Hi Scotty,
FYI, the HP Photosmart C7180 printer was not seen during installation of the latest print driver printer when connected to Airport Extreme through USB so I installed the printer on the Mac Pro (OS Snow Leopard 10.6x) directly through a USB port and it works when connected this way.  However, when the printer is connected to Airport Extreme through the Airport USB port it cannot be accessed. The printer shows that it is “offline” How do I access the printer through AE.?
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The first thing we’ll want to check is to see if the Airport Extreme is recognizing that the printer is connected. Go to airport utility and double click on the icon on the left representing the airport extreme. Next, select “printers”

If the printer does not show, unplug and replug it. You may want to restart the base station as well although that’s usually not nesassary. If the printer is showing then we’d next want to be sure that the 10.6 driver is installed. I know you said the latest driver was installed but HP completely rewrote their printer drivers for 10.6 snow leopard.
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Scotty,
Thanks for the response, what is the version of the latest print driver for the HP so I can check it…printer shows “off line” even after disconnecting and reconnecting to the USB hub which is connected to Airport Extreme. FYI printer operates from a Windows laptop connected through my network.
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It depends on what operating system you’re in. You stated you are in 10.6 so the driver you’d need should be this one:
HP Photosmart Full Feature Software and Drivers - Mac OS X v10.6 HP Photosmart C7180 All-in-One Printer - HP Customer Care (United States - English)
Although it shouldn’t matter, you might try connecting it directly to the airport extreme. Also be sure to delete the old printer in system prefs before doing anything.