How to install and print Network printers connected to a windows Xp PC

Hi all,

This is my first time to post in this forum. I just created an account because I can't find the answers anywhere. I hope you can help me with my problem.

I'm helping out our church. 90% of the staff owns macbook/mbp - 10% PC, all WinXP. 80% of those macs have Leopard and the rest are Tiger (all updated to the lastest build).

They are having problems with printing documents. I've decided to grab one of their old PCs (Pentium 3) and install Windows XP Sp3 (slipstreamed) in there. Surprisingly, the Pentium 3 handled WinXP perfectly. I'm planning not to install anything on it. Just bare Windows XP and the Printers (maybe VNC). This PC will be something like the print server.

The office uses two printers. One is the Epson C67 and the other is the HP LaserJet 1020. I've installed these two printers in this Windows XP PC and it is working fine (tested print). This PC is networkly connected via ethernet cable to a Wireless Dlink router (DI-524?). I've also verified that all of the other WinXP PCs in the office can network print through this old Pentium 3 XP print server.

Now here is the problem ..

I can't print anything from any Mac System to my XP Print Server. I can't even install the network printers. I can verify that these Printers are compatible with Mac Leopard/Tiger if the printer is directly connected to it. The are drivers in the Epson/HP website for it.

*BTW, I've created a shared folder in this Print Server PC just to see if the Macs can see it in the Network. Yes, it does.

How can the office staff print with their Macs to the Print Server? Could anyone please give me a step by step guide on how to do this?

I've googled it already but I can't solve it. I noticed that the posts are too old (2004, 2005). I need something more recent and easier. Probably, it would be easier nowadays (10.5.4).

Thank you in advanced!

Sorry for my poor English

Have you tried Bonjour yet?

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/bonjour.html
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bonjourforwindows.html

Soulwar said:

Have you tried Bonjour yet?

http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/bonjour.html
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bonjourforwindows.html

Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. For what I understand, Bonjour will help you network print "from" Windows to a printer connected to a Mac. Moreover, I actually tried it, but I'm out of luck or I just can't understand how to setup it up. I really hope I'm wrong about this. I hope that is how Bonjour works. Can you guide me on how to setup Bonjour to share the Printer?

THank you!

This is a classic weakness of Mac OS X. Basically, the OS doesn't have any facility for port redirection - one of the things that Windows does quite well. This means, that developers develop their printer drivers to print to a specific port. If the printer is not available on the port, the driver does not appear to be available.

Start by looking at this FAQ and see what kind of progress you make after trying some of the suggestions there.

cwa107 said:

This is a classic weakness of Mac OS X. Basically, the OS doesn't have any facility for port redirection - one of the things that Windows does quite well. This means, that developers develop their printer drivers to print to a specific port. If the printer is not available on the port, the driver does not appear to be available.

Start by looking at this FAQ and see what kind of progress you make after trying some of the suggestions there.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. That pretty much answered my questions. Unfortunately, I'm out of luck

Thanks again!