Foo - OK Mac guys, I bought it - now how to print, etc...

My iMac arrived yesterday. I ended up pluging the printer (USB) into the iMac to print, but now I need to get my iMac and 3 PC's on the network and sharing the printer. Everything is in the same room and hard wired to my Linksys router. Before the Mac the PC's all could share files and used the printer that was plugged into my desktop (now plugged into my Mac). I would like to:

Get everything networked so I can share files, especially between the my old desktop and the Mac

I need to get everyone printing again.

Any ideas?

I think I have the Mac configured correctly, but I'm having trouble finding it on the PC's.

I will say the learning curve is fairly steep right now, hopefully it will pay in the future.

Thanks

P.S. I've tried to get the printer to run off the network, but could never get it to work - thus I'm using the USB port and sharing it via the Mac - at least I hope to...

...
P.S. I've tried to get the printer to run off the network, but could never get it to work - thus I'm suing the USB port and sharing it via the Mac - at least I hope to...
"using" :p (see bold text in quote)

Sorry I dunno how to make that work but I would love to get a iMac myself and get rid of this chained down PC of mine.

Good luck with this printer situation.

:EDIT: :o oh I've just looked up iMac and saw that it wasn't the one that I want. well, I still would love to have a Mac computer anyway if just to help keep me away from the PC games that I have and toward biking. :o :EDIT:

Will,
Looking for a Mac laptop

Have you tried putting the printer on the PC and seeing if the Mac can see it. Chances are you're going to have a higher success rate doing this because Mac has a long history of ensuring their proprietary stuff does not work with anybody else but most of the wannabes have to support Windows because 98% of the world uses it. Vulcan Logic dictates that you would may have a higher percentage of success the other way around.

I tried that first, maybe I'll try again.

Thanks

I've had to do this at home with my mom. I suggest hooking the printer up to the PC and setting up printer sharing over the network over that. Then have the Mac connect to the network to print.

Good luck, dude. I never could get a networked printer to work with a Mac. Neither could my Unix guru, Cisco and MCSE certified, state-employed network administrator father. Only once did I even get a Mac to play nice on a LAN with other PCs, and I still don't know what sort of voodoo/alignment of the stars caused it to happen that time, and it only worked for about 15 minutes before mysteriously crapping out.

Have you tried begging it or buying it dinner?

we integrated a G5 into our network at work, and me being a (novice) sysadmin, still had to call a MAC specialist to set up fileshares and printing. Our printers were high end laser color copiers/printers so they both had network cards, which made it alot easier at least from a printing standpoint. There an option to add a NIC or a print server to the equation? Probably a last resort, but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhNIUOkWAmo

Get everything networked so I can share files, especially between the my old desktop and the Mac


create a share on the windows machine, on the mac connect to it with Finder -> GO -> connect to server
type in the IP address or maybe browse for it.

as for sharing the printer... system preferences... sharing... printer. I'm not sure if it will talk smb (aka windows)

OSX makes it easier with Samba. But Macs support everything and are super easy to use, right? This is what you get for buying into THAT sentiment.

When using the printer connected directly to your network, are you giving it a static IP, or is it trying to pull from the DHCP server? Personally, I'd just slap the printer back on the PC, because Macs tend to be happier printing to PCs over the network than Windows boxes having to print to Macs.

Does the printer have a physical network cable, or is it a wireless printer? If you don't mind, what model/make is it?

reboot and call aol.

The Printer is a HP 7210 (built in ethernet), right now I'm trying to get it to work off the router, everything seems ok, the printer and the Mac see each other, but I'm getting a "printing error" message after the MAC is preparing to print, without much to go on from there.

Thanks

just wait for the really hip guy to show up and talk to the dorky guy in the cardboard box.
Everything will work just fine then. Is there a button on your keyboard that you press to make hip guy appear?

http://www.imug.it/immagini/mac_ad_1.png

The Printer is a HP 7210 (built in ethernet), right now I'm trying to get it to work off the router, everything seems ok, the printer and the Mac see each other, but I'm getting a "printing error" message after the MAC is preparing to print, without much to go on from there.Keep the printer on the router and program a fixed-IP address into its print-server from the printer's control-panel. Also give it a name. Then...

