. he concludes that bidirectional printing is the cause of the malfunction. and he gives the steps on how to disable the problem.
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/qa/qa20040913.shtml

Just a quick thank you to all of you guys! Googled this page accidently after not getting anywhere with the HP site, and the above worked like a charm.

Essentially, you have to connect to the printer with the Computer-To-Computer Network in Airport first, then assess via your Browser the printer setup screen, change it to Infractructure and give your Airport network NAME and PASSWORD (Bet that's why it doesn't connect! - and putting the Password in as ASCII is completely fine, no need to change to Hex), then apply settings and change your Airport connection back to your normal Network. - Sounds complicated, it's easy, just read it up under the HP site link above.

Again, thanks a LOT for the help to everyone. Mac users help each other!

(Oh, my Setup: Alu-PB G4 15, Airport Base (white, not Extreme), ADSL nation router.)

I have this printer as well and will admit that the first time I tried to hook it up I was ready to shoot either it or myself. Then I discovered the method listed above of accessing the computer wirelessly via an ad-hock network and changing the settings to infrastructure and everything worked fine. It was on a network consisting of 3 Macs and an Airport Base Station (not extreme).

Well I recently moved back home and it is now on a network with several Macs and a couple of PC's using a Linsys wireless router and everything works just fine. All of the computers can print to it without any problem and I am very happy with my 5850. The only downside is that I have noticed that this printer has taken a serious drop in price recently and I wish I had paid what they are going for now!

I have my 5850 in my closet now along with my router and network drive. The 5850 works great with our mac powerbooks. I can now print from anywhere within my house. Woohoo! I haven't tried outdoors yet but I will. I am really happy with the speed and the quality so far. I paid 100 bucks for it and feel that it was a steal. Ink seems to be on the high side though. I highly recommend this HP printer to any laptop users. Thanks to you guys, I didn't have too much trouble hooking it up.

I've had this printer for about a year now, and have unsuccessfully attempted to set up the wireless feature. I recently moved, and it's required that I use wireless, however, despite my best efforts, I can't get the damn thing to work. I'm an IT professional, and this is probably the most difficult and nonsensical bit of configuration I've had to do. I'm curious how the rest of the PC users here are able to get it to work. I'm using WEP with 128 bit encryption on my router (Netgear WGR614), and have followed all the directions, and yet the printer keeps scanning. I tried the Ad Hoc suggestion, and that doesn't seem to work either. I guess I'll just have to use my printer in the living room, and keep my PC in the other room. Urrrrg.

It took me one whole day of trying and one hour of HP online live tech support and then two email exhanges to make Deskjet 5850 to work with my PowerBook G4 with Mac OS X Panther (10.3.8) and HP driver 2.4, through Airport Extreme. After all this nightmare, solution is found, and it's very simple:
1. HP offers only 64-bit encryption, while Apple Airport offers 48-bit and 128-bit encryption. Something stupid and non-standard by Apple! (I mean 48-bits). Therefore, printer cannot connect to the password-protected network -- there is no compatibility between encryption on both devices.
2. Therefore, you have to disable wireless network encryption and use MAC address security. Network can be open or closed, there is no difference in this regard. I chose to use closed network, so no-one can connect to it, they even don't see it unless they know its name and enter it. Then they have to have their network card MAC address entered in Airport Extreme. Without it APEBS won't allow them to connect to it. OK.
Once connected this way, Randezvous finds the printer and you can print, no problems.

We use a 5850 with our home wireless network (Belkin) with no problems whatsoever. It works fine with a G4 15" PowerBook, a Quicksilver 933 G4, a Rev. B original iMac (using OS 9.2.2 and a Belkin USB wireless geeb), and several PeeCees. Setup was competely painless. I am surprised to read that anyone ever had a problem with one of these printers.

Folks;
The only change you have to make is the STATIC ip address if your using wireless. It's this simple; Most Wireless routers are 192.168.0.1 which is the default gateway. The default address for this printer is 169.254.80.74. Use your Internet Explorer to access the printer by typing 169.254.80.74.

You should be on the HP 5850 Configuration page. Go to the Networking tab and set the following:
Ip Address can be 192.168.0.10
Sub MAsk 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway 192.168.0.1

You're in business with all your wireless PCs

AL

I give up. I am embarassed to say that I am literally sitting here crying. I can't even get this piece of shit to print with a direct USB connection, let alone the wireless connection I tried unsuccessfully to set up.

