Mac Network Printing

[Meros]

I'm an OsX newbie, my experience with it at the moment can literally be counted in hours (I think I'm up to 3 ) Anyway, I'm the system admin for a bunch of users who just bought new iMacs running Jaguar (MacOS 10.2) and I, being the Mac enthusiast have been the one given the fun of setting them up and getting them up and running. I've managed to get them working as far as mapping their network drives but, getting them set up with our network printers still eludes me. They are all Appletalk enabled (the printers) and Appletalk is enabled on the machines as well since it's how I mapped the drives. However, the print utility doesn't see our printers. If you need to know the printers are a Tektronix Phaser 740, and an HP Laserjet 4000 and 4100.

Thanks

[NurseCarmen]

Let me get this straight, in print center (in the utilities folder), you went under printers, scrolled down to add printer, and nothing showed? I did nothing, and I see a HP 4000, a tek 740, and a 780. I need more info, I think.

[AHunter3]

I'm an OS X newbie myself, although less so than you are

I don't know the specific Tektronix printer you're referencing, but I'd imagine all three printers are of the type that would appear in the old (MacOS 9, MacOS 8, etc) Chooser using LaserWriter 8 as your printer driver. If so, they should be available to the MacOS X boxes. You'll have to "add printer" and specify that the printer in question is a networked postscript laser printer, I think. It's a "wizard" akin to the "add printer" routines used by Microsoft operating systems.

Failing that, you can map the printers by specifying their IP address, I believe, and MacOS X will communicate to them using TCP/IP instead of AppleTalk. Again, I'm pretty sure you have to "add printer" and specify the type.

[NurseCarmen]

Damn you Meros! Now I just realized that I can only print within one appletalk zone! That's just plain goofy, my company has 10 zones, and I can only hit one. Meethinks the printers you are attempting to reach are in a zone not selected in the Network Control Panel (System Preferences under the apple menu, Internet & Network, Network)

Now I have to figure out a fix to a problem I didn't even know I had. Grumble grumble grumble.

[NurseCarmen]

When you go to the Add Printer, all zones appear. Since I didn't need to add one, I didn't see it.

[Meros]

Thanks all, I'm going to give a shot at straight TCP/IP Printing for the first round. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Meros]

Ok, latest part of the saga.

I went down to the are we have the new computers set up, ready and confident with my new found knoweldge. I opened up the Print Center Utility, selected add printer and the utility locked up. Not frozen, just no longer responding with the wonderful rainbow swirly mocking my every move.

Any more advice?

[Meros]

Sorry to bump this but my boss is beginning to grow angry and needs a solution by tomorrow afternoon :-\

[5 time champ]

Not sure if this is what you mean but.

I use AppleTalk through the Built-In Ethernet with a router.

SYSTEM PREFERENCES/
NETWORK/

Location: Automatic

Show: Built-In Ethernet

Check the Make AppleTalk Active box

------
Then
APPLICATIONS/
UTILITIES/
PRINT CENTER/

AppleTalk
Local AppleTalk Zone

The printers connected on your Ethernet network should show up in the box
Highlight 4000
Click on ADD
OSX should 'magically' make the 4000 your Default printer

Repeat as necessary for the other printers.

The HP 4000, 4100 and 4200 drivers are all part of OSX, I don't know about the Tektronic.

Maybe turn off the Tektronic until you get the HPs installed.

http://www.officeprinting.xerox.com/cgi-bin/DriverD.pl

will get you the Tektronic OSX drivers.

Good Luck

[Meros]

Unfortunately that isn't the issue. I knew enough about the OS to get that far. The printers we have set up do not show up in the list of printers available on the network, I know they are all Appletalk enabled because I set them up as such myself so I am quite baffled as to what's going on.

In addition to the direct Appletalk connections for the printers I am serving them through an NT Server, is there any way to get the macs printing through that?

[AHunter3]

Got a classic (MacOS 9, 8, etc) Macintosh around? Can it print to the beforementioned printers? (HINT: Can you switchboot to the 9.2 that X is using for Classic environment on the same computer?) If so, your printers and network are set up correctly and your prob is with the MacOS X operating sys prefs in one place or another.

[Meros]

Yes we can print with classic macs, everyone currently using an iMac was using a G3 running 9.2 before now. So, yes, I'm assuming its an OsX issue, if only I could figure out what the issue was lol

[Balthisar]

See if there's anything here that helps:

http://www.balthisar.com/printing/

It's pre-Jaguar mostly, and I've not had time to update it all for Jaguar, but nevertheless there's still a LOT of useful information about Mac OS X printing that may give you the clue to solve the problem.

[NurseCarmen]

This is a no-brainer, but sometimes those are the ones that slip through unnoticed. In the network control panel, are you making the settings for ethernet? A pop down menu above the appletalk tab say's Show: and has 3 choices, Internal Modem; Built-in Ethernet; Network Port Configurations. Just double check that you are in fact setting up the Built-in Ethernet. Internal Modem is the default.

[AHunter3]

Can you share a folder or a drive on one of the classic MacOS boxes (using plain-vanilla AppleTalk, not AppleTalk-over-TCP) and subsequently mount it on the MacOS X desktop? If so, AppleTalk networking is set up correctly and the problem lies specifically with printer or printer-networking settings.