Printing from OS X through Windows XP

M

manic2511

Registered
Hello,

I am a new user of Macs and am desperately trying to get my new MacBook to print on my HP Deskjet PSC 2179 printer. The printer is currently connected to my Windows-based PC and that is connected to my wireless router (Belkin 54g).

I have no problems file sharing, but does anyone know how I can print documents that are on my MacBook to my printer??!

Many Thanks
 
This question gets asked and answered several times a week. Just a quick search of "Windows printing" on this forum or the MacOS X Help menu should give you the answers you need.
 
Thanks for your help. I went through all the steps in that link, but found that section 4 is completely different to my Macbook. The only thing I have is 'Printer Setup Utility". I then ran a search on this forum and found this link: http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/3004.html. After going through all of these steps it seems to have made a bit of a difference. The print job now goes through on OS X as though the job was successfull. Indeed, when I checked the status of the job, it said "Finished" but the document is not printing! My PC and printer are both turned on and nothing is displayed there at all when I print.

Does anyone have any suggestions?!
 
Install the Mac drivers for that printer on your Mac (download from HP's website). Then select the correct driver for your printer.
 
Yesurbius said:
Install the Mac drivers for that printer on your Mac (download from HP's website). Then select the correct driver for your printer.
Click to expand...
Um-m-m, no. The website linked about makes it very clear that you have to use a CUPS driver from Gutenprint (formerly GIMP-print) or OpenPrinting.org (formerly Linuxprinting.org). HP-supplied print drivers are for USB connections which cannot be used in a networked environment.
 
I think this may be the problem that I am having. The printer I have is an HP PSC 2179 All-in-one series and the nearest driver I can find is for an HP PSC 2175. Other than that, I have installed everything I think I'm supposed to, it's just I've got really confused as to what to do?!
 
The PSC 2179 is part of the PSC 2170 family which includes the PSC 2175. If there is a significant difference among these AOIs, you should find them in the manual.
 
MisterMe said:
Um-m-m, no. The website linked about makes it very clear that you have to use a CUPS driver from Gutenprint (formerly GIMP-print) or OpenPrinting.org (formerly Linuxprinting.org). HP-supplied print drivers are for USB connections which cannot be used in a networked environment.
Click to expand...

While that may be true - I've encountered on numerous occasions where the GIMP-Print driver is updated by installing the USB driver.

If that fails - we can always start to do testing on the cups setup and verify that it is setup properly. (You'd do that via Terminal, start with 'man cupsd') Also you can check the logs.
 
Yesurbius said:
While that may be true - I've encountered on numerous occasions where the GIMP-Print driver is updated by installing the USB driver.

If that fails - we can always start to do testing on the cups setup and verify that it is setup properly. (You'd do that via Terminal, start with 'man cupsd') Also you can check the logs.
Click to expand...

How can I test that cups is set up correctly? I have a feeling that it is not. I've played about with so many things through people's kind suggestions that I have a feeling things are all over the place, and I don't know how to get them back...
 
You can go playing around in CUPS if you'd like - delete the printers then re-add them. CUPS lets you define a *LOT* of ways to print to your XP box.

http://127.0.0.1:631/

To be honest - when you are getting to this point, you have to ask yourself if you've done everything correctly on the XP box (firewall, necessary services, and whatnot) - you usually don't have to go 'fixing' things in MacOSX - its a Unix system - it generally just runs and runs without random crashes.
 
Yesurbius said:
You can go playing around in CUPS if you'd like - delete the printers then re-add them. CUPS lets you define a *LOT* of ways to print to your XP box.

http://127.0.0.1:631/

To be honest - when you are getting to this point, you have to ask yourself if you've done everything correctly on the XP box (firewall, necessary services, and whatnot) - you usually don't have to go 'fixing' things in MacOSX - its a Unix system - it generally just runs and runs without random crashes.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure everything on the PC is set up correctly, its just my MacBook can't seem to find the printer.

How do I use CUPS to set it up properly? I have deleted all printers so they are ready to re-add now.

Sorry for the basic questions, I'm not great with computers and am new to Macs so CUPS is a brand new area to me
 
CUPS is an underlying technology. I've used CUPS with Linux originally (Common Unix Printing System) and later with OpenBSD.

1. Click on this link: http://127.0.0.1:631/
2. Click on "Printers" in the top black bar
3. Click on "Add Printer"
4. Fill out fields, then click "Continue". For example:

Name: xpprinter
Location: Next to XP Machine
Description: HP Deskjet 3940

5. Select "Windows Printer via SAMBA", click Continue
6. Enter in the IP address and printer share name of your printer. ie:

smb://192.168.0.1/hpprinter

Which would assume your XP machine's IP address is 192.168.0.1, and the printer is shared as 'hpprinter' from within Windows.

Click Continue

7. Select your Printer's Make, Click Continue
8. Select a driver appropriate for your printer, Click Continue

ie. HP Deskjet Series CUPS v1.1 (en)

9. Finish up, print a test page.

10. Wait a minute, then click on Printers in the black bar again. Under "Printer State", watch for errors, such as:

"Unable to connect to SAMBA host, will retry in 60 seconds...ERROR: Connection failed with error NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL"

Those errors will help troubleshoot the problem.
 
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