Printing to a Windows network printer without authentication

[timelord726]

A client is trying to use their iMac to print to a printer on a Windows network from Mac OS X, but every single time, it demands network authentication. Even if "save password in keychain" is enabled, it still asks for a username and password every time (and it must be re-entered each time). I can confirm that the same thing happens to me on my MacBook Pro when printing to Windows-based printers. Is there any way to force Mac OS X to remember credentials?

Also, a separate problem is happening to a different user on the same site. Each time she enters her login credentials (which are valid, both on her iMac and on the Active Directory network), Mac OS X tells her that authentication has failed and she is unable to print. Any ideas here?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ewoh24]

This has been a thorn in my side too since Leopard came out. I have found NO fix for this after laboring away for 4 months. I cannot believe this is not more widespread. It absolutely has something to do with AD authorization but darned if I know what the fix is.

 

[r0k]

I'm sorry to hear Apple hasn't got authentication working seamless with AD. I have 3 printers. All 3 are tcp/ip connected printers on the network. All 3 are bonjour. I once had 2 windows based printers. I found in windows that printing is not an inalienable right. No matter how many times I set up shared printers and tried to "allow guest access", people were asked to log in simply to print. At the time, I wasn't using AD.

One thing I did notice that windows sharing didn't work well between differing versions of windows. I know this next bit is going to date me but... 2K couldn't see 98 which couldn't see Me which couldn't see XP. It was very frustrating. I moved shared resources to Linux and never had problems again. Another limitation Windows had was that it could only log in to one server with one identity. This meant if I connected to one of my Linux machines' smb shares as "guest", I couldn't change my mind and log in to a different folder as a normal user. I had to disconnect all connections to that server and reconnect as the normal user.

I'm sure Apple is working to resolve this issue. Almost every OS X point release I get through Software Update says something about windows sharing. Hopefully Apple will get it right with 10.5.5. I did notice that my SMB shares didn't show up reliably in versions prior to 10.5.3 so some improvement has taken place along the way.

 

[ewoh24]

What is so very frustrating is that Tiger worked rather well with AD integration and, at the very least, printing from a Windows print server wasn't a problem at all. I'm baffled as to how it all went wrong in Leopard. I can see that the direction it's trying to move is a good one, but it wasn't at all ready for release.

I've prayed that every update since 10.5.1 would fix some of these issue and frankly, not one of them has. 10.5.4 was supposed to address some mysterious AD issues but nothing that I've noticed.

 

[madmaxmedia]

I've sort of give up hope on this, but I guess it will be fixed eventually. I believe some people have gotten it to work at the Apple.com discussion boards, but their directions have not worked for me.

It's too bad, as printing to a Windows network printer was seamless in Tiger...

 

[ewoh24]

The only "fix" I've seen is impossible for most scenarios in the professional fields as it involves sending unencrypted login credentials. It does work, but is really BAD practice. I've given up hope too and frankly don't believe Apple will fix any of it if they haven't already. Man, what a blow. A Mac that can't print in a corporate environment??? That's unacceptable especially as Apple tries to make inroads in this area.

 

[macindork]

There is one other fix (but this may tick off your fellow it guys)...just add it as an IP printer.

 

[ewoh24]

All well and good for a few Macs and a few printers. Different story with 45 Macs and 23 printers.

 

[r0k]

I prefer ip printers.

Some windows printers require the page to be rendered on the pc and sent across as some proprietary gibberish. No postscript. No PCL. But often there are mac drivers that will render the page on the Mac. The problem arises when the printer isn't on the network directly but is tied to a pc by usb. I dumped all my usb printers but there is another option. You can use an airport extreme to host a usb printer and print to it from both Mac and Windows.

I would think bonjour would work fine even if there are a lot of Macs and a lot of printers. Bounjour isn't perfect but I really love pulling a new mac out of the box and setting it up and starting to print within 3 minutes. No drivers. No CD's. No downloads. Just results.

 

[ewoh24]

Bonjour WOULD be great if it was possible. The problem lies in the poor design of our network which was implemented prior to my employment. All the printers are on a different subnet and VLAN than the Macs which renders Bonjour useless. And AppleTalk too. Windows has no problem skipping subnets. Macs do. And, as there are 400 PCs vs 45 Macs the powers that be (my boss!) think it ridiculous to change this design as it just isn't an issue for a majority of users. I think my point is, minus the particulars of my situation, connecting to a print server should just work without having to do workarounds or having inherent restrictions. Isn't that the point of a Mac? It just works? It kills me to see our Windows users chugging along with none of the issues the Macs do.

I might add too that in an effort to resolve some of these issues I enabled printing on our XServe and set that up. Leopard sees those printers just fine. Tiger doesn't at all. There's obviously something under the hood of OS X that keeps changing in regards to printing. It just doesn't feel polished I guess.

 

[MisterMe]

Bonjour WOULD be great if it was possible. The problem lies in the poor design of our network which was implemented prior to my employment. All the printers are on a different subnet and VLAN than the Macs which renders Bonjour useless. And AppleTalk too. ...

Back in the day, AppleTalk did skip subnets and the networking people screamed like banshees.

Have you tried SMB?

 

[ewoh24]

SMB works but then you're back to the authorization issue when you're using a print server that is tied in with Active Directory, which both the XServe and the Windows print server is. Physically setting up an SMB connection for each brings me back to setting up an IP for each. Doable but painful.

AppleTalk is very chatty too. Not a great option in and of itself anymore.