Help-Can No Longer Find Network Printer

[raf66]

Hi everyone. I have an iMac on one floor of my home and I have, for the past 11 months, wirelessly printed to my HP laser printer which is connected to a Win computer on another floor of my home. The printer is shared on the network and another Win computer in my home can still print to it wirelessly but in the last 2 weeks or so my iMac no longer sees the printer. I've not done anything differently that I can point to that may have caused the change. It just doesn't seem to be communicating with my wireless network anymore, at least as far as finding shared printers goes. I'm still connected to my wireless network in order to share my dsl router/internet service provider.

Any ideas how I could try to "find" the printer (or my Win computer)?

Thanks and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 

[-aggie-]

Try deleting the printer and re-adding it.

Otherwise, you might try linking to the printer with a USB and reinstalling the printer and making sure it's pointing to the right IP address.

 

[raf66]

Thanks for the reply -aggie-. When I click on the hardware section of system preferences and choose printer & fax, I can click on the plus sign to add a printer, I then go to the Windows function across the top (i.e. Default Fax IP Windows) and it finds my wireless network and the Win computer that the printer is attached to (and shared from) but DOESN'T find the printer.

This just has me puzzled. Thanks again.

 

[MisterMe]

... it finds my wireless network and the Win computer that the printer is attached to (and shared from) but DOESN'T find the printer.

...

This has been discussed on this forum too many times to count. You cannot use a USB print driver to communicate over the network with a printer connected to a Windows computer. You need a CUPS driver such as are bundled with Gutenprint. You may also share your Windows printer as a generic PostScript (LaserWriter) printer. Instructions are available in your Finder Help menu.

MacRumors.com has a guide that will help you. You may find it here.

 

[-aggie-]

This has been discussed on this forum too many times to count. You cannot use a USB print driver to communicate over the network with a printer connected to a Windows computer. You need a CUPS driver such as are bundled with Gutenprint. You may also share your Windows printer as a generic PostScript (LaserWriter) printer. Instructions are available in your Finder Help menu.

MacRumors.com has a guide that will help you. You may find it here.

I could be wrong, but I believe he has a wireless printer. So, he should be able to print to it, even if it is connected by USB to a Windows computer. I have a Canon MX860, and after doing what I suggested above, I got the IP address for the printer and then was able to print wirelessly from my MBP. The printer is also connected to a Windows computer.

 

[jmedley]

raf66, this may be a completely different problem, but a while back a women at work called and said she could no longer see any of the printers online. After doing some research online, I went to her computer and in terminal typed sudo ./usr/sbin/cupsd. This restarted the common unix printing system and she was backed to being able to see all printers. Not sure why it happened, but she had to do this every few weeks.

 

[raf66]

This has been discussed on this forum too many times to count. You cannot use a USB print driver to communicate over the network with a printer connected to a Windows computer. You need a CUPS driver such as are bundled with Gutenprint. You may also share your Windows printer as a generic PostScript (LaserWriter) printer. Instructions are available in your Finder Help menu.

MacRumors.com has a guide that will help you. You may find it here.

I do recall doing the steps mentioned in MisterMe's post when I first set up the network and had it running correctly. I'll try those steps again to see if I can re-do it, though I'm not sure why it would've been undone.

-aggie-, my printer is actually not wireless. It is connected via usb to the Win computer.

jmedley, I'll try your terminal command idea too.

Thanks again for your ideas.

 

[Steve-M]

Have you made any changes to the firewall on your Mac? If you have it enabled, try turning it off and see if you can print. I know on 10.5.8 if you have your firewall set to "Allow only essential services" you can not see a windows printer across a network.

 

[-aggie-]

I do recall doing the steps mentioned in MisterMe's post when I first set up the network and had it running correctly. I'll try those steps again to see if I can re-do it, though I'm not sure why it would've been undone.

-aggie-, my printer is actually not wireless. It is connected via usb to the Win computer.

jmedley, I'll try your terminal command idea too.

Thanks again for your ideas.

Well, if it's not wireless I doubt you'll get this to work. I used the method suggested in the guide and it never worked for me (I have the same setup as you, but I later used the wireless capability of my printer to finally get it to work).

 

[raf66]

The printer is not wireless but it has worked for nearly a year without a hiccup. Here's what I've deduced: I can go in and find the shared pc in finder. When I click on it to connect it asks for a login name and password. When I first set it up the Win pc had a login name and password associated with it but I removed that several months ago. Now, however, the name and password that I used to use doesn't work and it won't let me login as a guest.

Again this is perplexing since a Win pc on another floor is still connected to the same shared printer network and prints effortlessly. What is making this even more difficult is that the Win pc that the printer is actually attached to has a screen problem all of the sudden and is so black that you really can only make out a few words faintly. Other than that new development the computer seems to be functioning normally but I can't really see to be able to check to if the printer's still shared or if the pc can even see my Mac.

Thanks again to everyone who's tried to help.