Printer sharing - PC to MAC

Hi,
I've got a desktop PC running windows XP and an iBook. I use a netgear DG834G router, which i plug my windows pc into, and allows my mac wireless internet access.

I've been periodically trying to set up my mac so it will print stuff through the printer thats connected to my windows machine, but i just cant make it work. I got close last time i tried, the printer printed off one page with some gibberish text at the top, and then continued churning out blank page after blank page, i had to press the stop button on the printer to stop it. I have a HP deskjet 5940.

I'm thinking the only way ill get this solved is if someone has set up a similar thing and knows the steps they went through. (btw i have set my PC to allow printer sharing)

thanks alot for any help, im very grateful for anything!

I have a PC running XP at my office, and I have set up my OS X 10.3.9 PowerBook to print to its shared printers with no problems.

Go to your Printer Setup Utility, and click add printer. Under the "printer list" drop-down menu, select "Windows Printing"

A second drop-down menu will appear, with "WORKGROUP" displayed. Select "Network Neighborhood" and browse to find your shared computer and printer. Select the printer with your cursor, but DO NOT CLICK ON CHOOSE.

At the bottom, go to the "Printer Model" drop down menu, and find your printer model. This step is critical to ensuring that the correct driver is installed for your printer. After selecting the right model, click "Choose"

It should be set up now. Post if you need further help in setting it up.

Ok, I have a similar problem. I have done all the steps above but the printer model -HP Deskjet 3420 is not listed. After doing some searching on the internet it turns out that OS X comes supplied with the driver for the 3420 BUT it DOES NOT support the printer if it is being accessed wirelessly. I am at a loss as to why not and as to how I get the printer working.

Sometimes spaces in the printer's share name can really scupper things oddly.

Vicky

Hey again,

Thanks for the post, and ive the same problem as the 3rd poster had (sorry forgot your name!) in that the HP deskjet 5940 is not on the list. Is there a way to update the drivers for the mac? or is there a way to type in the name yourself? though of course that wouldnt install any drivers .. im stuck for what to do! any ideas?
thanks a lot for your help though!
Jonny

Install Bonjour on the PC.

Get the latest drivers from the manufacturers website. If they don't exist try Gimp Print, or Foomatic.

MacsWork said:

Install Bonjour on the PC.

Get the latest drivers from the manufacturers website. If they don't exist try Gimp Print, or Foomatic.

Click to expand...

I would really like to figure this out myself. I did the Bonjour thing, but it looks as if it is meant to go from the XP to a Mac printer and I never could figure out any way to go the other way. I have an HP Photosmart 76xx series which Mac does not have a driver for. I downloaded the driver and connected the mac with usb cable and it worked great. However, there is no way to switch it from USb over to a ported IP (my shared printer is also on a dual port wireless print server if I could just to straight to it) or XP share that I can find, so when I go to add another printer that way, the driver doesnt show up in the list - just some very old HP stuff that results in gibberish and blank pages when I use them. The Mac can see the shared printer and connect to it if you just pick any old driver, but you cannot choose the driver it really needs from the list. I did the Footmatic and Ghost with the Linux drivers install, and they all appeared to install correctly, however they do nothing - not even a blank page (although monitoring the printer on the XP machine you very briefly see a spooling message that goes away after a few seconds) but nothing ever prints.

If I could resolve the IP address to include a port designation, I think I could get mine to work. My printer is on 192.168.2.108 on the 2nd port, and you must specify the port number in the IP somehow. Windows uses 192.168.2.1082, but when I put that in the Mac it doesn't work. It has been very frustrating and I have given up many times.

Hi there,
thanks again for the help.
i downloaded bonjour, but i think bonjour needs the printer to be connected to the network its self, and my printer is just connected to my windows PC via USB. any more ideas..?
im sure its a driver problem, but i installed the HP 5900 series drivers on my mac and it didnt make any difference..
Jonny

The printer can be attached to a windows xp box via USB.

Bonjours purpose is to help windows advertise the shared printer to the mac, and allow the mac to use it as a native-ish printer.

ah ok.. but when i start bonjour it doesnt see any printers. says 'no bonjour printers available'.. any ideas?

First have you ensured there are no spaces in the share name for the printer under Windows XP?