On the Mac:

1. Launch the Print Center from the Applications->Utilties folder

2. Click the Add Printer button

3. Change Appletalk to IP Printing

4. Enter the print-server IP address in the Address Box

5. Uncheck the default queue radio button

6. Enter the name of the printer shared name that you setup on your print-server.

7. Select your printer model, if you installed gimp print it should be there, if not pick a close model number. HP-LJ-II will typically work for all HP printers

8. Close print center after the printer was added.


On the PCs:

1. Open Printers and Faxes (Start, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Printers and Faxes.)

2. Under Printer Tasks, click Add a printer to open the Add Printer Wizard, and then click Next.

3. Click Local printer or stand-alone network printer, clear the Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer check box, and then click Next.

4. Click Create a new port, and then click LPR Port. (If LPR Port is not available, click Cancel to stop the wizard. To add the LPR port, you need to install the optional networking component, Print Services for Unix.)

5. Click Next, and then provide the following information:

6. In Name or address of server providing LPD, type the Domain Name System (DNS) name or Internet Protocol (IP) address of the host for the printer you are adding. The host may be the direct-connect TCP/IP printing device or the UNIX computer to which the printing device is connected. The DNS name can be the name specified for the host in the Hosts file.

7. In Name of printer or print queue on that server, type the name of the printer as it is identified by the host, which is either the direct-connect printer itself or the UNIX computer.

8. Follow the instructions on the screen to finish installing the TCP/IP printer.

all hail danno

There are three other ways 1. use Bonjour (just download it from apple and run it on the XP machine).

And there are two ways to use CUPS in OS X 10.4

2. Turn on Printer sharing and Windows sharing (prior to 10.4 it was necessary make sure your firewall is open on port 631, but turning on printer and Windows sharing takes care of this)

Go to the Mac and enter "127.0.0.1:631" in your web browser. This takes you to CUPS. Set up a NEW printer (in ADDITION to the printer setup you use to print from the mac) choosing a short name with no spaces and NOT TOO LONG. 8 letters should be plenty. Adding more than 12 or so will stop windows using it. Tell CUPS where your printer is, but set it up as "raw". You can give it a description if you like.

Go to the PC running XP, and add a new printer. Dont browse for it, just go to the box that lets you type an internet address and enter:
http://your.mac.IP:631/printers/nameofprinter
Then, install the correct printer driver on the PC. By setting the mac up to allow "raw" access to the printer, you get all the functionality of the PC driver.

This was modified from Macosxhints. By the way, you will get your.mac.IP when you turn on printer sharing, it is at the bottom of the page under the sharing tab of system preferences.

3. A variation, after turning on printer sharing, don't go to cups just add the printer give it a name and install the driver for an Apple laserwriter. This works fine with HP laserjets.

I've use these and other methods - method three usually works the best.

Cups + samba ftw! Since OSX, the networking is really demystified. Mostly, because it's now UNIX stuff instead of apple stuff.

Thanks guys!!!!

I got it to print via the network, but it was super slow (1 page per 10+ minutes), so I must have some network issue as well. Anyway I plugged back into the MAC, I need to print for work. Hopefully I can spend some more time on it this weekend.

Thanks guys!!!!

I got it to print via the network, but it was super slow (1 page per 10+ minutes), so I must have some network issue as well. Anyway I plugged back into the MAC, I need to print for work. Hopefully I can spend some more time on it this weekend.

That could be a driver issue also. Is it slow from every pc or just the mac?

Thanks guys!!!!

I got it to print via the network, but it was super slow (1 page per 10+ minutes), so I must have some network issue as well. Anyway I plugged back into the MAC, I need to print for work. Hopefully I can spend some more time on it this weekend.If it's close to the Mac, you can leave it on the network AND plug the USB cable into the Mac. You'll just need to create two identical printers in the PrintCentre; one with network connection and one with USB.

Slightly different subject:

I miss the old HP Laserjet IIIs with postscript. You hooked them up, punched in a static IP address, and pretty much anything can print to it, drivers or no.