Dell CN 3100 for OSX

Posted on | January 24, 2007 | 8 Comments

I just got my beautiful new color laser printer from Dell. I did a lot of research, and I really think Dell’s CN3100 is the best color laser currently available for under $400 (if you buy it from delloutlet.com). Besides the 100s of dollars of savings you get from buying from Dell Outlet, you also get full print toner cartridges, instead of starters. That will save hundreds by itself a few months down the line. I had just one issue getting it to work with my Mac OSX machine. Most of the instructions talk about how to set up on Windows, and there is little information for Mac setup. At least not if you want to print to the network. A bit of experimenting got me to the answer: 1) Do Install the printer driver that you download from Dell’s support site. Even though it knows Postscript, installing Dell’s driver makes a difference. 2) Install the printer using “HP Jetdirect (Socket)”, not “IP Printing Protocol”. If you need to find the IP address, press “menu” on the printer, then the checkmark when the screen says “print settings”. A page will print (very fast) showing the current IP Address. I always make a label to put on the printer, it is amazing how often you end up needing that information in the future. 3) You can browse to the printer and control most of its settings via a web interface. Update: Download the driver here

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Category: Equipment, Macintosh, Tips

Comments

8 Responses to “Dell CN 3100 for OSX”

  1. Ville Säävuori
    February 1st, 2007 @ 3:47 am

    OT: Your RSS-feed is not working. Feed urls redirect to Feedburner and it just gives an odd error message.

    I was wondering why your site is not updating at all :)

  2. Jack
    March 22nd, 2007 @ 11:56 am

    Thanks very much for this tip — been pulling my hair out this morning getting my 3100cn on the network. This is attempt #2. I tried about a year before and gave up… I NEVER would have 1) installed the drivers from the CD (and why would I, local printing via the USB cable worked great with the default PS drivers) and 2) would have never thought to use the JetDirect option. Very grateful for the help. Now if only Dell would think to post this critical information on their website… (sigh)

  3. David
    November 1st, 2007 @ 11:29 am

    THANKS for the setup instructions. Like Jack, never would have tried the approach you did. Works sweet.

  4. Bruce
    November 1st, 2007 @ 1:24 pm

    Glad to help. I just wish I could get it calibrated better.

    ?
  5. Frik
    November 4th, 2007 @ 5:46 am

    The OSX driver for this printer is not available for download from the Dell site anymore :( Do you have a link where I can download it from? Thanks!

  6. Chris
    May 17th, 2008 @ 12:53 pm

    All I can say is WOW…THANK YOU!!!!! I consider myself pretty savvy at finding just about anything I need to know tech wise with a good ole google search, but setting up our new Mac to print to my 3100cn (which is connected to a d-link wireless router via ethernet cable) almost caused me to jump out of a window. It’s only about a 2-foot fall to the ground from there, but it would still have hurt.

    Your instructions worked FLAWLESSLY!!! What the heck is up with having to use HP Jetdirect Socket stuff? I would NEVER have tried that. All I can say is I did just what you said and the result was a grand slam home run.

    Chris

  7. sheila
    September 25th, 2008 @ 7:22 am

    Like the other user I cannot find a driver for OSX. The only drivers I can find are .exe files. Anyone?

  8. Bruce
    September 25th, 2008 @ 8:28 am

    Download it from here

    ?

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