sharing a printer from a pc to a mac with a wireless router.

[nick101181]

I don't want to buy a print server because they're 100 bucks or more. I enabled sharing of the printer in windows but How exactly do I configure it for the mac? Do I have to tell it the printer is on the ip address of the pc? like 192.168.0.100? Also do I have to forward ports or anything coming from the mac? I think the router gave the mac and address of 192.168.0.103 and I believe it tries to find the printer on port 631 or 671 I dunno. Any ideas?

[simonko]

Is your MAC and Windows machine one the same network? Can they see each other from the desktop (network properties)? Can they ping each other from the command promt? Did you install the printer drivers for that printer on your MAC?


If you are running XP and OS X it should be almost automatic.

[nick101181]

yeah i'm running osx and windows xp. I don't think they can see each other. I do know that I can send her say a file thru yahoo messenger and she can get it but she can't send me stuff sometimes thru yahoo messenger or sometimes it comes thru but it's delayed. Yahoo messenger is supposed to detect when 2 computers are on the same network and send files @ 10/100mbps. Will installing the drivers o nthe mac make it work? Because I don't have the printer drivers installed on it yet. We're on the same network. I told the mac to look for the printer on 192.168.0.100 which is the ip of my pc on the network and it says searching 192.168.0.100 on port 631 but then says busy and doesn't do anything.

[redwudz]

I had my network with a Mac and a PC set up for a while to use a shared printer. The setup depends a little on the OS version of the Mac. First the networking has to be set up as simonko said.

You have to be able to see both machines on the PC and the Mac. I finally got tired of making sure the PC was on to print from the Mac and got a router with a print server included. This is really the easiest way, pretty much transparent with all machines on the system.

I would spend a little time in a Mac forum as that is where I got all my info. If you have the correct printer driver on the Mac and the PCs, you just need to enable sharing of the printer on all machines. I don't recall having to make any port settings, but my printer is USB.

[rallynavvie]

Install the OSX printer drivers for that printer on the Mac first of all.

I'd explain it all but it's a long process. There is a very good walkthrough here:
http://iharder.sourceforge.net/macosx/winmacprinter/

LPR to a networked printer is still the best and easiest option though.

[ViRaL1]

You can find the D-Link DP-301P+ print server on PriceGrabber for $55. It offers web based configuration and supports multiple protocols such as TCP/IP , NetBEUI, EtherTalk and AppleTalk. I'd recommend it over sharing it through another computer because it means that computer will always have to be up and running in order for the other PC to print to it. Not to mention that large print jobs will bog down both computers. I got a good deal on my print server and it's Mac compatible as well. However, I can't find it for sale anymore.