Wireless Printing (from Mac to printer connected directly to Windows PC)

(I'm not sure if I put this in the right section although I tried my best to pick the right one- if I put it in the wrong one would someone mind helping me figure out where I should have put it? Thanks.)

I have an issue that I have not yet been able to solve. I have two computers- one, which I use primarily- is a MacBook Pro (10.6.7 if that changes anything). It is not connected to a printer. It is, however, connected wirelessly to my other computer- a Windows XP PC. This PC is connected directly to a printer- an HP Officejet 5610 All-in-One. Before I got my MacBook, I used the PC exclusively. Thus I have my printer connected to it, and printing from the PC works just fine. However, when I got my laptop, I wanted to be able to print wirelessly to that printer from the Mac. So on my mac, I now have the printer connected to the PC set as my default printer. Here, however, is the issue: I try to print and more than half of the time, it just does not work. So I've taken to sending all the documents I wish to print to the PC, but I'm getting sick of this because it takes extra time. I was wondering if anyone could help me to get this to work so that I can print to the printer from my Mac. Thanks so much for your help!

You've posted to the correct forum. And Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Unless there is some reason you absolutely need to connect to the PC first before printing, why not install the HP OfficeJet 5610 drivers on your MBP and set it up to print wirelessly? A direct connection not only would be faster but it will likely be more reliable. This assumes of course that HP has OS X 10.6.X drivers for the printer. HP generally provides both the Windows and OS X drivers on the same CD that ships with the printer.

The other option, would be to get an Airport Extreme, and hook up the printer to it, (and make it part of the network). That way, you should be able to access and print from any system connected to the network.

WolfsBane said:

The other option, would be to get an Airport Extreme, and hook up the printer to it, (and make it part of the network). That way, you should be able to access and print from any system connected to the network.

Click to expand...

This also works with some routers. I have my printer plugged into my router and all computers on my network (wired or wireless) can print wirelessly via the router connection. Very convenient.

One missing option from the instructions above is to install Bonjour for Windows. Once that's installed, the shared printer should just show up in the list of available printers on the Mac. You may need to install the driver for full functionality, as chscag said above, but I'm guessing the basic HP drivers are included with Snow Leopard or will download through Software Update.