Looking for a OS X compatible print server

[tomdkat]

Greetings! We're wanting to get a HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One inkjet printer shared on a network. I bought a Netgear PS121 USB 2.0 printer server which worked with the HP printer and I was able to print to the printer through the printer server over the network from a Windows machine. I tried printing to the same print server from a Mac-mini running OS X Tiger with no success. It appears the HP Photosmart print driver I installed on Tiger didn't install a PPD in CUPS to allow for network printing. When I connect the Photosmart printer directly to the Mac-mini, I can print just fine. When it's connected to the print server, the print server rejects the print job.

When I define the print server to the Mac-mini, Tiger wants to use the Generic Postscript driver. I define the print server using the IPP printer definition area.

I tried installing Bonjour for Windows XP on the Windows machine and using that to print to the HP Photosmart printer when it was physically connected to the Mac-mini and I WAS able to print a test page once but I made the stupid mistake of changing the printer driver on Windows that was setup by Bonjour and I haven't been able to print to the Bonjour shared printer since. *Sigh*

So, I'm looking for a recommendation for a print server that will hopefully work better with OS X Tiger. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Peace...

 

[gsahli]

The only print server that will work the way you want (using the HP-provided driver) is the Airport Express/Extreme. That's because Apple software does redirection of USB output to the USB port on the Express/Extreme.

Otherwise, all other print servers that I know of use standard protocols - but standard protocols on OS X are provided by CUPS - meaning you have to have a CUPS driver.

When you set up a printer via print server in Printer Setup Utility, if using the LPD or IPP protocols, you have to enter the queue name of The print server. On page 3-6 of the online manual (figure near top), it shows port name P1 (port name = queue name).

For driver, get the hpijs 3-part driver:
http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/hpijs
http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-PhotoSmart_C3180_All-in-One

 

[tomdkat]

Wow! Thanks! I'll give this a try!

Peace...

 

[tomdkat]

Ok, I'm finally getting around to installing this print server again. I can print to it from Windows just fine.

I've downloaded the appropriate PPD file but I'm having problems finding good instructions on how to install it on OS X Tiger. Do I simply copy the file to [System drive]/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/ as described here?

Thanks!

Peace...

 

[MisterMe]

... Do I simply copy the file to [System drive]/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/ as described here?

...

I strongly suggest that your download and install Gutenprint. This bundle of CUPS drivers includes documentation for using CUPS on MacOS X. As for installing a particular PPD file, use Printer Setup Utility. During the setup process, use the File/Open to locate the file on whichever mounted volume it is stored on. PSU will place a copy in the appropriate location.

 

[tomdkat]

Well, I've got GREAT news!!! I've got the Netgear print server working!!!!

I had to install the following:

• hpijs package
• foomatic-rip
• espgs (GhostScript)
• PPD file for printer

Once I got all that in place, I defined the printer server as an IP printer using LPD as the protocol and I had to specify "lp" as the queue name and everything else just fell into place.

Thanks for the great links!

Peace...

 

[tomdkat]

I strongly suggest that your download and install Gutenprint. This bundle of CUPS drivers includes documentation for using CUPS on MacOS X. As for installing a particular PPD file, use Printer Setup Utility. During the setup process, use the File/Open to locate the file on whichever mounted volume it is stored on. PSU will place a copy in the appropriate location.

Thanks. Now that I have it working, should I still install Gutenprint? I've got two more iMacs I'll need to get setup so installing Gutenprint is definitely an option. Or will installing the packages I installed above be the way to go?

Thanks!

Peace...

 

[tomdkat]

As for installing a particular PPD file, use Printer Setup Utility. During the setup process, use the File/Open to locate the file on whichever mounted volume it is stored on. PSU will place a copy in the appropriate location.

When I fire up the PSU, I don't see a "File" menu option. I see "PSU" (in bold) and then "Edit" and "View", etc. I never see any point or place where I can specify the location of a PPD to load.

What am I missing?

Thanks!

Peace...

 

[MisterMe]

...
What am I missing?

...

1. Launch Printer Setup Utility.
2. Click Add to launch the Printer Browser.
3. Click the More Printers... button to open a File/Open dialog box.

Congratulations getting your printer to work. Gutenprint automates what you did manually. I would still install the bundle. I installed Gutenprint even though I use genuine PostScript printers.

 

[tomdkat]

1. Launch Printer Setup Utility.
2. Click Add to launch the Printer Browser.
3. Click the More Printers... button to open a File/Open dialog box.

Thanks. I'm not at the machine now but I don't recall seeing a "File/Open" dialog when clicking "More Printers". I see a dialog where I can choose additional printer types (like Windows Printing, HP IP Printing, etc) but no place where I can choose something from the file system. I'll look again today.

Congratulations getting your printer to work. Gutenprint automates what you did manually. I would still install the bundle. I installed Gutenprint even though I use genuine PostScript printers.

Thanks! I tried Gutenprint on one of the iMacs I had to get working with the networked printer and it didn't come with the driver I needed. I then manually installed the PPD file but it wouldn't print but it was late and that might have been due to user error. I went ahead and installed foomatic-rip, Ghostscript, and the HPIJS driver manually and all things are now working well. Apparently, Gutenprint was already installed on the two iMacs so the version I downloaded upgraded what was already installed.

Thanks again to gsahli and you for all your help!

Peace...