Sharing A Network Printer?

[OisinisiO]

At first I thought it would be a relatively quick & easy process to share a printer in my house but I was proved wrong as I will explain.

I recently bought a Dell Laser Printer with both an Ethernet and a USB port with the intention of connecting it to my wireless router so it could be shared wirelessly (as you would think possible with a network enabled printer).

I have both an iMac & a MacBook pro running Snow leopard with the printer's driver installed on both machines. Unfortunately that is as far as it goes! Neither of the Macs can see the printer in the Printer Preferences menu despite being successfully connected to the router wirelessly.

I printed out the Standard Network Card / TCP/IP Configuration page and that stated that the printer is successfully connected to the network and had been assigned an IP address (That's what I interpreted it to say but realistically it if full of loads of networking jargon which I don't understand). I have uploaded a copy with addresses blocked out. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32828120/Networked Printer.pdf

I tried adding an IP printer through the Macs 'add printer' utility but it never actually connected to the printer. I tried this using numerous different addresses displayed on the network configuration sheet, none worked.

I have also tried sharing the printer whilst it is connected via USB but still the other computer cannot see it. it would be good but not ideal if I could get this setup working, but I don't really want to have the printer tethered to a switched on computer in order to work. It defeats the purpose of a network enabled printer.

The Printer works with both Macs whilst connected via USB so presumably it is not a driver or compatibility issue.

Also I called Apple Tech support but they don't provide support for printers not connected directly to a Mac, understandable but a pain in the ass.

Many thanks in advance for your support on this matter,

Oisín.

 

[gsahli]

I suggest you try Adding the printer again, connected by ethernet, this time using IP > HP Jetdirect protocol, and use the generic postscript model choice.

Confirm that your printer and computer(s) are in the same subnet by comparing IP addresses - they should all have the first three dot-separated parts the same, but the last part different. Like:
192.168.0.2
192.168.0.3
192.168.0.4, etc.

(FYI, "subnet mask" is another way of saying what I just said, ie, 255.255.255.0 means that only the last part is different on each IP address on the network.)

 

[MisterMe]

...

I recently bought a Dell Laser Printer with both an Ethernet and a USB port with the intention of connecting it to my wireless router so it could be shared wirelessly (as you would think possible with a network enabled printer).

...

There is no need to "share" this printer:

• Plug the printer via Ethernet into one of your router's LAN ports. This makes it equally accessible to all computers on your subnet--wired and wireless alike. [Sharing is necessary for other computers to access a printer that is directly connected to a single computer via a USB or parallel connection.]
• Hiding your IP address does absolutely nothing to enhance your security. The IP addresses that you redacted are local to your LAN and are duplicated by millions of other router users around the world. If however there is an obvious error, then no one here will know. Because we don't know that you made an obvious error, we will not be able to point-out the mistake and will not be able to give you corrective instructions.
• Assuming that your connection is correct, then you should open the Printer & Fax and setup the printer using the LPR [or HP JetDirect(?)] protocol. Use the printer's current IP address.

 

[OisinisiO]

There is no need to "share" this printer:

• Hiding your IP address does absolutely nothing to enhance your security. The IP addresses that you redacted are local to your LAN and are duplicated by millions of other router users around the world. If however there is an obvious error, then no one here will know. Because we don't know that you made an obvious error, we will not be able to point-out the mistake and will not be able to give you corrective instructions.

I have reuploaded the file with Local IP's shown, I thought that they were all local but I wasn't sure. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32828120/Networked Printer.pdf

I have tried all of this through the IP Printer menu but it still doesn't work.

 

[gsahli]

OK, the IP addresses shown are in a local subnet, so that's not a problem.
Did you select the HP Jetdirect protocol in the add a printer ("+") dialog?