recommend a multi-function with Windows network?

S

Silks

Registered
I am throwing in the towel on getting my Mac to see and install drivers for my Canon Pixma printer atttached to a shared networked XP machine. Other threads herein have expressed similar frustration (and the guys at the Apple store sold me this piece of junk! but I digress...)

Going back to the store for a multi-function printer/scanner/etc. Can anyone recommend one that is pretty good, AND that the Mac will actually install drivers for and print to, when it's shared and hanging off an XP machine on the network?

Someone please guide me. I'm still a novice to this Mac stuff, and it's been a pretty frustrating ride so far!
Thanks in advance.
 
We have a Brother MFC3240C and it works great for our PC/ mac network. It is plugged into the airport base station, and my husband accesses it wired from there. I use it wirelessly with my PB. The CUPS drivers are readily available on the Brother website and after I downloaded the driver, my PB just "found" the printer. Quite simple! I am told that Brother is one of the better companies for this kind of support.

Good luck!
 
Hi, Silks,
I don't recall if I'm the one who responded to you before...

Network printing/Windows printing only works with a driver that was meant for network printing. To use the OS X built-in CUPS network choices, you need a CUPS driver. For postscript printers, it's not an issue, because postscript is the native output of OS X, and can easily be routed to the various choices in Printer Setup.
Non-postscript printers are Very Different. Except for Brother, no manufacturer has provided CUPS drivers. Instead, what you get are Carbonized, OS9 legacy drivers, that have the comm protocol written into the driver (mostly USB). They can only print via local connection.
**Exception - when printing via an Airport/Bonjour enabled print server, where the software does a port redirection, USB output from the Mac gets routed to the USB port on Airport Express/Extreme.
***2nd exception - printers with ethernet or wireless built-in always come with network-capable drivers. I guess that's why they're $100 more.

The only CUPS drivers for Canons newer than 6 yrs old is from www.printfab.net. It costs $60, but may save you being disapointed all over again with some other multifunction.
 
Hi gsahli:

1. You did answer a question for me ages ago about network printing, but I gave up on that effort a while ago. You were right about the kinks not being 100% out of the Airport Express and Tiger combo at the time.

2. OK, so let me simplify your answer, and see if I’m reading you right…
A. This download (after paying my license fee, of course) will install on my Mac.
B. When I find my printer hanging off my XP computer, and try to configure it, I will now have some sort of Canon ip4000-like driver listed for me to use with that printer.
C. The driver will print more or less as well as the Canon ones would have if the Canon people had been so kind as to let me install theirs.
D. And it will all happen without the printer having to be connected to my Mac.

3. And, even if I bought another printer of some sort, and even if the helpful (but still somewhat novice) rep at the Apple store told me otherwise, I would likely still have this problem with another machine if it was attached to an XP box on my network, unless it had some sort of networking capability built into it (?)

This all just sounds way too easy…
 
OK. I thought it sounded too easy.
Drivers downloaded. Printer found in print setup. Cool. Proper printer drivers were right there where I had expected them all along (Thank you PrintFab!)

Try to print a simple page... Failure.
First message: Connection failed with error -- NT_STATUS_NO_MEMORY
Followed by: Unable to connect to SAMBA host

Might as well be speaking Russian. Helloooo. What does that mean?

I thought this Mac stuff "just works".
Not my experience so far, but still hoping...

KAS
 
Couple of things could cause your latest symptoms - Do you have the WinXP firewall ON but haven't allowed printer sharing?

Do you have 1) an account on WinXP (a username:password) that matches what you use to login on the Mac (this is easiest)? 2) if not, do you have guest user enabled (next easiest)? 3) or, do you know a username:password for any account on the PC?
 
Turned the firewall off. Printer is shared. Login and pswd on my XP box are identical to the ones on my Mac.
On the Mac, I have SystemPreferences|Sharing|Printer Sharing and Windows Sharing both turned on.

Still, when printing... "Unable to connect to SAMBA host...Connection failed with error..."

