I am new to MAC. My son wanted a Macbook so we got him one. Everything works OK but I don't know how to install the network printer. I know he's connected to the network because he has internet. My config is we have a desktop that stays on all the time and is wired to the router. The printer is connected to that desktop. There are 4 Windows XP laptops in the house (wireless) and they all print on the network printer just fine. The problem is the way I'm used to adding a printer on a PC isn't the same with MAC, at least I don't think it is. So we downloaded and installed the MAC printer drivers for that printer. The printer shows up on the MAC so I know it's installed, but when you try to print, after a few seconds the icon goes to printing paused. I'm guessing the MAC thinks the printer is attached to it rather than through a network, as I don't recall any popups asking if the printer was network or not. How can I fix this?
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Network printer install problem
- Thread starter Virginiadc
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Welcome!
I'd like to clear it up before someone else does for you...Mac, not MAC
Just a friendly tip.
This may help you:
http://justin.thehaggertys.net/?p=167
Maybe this too:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=91328
I'd like to clear it up before someone else does for you...Mac, not MAC
Just a friendly tip.This may help you:
http://justin.thehaggertys.net/?p=167
Maybe this too:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=91328
No joy with either of those solutions. I thought Macs were supposed to be easier to work with than PC's. If this was a PC it would take me all of 10 minutes to get a network printer up and running. But Mac? What's all this about plug and play? Even the solutions were compex.
Simply go through the Printer's Preference Pane, readd the printer, once added, should work just fine, so long as you can find it over the network. It pauses because it is sent an error from the printer, or can't get a response to it.
TEG
TEG
You've found the one thing that Windows does better than Macs - ie install a network printer easily. Why Apple haven't sorted this out I don't know.
Try this:
System prefs > Print and Fax > click the + sign lower left to add a printer.
In the new dialog box that appears, select the icon marked IP, choose LDP as the protocol, enter the IP address of the machine that the printer is connected to (or the IP address of the print server or a standalone network printer, depending on your setup). You should be able to leave the queue blank. Fill in the name and location with text of your choice, and then choose the make and model of the printer.
If this method doesn't work for you and you feel you've tied yourself in knots, try opening Safari and type 127.0.0.1:631 in the address bar. This will open up a Unix printer setup page and you may be able to work your way through it - as an example, I have a print server plugged into a Brother laser printer on my network, and it shows up as having a device URL of lpd://192.168.1.29/lp - which means the protocol is LDP, the IP address is 192.168.1.29 and the queue name is lp (that's lower case LP). The IP address is that of the print server and is fixed, not allocated by DHCP.
Hope this helps - I understand your frustration as I have to do this myself every now and then, and I struggle.
Try this:
System prefs > Print and Fax > click the + sign lower left to add a printer.
In the new dialog box that appears, select the icon marked IP, choose LDP as the protocol, enter the IP address of the machine that the printer is connected to (or the IP address of the print server or a standalone network printer, depending on your setup). You should be able to leave the queue blank. Fill in the name and location with text of your choice, and then choose the make and model of the printer.
If this method doesn't work for you and you feel you've tied yourself in knots, try opening Safari and type 127.0.0.1:631 in the address bar. This will open up a Unix printer setup page and you may be able to work your way through it - as an example, I have a print server plugged into a Brother laser printer on my network, and it shows up as having a device URL of lpd://192.168.1.29/lp - which means the protocol is LDP, the IP address is 192.168.1.29 and the queue name is lp (that's lower case LP). The IP address is that of the print server and is fixed, not allocated by DHCP.
Hope this helps - I understand your frustration as I have to do this myself every now and then, and I struggle.
I broke down and called Apple, as I still have tech support. The CSR said that printing off a network printer that is attached to a Windows machine is not a configuration that is supported by Apple! He did try to help me though. While we tried a few things we did not get the problem resolved in the time frame that I had (lunch). We did get a little further along though. Right now, I can click the + to add a printer, then click Windows, and the mshome shows in the left pane and when clicked the computer the printer is connected to shows in the middle pane. That's where the problem begins. When I click on the Windows computer, I get a popup that asks if I want to login as a guest, or as Cody (my son's Macbook). I can't get past this point, as it the asks for a username and password. I am assuming it is the Windows login, but I don't have a Windows login, I left those fields blank on setup so there is none. Any ideas what is going on now?
That's not really fair, setting up a proper network printer, ie one that has its own NIC and server is easy peasy under either OS.
Given the hassles of filesharing XP-OsX (not hard but certainly not straightforward to begin) sharing a printer from one sytem to the other was always going to be 'interesting'.
If you don't mind dropping another £30-£45 then way the neatest solution would be to buy a little standalone printserver for the printer. Then all issues surrounding logging on to other platforms and both machines needing to be on power etc go away completely. Either computer would just print to the printer like it wasn't connected to the other.
The printer isn't actually on the network. The desktop is, and it's sharing access to it with other network users. This works very easily between XP machines.
As I say, a proper print server box is the best answer, but these instructions might help if you want to continue with your existing hardware... http://http://macs.about.com/od/macwindows/ss/sharewinprttig.htm
or similar... http://macs.about.com/od/switchersnewusers/tp/Sharing-Your-Windows-Printer.htm
If you want to go the print server route, then pretty well any of these http://www.google.com/products?q=wireless+print+server&btnG=Search+Products&scoring=p should do the trick nicely... and you then wouldn't need to leave that desktop on 24/7. Just think of the power saving!
good luck!