IT WORKS:

I've tried using this printer wirelessly for almost ayear now, without success. Now I followed this document step by step and it works:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00109969

And I almost gave up on this printer!!

Thanks Tom, for posting that link. I know for a fact that the HP team has read the feedback in this comments thread. Perhaps it prompted them to post better instructions! Still, looking at the instructions tells me that this printer was simply not designed to play nice with MacOSX. One shouldn't have to jump through so many hoops.

Does anyone know if this printer has a setting to wake it when automatically when I print something out? Everytime it's idle for a while, it turns off, so when i want to print something out wirelessly, i have to manually turn the printer on again, its kinda of a pain, I wish that it was able to "wake" when a print request is sent...Am I missing the setting somewhere?

I agree with you this particular model does not work in wifi mode, I don't know why, and it's not just mac users having this problem.

This may be old, but Im having this problem of not being able to connect. I have a PC with WINXP.

Well lets see. I know a pretty good amount about computers for being only 16 helpsmilie.gif . I have a wireless HP 5850 printer. I want to hook my wireless printer wirelessly to my wireless router. Im not sure if I can make this any clearer.

Hi there,

I've been searching for a solution for my printing problems with my Linksys WPS11 print server (on my iMac 17" Mactel) when I ran into this string. I'm experiencing the same symptoms... I can only get it to run in ad-hoc mode and once I get a printer installed I can only print if I disconnect the Ethernet cable.

I read the HP posting [in here] and was encouraged. I tried following the procedures (even though the interface is different) but with the same result, when I try to switch to "infrastructure" it gets lost and I have to start from scratch.

I just thought I'd let you guys know you're not alone in your frustrations, it's not just an HP issue (though I'm not fond of their products, outside of the office).

This is my second Hp 5800 series wireless printer, the first one after paper jam, not working. It works very very good to me within these 3 - 4 years. 1 ibook, 1 powerbook and 1 desktop pc at home we can all using wireless printing without problem. Now I have only one problem is: I am also using wireless network, once I set up my security code to block my wireless network, so do the printer also block too, is anyone knows how can I set up security password to block my wireless and did not block by using my wireless Hp printer? Thanks

How I setup my hp deskjet 5850 wireless printer with my new MacBook Pro

1. Installed the above driver... 35,9 MB for osx

2. Hooked up a network cable to the MacBook Pro and printer.

3. Used the "hp printer selector" to find the printer and clicked setup

4. I set up the printer side:
Manual IP address: 192.168.1.3
255.255.255.0

AD HOC - channel 10

Created a network name (SSID) for the printer and "wrote it down" :)

I kept the printer open, but used WEP 13character encription

5. Unplugged the Network cable and restarted the printer.

6. While the printer was restarting... I went into System Preferences and into Network, here i created a new Network Place and used the SSID name (not really important)

then I changed the Show pulldown to airport, and click on TCP/IP and set that to manual mode with a IP address of 192.168.1.2, 255.255.255.0 and gateway of 192.168.1.3 (same as printer)

7. Then I went into Airport and setup a new wireless network using the SSID (very important) and channel 10

Typed in the 13 digit WEP password and it appears i am connected. (green light is on)

NOTE: I DID NOT INSTALL A PRINTER YET IN OSX? cool... just checking... if you did go into the Printer Setup Utility and reset everything to factory again and delete the printer out...
8. Open a document and try to print it, The print box comes up with no printers intstalled, but go under Rendevous and select it there... it will install it automatically in Mac OSX for use later.

The THEORY is that when i want to print wirelessly I need to do these things.

1. Go into System Preferences and Network, and change my Network Place using the pull down to my printer ssid name (not important)

2. Go into Airport and change to SSID network I setup from before... it connects and prints.. :)

OK, all you brainy people...who are so obviously smarter than me! I have a Mac OSX (Version 10.4.11) whatever that means...

I bought Verizon's FiOS and the nice man installed some of it for me, getting me wireless... however left before I actually tested my printer. My printer doesn't work, never has since he came. Verizon point-blank told me they don't "do" printers and can't help me. I have a two year old HP C6100 photosmart all in one printer. I liked it wired, can't get anything to work on it now. I think I have now tinkered with it so much I likely have messed up all the settings and really don't know where else to turn except call in the geeks...Any ideas before I end up spending more money on something I think I should have had set up as a free service for subscribing to Verizon?

thanks for any input...deb graham

i have lost my install disk for this printer can anybody help please

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