The Green Light

Most sailors get quite excited when they see the green flash at dusk but what really gets my
heart pumping is the sight of the green light on my printer. For some unknown reason my printer decided to stop talking to my computer sometime last January. It would not even talk when connected by the printer cable, not good. How could I print off pictures of Nicholas for my Brag book!

Two days ago it became a do or die situation here on the boat. Rog had ordered a new IPad 2 for me for my birthday and I read about it's ability to print via AirPrint. This sounded great but would require a new HP Printer that had AirPrint capabilities, even better I thought until my good friend Eric found out I would still need to work through a network system on the boat. So back to the drawing board to try and resurrect the network on the boat.

I had a couple of problems I had to overcome including USB ports that have become faulty. Several phone calls to Fujitsu and different repair ideas I realized there was no hope for running more than one USB port at a time. Maybe a new small computer was the answer, something that would talk to a new HP Printer that would also talk to a new IPad. It all sounded good to me until I realized it would require updated navigation software, at the cost of $495.00, and other various programs I like. I am still running off an old XP operating system so none of my programs would match up.

Back to the drawing board once again. After uninstalling both the router and printer and then reinstalling them I finally got the green light and boat network was once again functioning as it should. However that was only half the problem, could I get Roger's IPad to recognize the network and connect to the printer. This required a phone call to Lexmark and downloads to both the iPad and computer before there was success! My first print job was a photo of Nicholas and Andy that I had recently received from Jenny.

So after one full day of frustration and elation I am finally ready to turn Roger's IPad back over to him and know that my new IPad will work with everything when we return to PV in November. To my way of thinking, this new IPad did not cost Roger a penny because I did not have to buy a new printer for the boat or computer and navigation programs. I am so proud of being thrifty now that we are retired!