Just bought a 2.4 GHz Macbook! quick question

[CruJones21]

Long story short I had been a PC user for a long time but always wanted to make the switch to Mac. I have some experience from college with Macs (Web Design Major) so we used Macs in the classrooms. Well unfortunately my house was broken into on new years and they got away with my Dell laptop, xbox, games, and my conference championship ring! So I have been looking for a replacement since and it was a tough decision on what to get but I finally made the switch to a Mac with the Macbook purchase, and it is going smoothly for the most part! I love the computer, it's awesome in every way and I've caught on to everything pretty easily and now its just time to get everything set up.

Everything was going perfectly till i tried hooking up to my printer that is on our network here at the house. I am having the hardest time finding out how to connect to it. I've read many posts and googled a whole bunch of times and now I'm asking ya'll for for any help. It's an HP Photosmart C4100 model, had my previous laptop hooked up no problem to it across the network. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[taskmaxter]

I am running into similar problems. I do not know what type of network you are running, but I am trying to get my Macbook to connect to a Canon printer on a Vista network. I think it is called print sharing. Haven't had much luck yet. Anyway, you can do a search on the "OSX/Network" forum and probably pull some input there.

 

[CoreyMac]

i connected a new canon printer on a network recently...its very simple. Just make sure both computers have sharing enabled. (On a mac just go to system preferences, then the sharing folder, click on printer sharing and enable it and select the printer you want to share (plug it in to the mac first))

dont forget to install the software

 

[CruJones21]

I have sharing enabled on both systems. The printer is hooked up to the vista computer in another room so I'm trying to connect to it on the internet. My MacBook wont find it though when i search for it.

 

[CoreyMac]

I have sharing enabled on both systems. The printer is hooked up to the vista computer in another room so I'm trying to connect to it on the internet. My MacBook wont find it though when i search for it.

did you connect it to your mac also and check the printer off in the printer sharing option? the printer model should come up and be checked in the check box....

 

[CruJones21]

did you connect it to your mac also and check the printer off in the printer sharing option? the printer model should come up and be checked in the check box....

I've never connected the printer to my mac, im trying to hook up wireless over the network. I dont have to physically connect to it do I?

 

[CoreyMac]

I've never connected the printer to my mac, im trying to hook up wireless over the network. I dont have to physically connect to it do I?

Im not expert, but I believe you need to stick the USB in your mac from the printer, go back into the printer sharing option in sharing and check the printer box where it detects it.....then after that you can hook it up to whichever laptop u want as the main one. thats what I did, and now its hooked up permanently to my 15" pro and i print wirelessly on the network with my 13" AlumBook.

 

[CruJones21]

Im not expert, but I believe you need to stick the USB in your mac from the printer, go back into the printer sharing option in sharing and check the printer box where it detects it.....then after that you can hook it up to whichever laptop u want as the main one. thats what I did, and now its hooked up permanently to my 15" pro and i print wirelessly on the network with my 13" AlumBook.

Just hooked it up to the printer and it recognized it. clicked to share it then hooked the printer back up to the other computer and now i can't print again. I don't know why it's not working.

 

[Trip.Tucker]

I have sharing enabled on both systems. The printer is hooked up to the vista computer in another room so I'm trying to connect to it on the internet. My MacBook wont find it though when i search for it.

I would recommend connecting your printer to the Mac as the ideal approach. However, to help address your issues with a Windows hosted scenario:

On your Windows machine, install Bonjour - http://support.apple.com/downloads/Bonjour_for_Windows This will assist in the advertising process on your network.

Have you been able to browse network shares on the Windows machine, FROM your Mac?

[update] Multi versions of Bonjour:
http://developer.apple.com/networking/bonjour/download/

 

[jlewis2k1]

You may want to enable windows sharing, this may allow you to see shared printers on windows networks. I had to do this when i am at my parents before I moved in or when I go to my school.

 

[taskmaxter]

I would recommend connecting your printer to the Mac as the ideal approach. However, to help address your issues with a Windows hosted scenario:

On your Windows machine, install Bonjour - http://support.apple.com/downloads/Bonjour_for_Windows This will assist in the advertising process on your network.

Have you been able to browse network shares on the Windows machine, FROM your Mac?

[update] Multi versions of Bonjour:
http://developer.apple.com/networking/bonjour/download/

Bonjour will only work if it is a true network printer with it's own IP address. If you are trying to print share Bonjour doesn't work. I've been down that path myself.

To the OP, the only way I have remotely gotten this to work from scouring the net using google, is that you need to turn sharing on, enable a feature in windows for Line Printers, and then on the Macbook side you have to go into System Preference and then Print/Fax and choose Line Printer Daemon and point to your servers IP address. I can print this way wirelessly BUT OSX does not have the right printer driver on it so have to use something that is close (but not perfect).

You can read about it more here:

http://macs.about.com/od/macwindows/ss/prtsharevsta104_7.htm

This may not be what you are looking for but am posting in case it is.

 

[sporadicMotion]

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php

alternative and additional print drivers

EDIT: sorry, hp not on the list

 

[LED]

I print wirelessly to my Canon Pixma which is hooked up to an XP desktop on my network.

You need to have the printer shared on the Vista machine. The mac does not need to have any sharing turned on. When you add a printer on the mac, choose Network printers at the top, the printer should show up in the list (it did for me).

As far as driver go, you might not have an exact match for your printer in the list of drivers that the mac os lists. If not, try the gimp-print package. If that doesn't have your printer, then select the closest match (that is what I had to do).

The drivers on the disc that came with your printer do not help at all for network printing. Bonjour will also not help you out.