Printing to Win 7 home network printer

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Hello,

Just bought my wife a new MacBook, OS Snow Leopard 10.6.5. I've spent a good part of my free time the last two weeks trying to get it to print to my home network printer. The printer is attached to my custom assembled HTPC running Win 7 Ultimate, the printer is a Canon IP 100 attached directly to the HTPC and the wireless router is a Netgear Wireless-N 150.

I also have an old IBM T-41, late model Toshiba, Asus 10" and my trusty Lenovo T410 work laptop, all of which I can conect to my home network in a matter of seconds and do anything I want. The Mac is a different story.

This is my first Mac so it took some time and a lot of internet browsing to get where I am, last evening was the first time I was able to access/mount a shared Win 7 folder on the HTPC from the Mac. To do this I had to use the IP address instead of computer name so I'll have to redo it every time the IP address changes, I don't really want a static IP address. I would rather it work properly than use a work around.

I don't need to share files so that part is a null point, I do need the thing to print. I've got as far as having the "workgroup" show up in the first 'add printer' box, then the HTPC show up in the second box, and the printer 'Canon' show up in the third box. I select Canon IP 100 from the drop down list, but doesn't print :p. The printer never appears on the printer list, neither USB or Network, may be significant, but I don't know Macs.

I've installed the Canon IP 100 Mac drivers on the Mac, the printer is shared, works flawlessly with other PCs, but when I try to print from the Mac, it thinks about it, then goes to an "Authenication needed" on the print queue status line, I click an icon above and a UN/PW box pops up, I put in the same info I use for file sharing, it thinks about it, and no go, back to "Authenication needed" or something like that. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks
David and Jovy
 
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I've installed the Canon IP 100 Mac drivers on the Mac

Note: I may not be able to help completely... I don't have and don't plan to have W 7. ;-)
Print drivers on OS X are different than on Windows. Manufacturers are given the leeway of two driver types - CUPS drivers (meaning they work _with_ the CUPS system in OS X) or monolithic drivers (meaning they are self-contained, and the only comm protocols that work are what the writers put in). Manufacturers choose the monolithic type and therefore can limit USB printers with USB-only drivers. (Brother is the only exception to this, by the way.) So, you need a CUPS driver to use the standard Windows Printing comm protocol that is part of the CUPS print system.
Gutenprint (set of CUPS drivers) is included in OS X: Here's where to update:
Gutenprint for Mac OS X
The only other CUPS drivers for Canon I know of:
ZEDOnet | PrintFab Mac OS X | PrintFab - the Printer Driver RIP for Mac OS X

PS- this only matters for non-postscript printers (like inkjets) - OS X printing is based on postscript, so postscript drivers are all CUPS drivers.
 
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Thanks gsahli

I've learned a few things, the Mac will print to the Canon IP 100 via direct connect with a USB cable. Today I even got the Mac to flash the lights on the printer and spit out a blank page by selecting a Gutenprint driver, but for a different model printer.

Following some web advice I did a right click on the printer and reset to clear everything, then added the advanced button to the Add Printer box, went to advanced, selected LPD/LPR Host or Printer for Type and typed in lpd://ipaddress/sharedprintername in the URL box. But when I select my printer in Print Using drop down an error flashes too fast to read and it's not accepted. Like you say, it will accept any printer with Gutenprint after it.

I just downloaded the Gutenprint file from the link you provided but my printer is not listed, looks like older printers. I just I'm out of luck.

Thanks for the reply
 

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