printing from my macbook pro to a vista shared printer

At home we have a few desktop PC's and a printer is hooked up to one of them and shared through the network.

How do I print to this shared printer from my macbook pro?

recently, I got my very first Mac OS macbook, no idea at all how to configure it to work with my windows home network. well, after a day of trying, finally, got it linked with my other PCs. however, still can't use the shared printer on the network, which is connected to a Vista PC.

the printer is for sure shared and works perfectly among all my other 4 PCs, but I can't even see it for the printer popup dialogue box on the leopard. I've googled around, and there are just no straght forward answer to this issue, not even from the Mac support website.

why people say Mac makes things simple, I don't get it. on the Leopard, everytime I turn on the computer, I have to manually Go>connect to server, login so that I can view my shared pcs. however, on all my pcs, after turn on the computer, click Network, and all my shared computers are shown, including my Mac. just click and go, no login required. ... weired. after I used the Mac for a week, the only thing I would like about Mac, it's its design, nothing else, at least, is not for people who have reasonable PC skills like me, when you try to get something done on a Mac, it's just not that user-friendly for Mac, and the supports from Internet is just too little ...

well, I guest Apple is just for computer dummies who doesn't need to know much about computer, but just application users. I haven't tried programming with Mac yet, don't know what I would encounter then.

I found this in a separate thread, as my experience is Linux to Windows or Mac. He did use a XP printer but it should work.

Thanks to witka for this:

witka said:

4) go to http://localhost:631 (which is the CUPS config) to add the new printer

5) Click the Add Printer link and add a human readable name, location, and description, then click continue

6) Here's where I differ from 95% of the help I found online - instead of choosing "Windows Printer for Samba" from the next menu, choose "LPD/LPR Host or Printer" then continue

7) for the device URI enter: lpd://<ip address of your xp machine>/<printer name> then click continue

8) next pick your printer type and select the gutenprint driver if available

Once this printer has been added, try printing a test page -it should work! This worked for me no problem, hope it helps...

Click to expand...

RobertC said:

I found this in a separate thread, as my experience is Linux to Windows or Mac. He did use a XP printer but it should work.

Thanks to witka for this:

Click to expand...

It seems I've read this article too, would you please direct me the full writings? Thanks

sorry, robert, you did provide me a link to the article, in fact, I also posted a same question there. my mistake

however, I followed the instruction to setup the printer. while printing, it said 192.168.1.3 is busy. now I'm confused. does printer get its own IP address? hostname, is it my PC's name/IP where the printer is linked?

my printer is 5 year old HP deskjet 960c, worked perfectly with my windows based home network, not until now, I've never asked myself a question, when come to network printer, does it mean a printer with own IP address that can be linked to a router instead of a PC?

I'm so confused now.

On my network at home, I can print from the Windows machine to the printer, that's connected to my iMac. (wireless and have to be logged in)

I used Bonjour for Windows to set it up. Have you tried Bonjour yet?

Download and install Bonjour for Windows on the PC with the printer connected to it.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/windows/bonjourforwindows.html

Bonjour makes it a whole lot easier for your Mac to find the printer on the Windows PC.

it's simple, leopard print to a vista shared printer

hey guys, to everyone who struggling print to a vista shared printer from you leopard, here is a link after a serious digging out.

http://rareexample.ca/2008/03/26/printing-from-mac-leopard-to-a-shared-vista-printer/

thanks to the anonymous contributor. anyway, this is the best 100% working method.

but one thing I did learn today, a network printer is different to a shared printer. **** this, if you google, google for a vista shared printer. then you're half way done. (a network printer refers to a printer has its own IP, and can be hooked up with a wired/wireless router regardless what machine you're using on your network, correct me if I'm wrong)

cheers, mate, you will be appriciated the method list in the link, works just in 3 minutes.

at last. got it figured out. hooray!!!!!!!!!!!