Mac USB printers over a network

E

excdngrunt

Registered
bought a usb/network box for to put my usb printer on the home network and available to all. However, My mac only seems to want to intall a laser printer over the network. I punch in the IP address for the printer, but I can't seem to get the printer to register. Keeps wanting a laserwriter. Drivers were intalled for the printer when it was a direct connect. Seems like I'm missing an obvious step but for the life of me can't think of what it could be.

Any Help?
 
It will be helpful if you give the name of the printer.

There is no such thing as a "network box." There are, however, routers and external print servers. You will probably have to use GIMP-print/Gutenprint/CUPS to send jobs to your USB printer over your network.
 
Sorry, was out of country for a bit there.

Yes it is an external print server. ZOT to be precise. I apologise, it's the bad slang we use around the shop for the things.

It's a Canon I450, but not sure what a "GIMP-print/Gutenprint/CUPS" is. I take it, that's a protocol? Seem to remember seeing something like that in the drop down menu's for the printer setup utility.

'Fraid I haven't kept up, especially since Mac's went UNIX. Used to know these things inside and out, now nothing seems familiar, and I'm struggling just a bit.

Thanks for the info, and any clarification would be great.
Cheers
 
CUPS is the Common UNIX Printing System. Gutenprint is formerly GIMP-print, a suite of CUPS print drivers for all UNIX operating systems. CUPS is a part of MacOS X. If a CUPS driver exists for your printer, you can print from MacOS X even if the manufacturer does not support Apple's OS. CUPS also allows the use of printers over a network even if the manufacturer supports only a direct connection to the computer.

What else works is to search the manufacturer's website. It is really quite remarkable what you find when you do this. Who knows, you just might find the driver for your printer.
 
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