Home Network problem

I have 5 computers on my home network. Four PC's and one iMac.

I cannot seem to be able to share the printers I have connected to my iMac. The PC's don't even find the iMac on the network. I can see all the PC's from the PC's.

The home network configuration is 3 laptops and the iMac wireless and one desktop PC wired.

I am a new Imac user so I am sure I have something incorrectly set up. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

First and foremost, you'd be best advised to purchase a print server for that printer. Not that it's impossible to use the iMac as a host, just that a dedicated print server makes things so much easier and more reliable.

Things to check:

1. In Sharing (under System Preferences), be sure you have Printer Sharing enabled.
2. Ensure that the Firewall is turned off (System Preferences => Security & Privacy => Firewall tab)
3. Set the workgroup to match that of the Windows machines (System Preferences => Network => Choose the interface in the left pane [i.e. AirPort, Ethernet, etc.] => Advanced => WINS tab => Workgroup field).

Assuming those three items are addressed, the Mac should be visible as a host on the network. Then, it's a matter of ensuring the correct drivers are installed on the Windows machines and setting them to communicate over a network port.

You would have to turn on SMB sharing to see file shares - System Preferences -> Sharing -> File Sharing -> Options -> Share files and folders using SMB (Windows) - otherwise your windows system won't see it.

Also - another route - you could try installing bonjour services on your PCs to see if that helps.
Bonjour Print Services for Windows v2.0.2

Thanks for the information. I went through the steps suggested and the iMac now shows up on the other computers.

Cannot find the printers though, I have them set as available in the printer sharing section of System preferences. Any ideas more ideas?

Thanks again by the way, I appreciate the detailed help.

Not sure if this applies in your specific environment but I had a similar issue regarding windows machine not seeing printers on mac or on network. I installed Bonjour for windows on the windows machine and ran that utility. Problem solved.

Another vote for bonjour for windows. I just did the same thing at my step-father's house and it worked immediately.

Bonjour Print Services for Windows v2.0.2

Thanks to all who helped. The Bonjour service did the trick.

Now if someone could help me solve the opposite problem I would be eternally grateful! My macs cannot see the printer attached to my windows machine. Major frustration because every time I print from my MBA I have to go down to the basement to retrieve the print rather than the next room where the PC and the attached printer I used to use are located. I've tried everything I can find. Suspect I am not giving the correct destination address for the printer but I honestly have no clue about such things.

You need to share the printer on windows (don't know what version you are on but here is 7)
Share a printer

then add it to the Mac
Mac OS X: How to manually add a Windows shared printer

Yes I did share the printer on windows and I know the share name. I tried to follow the process to manually add printer described at the link you list but it did not work. I do not understand what is meant by "workgroup" or how to find the name of the work group on the windows machine so I suppose that might be messing me up.