Next, have you set up your workgroup correctly? If not, find out your workgroup's name (likely to be either WORKGROUP or MSHOME) and go to /Applications/Utilities/Directory Access, unlock it (with your password) and select SMB/CIFS from the list and Configure... enter your workgroup name there, ignore the WINS server field and OK your changes. Lock the Directory Access app with the padlock and quit it.

Thirdly ensure the HP Deskjet 5490 driver is install in Mac OS X; if not search HP's site or the CDs that came with the printer.

Fourthly, this is how I set up a Samsung 4500 connected to an XP PC to print with my PowerMac (as the Samsung 4500 is not Mac compatible as it uses a parallel port the model that we own). I made sure all the above had been done and then went to Print/Fax prefs, added a printer (click the '+' button) and clicked More Printers... at the bottom. Then I chose 'Windows Printing' from the top drop down gadget and then from the second one it should say 'Network Neighbourhood', the workgroup you configured in Directory Access should appear. Double click it. Your PC's network name should appear in the list, double click it. You will be prompted for a user name and password. Enter a user name and account password that you use on the XP PC.

The printer should now show.

Now from the Printer Model drop down list, select HP and then a new listbox will appear, from the list scroll down to HP 5490—it'll be there in some guise if you installed the driver. Click 'Add' once this is done.

Your printer should now be ready for use from the Macintosh via your wifi to your XP PC. I run a Netgear 802.11b Wifi router and it works fine. Ensure also Windows Sharing is on in Sharing preferences.

Hopefully this little lot should resolve the issue.

Vicky

hmmm...
This is most odd. ive installed the drivers twice, from the disk i got with the printer and also from the web (though i think theyre exactly the same things) and neither make any options appear on the mac when im selecting the printer model. Or at least they dont make any options appear that seem like good ones to select. im really confused! im just updating the drivers on the PC for the printer now, from the net, so ill try the whole thing again after that. (though it cant be that, can it?) ..
thanks a lot for your efforts, really appreciate it, but it appears not to be getting anywhere fast..
Jonny

I'm still in the same situation. I am also looking for an answer.

any more ideas from anyone? i really dont want to give up with this, im sure im just missing one thing but i really dont know what it is.

I'm having a similar problem.. I have an Epson Stylus CX3810 installed on my Wintel Machine (running MCE 2005)... When I add a printer, my Powerbook sees it and I can add it no problem, without selecting the model. However, when I go to select the model, it's not listed. when I try to print, I get a message say "Connection failed with error NT_STATUS_NO_MEMORY" .. Then after about 2 minutes of waiting to see if it'll do anything, I get another message that says "Unable to connect to SAMBA host, will retry in 60 seconds... ERROR: Connection failed with error"

I can connect over the wireless network to my PC and my gf's PC (running XP pro), and see the shared drives no problem, and her pc can print over the network, but not my Powerbook. Any ideas what's up?

That is the exact same messages that I am getting.
HELPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Firewall issue perhaps? Is the Mac in the trusted zone of the firewall on the PC? (Assuming you are running a firewall)

Here try this:

http://iharder.sourceforge.net/macosx/winmacprinter/

I'm actually in the process of researching this matter as well for someone. I'll be trying it either tomorrow or Monday. If this works for you let me know. Thanks.

This ended up working perfectly for me. I suggest anyone trying to share a printer hooked up to a PC with a MAC to follow these steps. The only thing I noticed was that I had to reboot the computer right before starting step 4 when printing a test page. It wouldn't work until I rebooted. From there it was smooth sailing. Good luck.

This may be a dead thread, but...
Ok, Shared the USB Brother DCP 7020 printer on my PC. Driver for the printer is installed on both my PC and my MacBook (can print without problem when connected to printer via USB cable with Mac or PC). Installed Bonjour on my PC, though I agree with others that this seems to only be useful to help a PC find a printer on a Mac, not vice versa. Went to printer/fax setup on the Mac. Went to add printer. Can find the printer on my network, via IP or standard browser. I select it, the specify brand, driver, done. Printer shows up as added. Now I try to print. Best I get is "Printing page 1...24%," then get messages like "NT_ACCESS_DENIED" or "Unable to connect to SAMBA host" or some other geek talk. If i try to select utility, I get the message "Failed to connect to device." I am connected to my network, as I can easily listen to my music that is on a USB drive on my PC through iTunes on my Mac, and can transfer files back and forth to it. Please help!