What is SAMBA, and is it something I have to install on the XP box to be able to print to it?
 
SAMBA is the opensource clone of the default Windows XP networking protocol. There is nothing you need to install on your Windows computer to enable it.
 
Silks,
Try turning on Guest on the PC User Accounts control panel.

Try this for low level troubleshooting - open the Terminal on OS X (Utilities).
Type this command:
smbclient -NL IP_address_of_PC_here (& return)

This wil give an error message about not being able to login, because "-NL" means no login - but otherwise will list all shares that the Mac can see on the PC.

Paste back what you get.
 
Guest is on at the XP box.
Terminal session:
Last login: Sun Aug 13 11:11:35 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
imac:~ ken$ smbclient -NL IP_address_of_PC_here
Connection to IP_address_of_PC_here failed
imac:~ ken$

Hmmm... that doesn't look good, does it?
 
Here is what I get:
greg% smbclient -NL 192.168.0.11
Domain=[NEW_ANCHOR] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
My Documents Disk
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
D$ Disk Default share
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
SharedDocs Disk
Epson900 Printer Epson Stylus COLOR 900 ESC/P 2
C Disk
D Disk
Socket_4ML Printer HP LaserJet 4L/4ML PostScript
My Pictures Disk
Hot_Printer Disk
Printer2 Printer Generic / Postscript
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
Greg Disk
session request to 192.168.0.11 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[NEW_ANCHOR] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Server Comment
--------- -------

Workgroup Master
--------- -------

So, I think there's something wrong with Windows XP - oh-oh - is it XP Home Edition? I don't have that, so I don't know what it supports.
Again, wait -- you did substitute a real IP address for "IP_address_of_PC_here," right?
 
duh.
OK, lets try this again, WITH MY IP ADDRESS... (not surprisingly, it works better this way...)

Last login: Sun Aug 13 14:53:39 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
imac:~ ken$ smbclient -NL 192.168.1.100
Domain=[SERVER] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
E$ Disk Default share
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
Ken Disk
Sue Disk
CanonIP4000 Printer Canon PIXMA iP4000
Music Disk
MoreMusic Disk
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
Kelly Disk
Andrew Disk
session request to 192.168.1.100 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[SERVER] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Server Comment
--------- -------

Workgroup Master
--------- -------
 
OK, so now it looks perfectly normal to me.

Try following through with this guide:
http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/3015.html

If it doesn't work, I would try the Advanced method - hold option key while clicking More Printers, which gives a new protocol option - Advanced. After selecting advanced, in the next menu select Windows Printer via Samba.
Fill in the URI like this:
smb://IP_address/share_name

Good luck.
 
Success! Thank you so much for your patience...

But it wasn't that easy.
I have followed both suggestions, the one proposed at iFelix above as well as the "advanced" version documented in another iFelix article and at Apple here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301397

All failed miserably, using all variations of smb:// URIs (see Apple article above... I tried them all...)
I have also tried recommendations <for hours...> in past posts at approximately 6 other Mac support forums--seems this is a VERY common problem...
Always got: NT_STATUS_NO_MEMORY
Followed by: Unable to connect to SAMBA host

Finally, THE SOLUTION THAT WORKED FOR ME was a combination of
A. the Apple article above
URL: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301397
Section: "How to manually add a Windows shared printer"
and

B. tweaks in it found at macosHints.com at
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060704025823635
which required three things:
1. use a URI of smb://guest@workgroup/servername/printer

2. Open up Terminal and enter:
#ln -s 'which smbspool' usr/lib/cups/backend/smb

3. Restart.

I have absolutely NO idea what step 2 does, but I imagine it does some magic that, when combined with a restart, makes something work.

And I can now print from my Mac and my Windows machines.

I've posted so much detail here in hopes that someone else might search on the errors above and find our shared pain and at least one solution that seems to work.

My deepest thanks to all...
KAS
 
I'm glad you worked it out!

Step two made a link (like an alias) to smbspool. This is something that the OS X installer is supposed to do, but apparently failed to in your case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top