Can PC print using a networked Mac's printer?

Factual Questions
1

Someone asked me this question; my instinct is “no”, but I thought I’d throw it out here. Think Different! :slight_smile:

I don’t have all details, here’s but my understanding: The Mac is an iMac running OS-X (unsure what version) with an inkjet printer attached. The PC is a laptop, (brand not known), running XP. They are connected together via a wireless AP.

Can the XP laptop somehow print using the iMac’s printer via the network?

If the answer is No, I thought as a last resort the PC could “print” to PDF, and the iMac could manually print that doc.

2

I’d be extremely surprised if it could not work…especially considering that over my old home network here my imac and powerbook can print through an nt4 or xp computer.

3

Yeah, I would have figured the same; I’ve printed from a Mac to an XP-served printer, but not vice-versa.

4

It can definitley be done but there are several ways to go about it. It isn’t just a matter of taking the laptop into the wireless access area and hitting “Print”. There can be hardware or software installed on the Mac, network, or printer that makes it happen however. It really depends on how important the issue is whether it is worth it. If it is just an occasional Word file, then it may just be easier to transfer it to the Mac and print it from there.

Here is a sample article that tells how to do it. It costs money but the intro may give you some ideas for your own free searches.

BTW, it is generally much easier for Macs to share PC printers than the other way around.

5

On your Mac, go to System Preferences, and select open the ‘Sharing’ item.
On the services tab, make sure “Windows Sharing” and “Printer Sharing” are on. Same on the Firewall tab.

At the top of the Sharing window, right beneath the Computer Name field, it shows you what name other computers on your local subnet can use to access your system.

For example, if my system is “Jim’s Computer”, it might say that “Other computers on your local subnet can reach your computer at Jims-Computer.local”. You can change this name by clicking the ‘Edit’ button.

You can run “net view <SystemName>” on a windows command prompt to see the share names.

If you have a firewall running on your windows machine (and you better!!!), such as ZoneAlarm or the built-in Windows “firewall”, make sure you allow the packets through.

6

siouxchief, that sounds like what I need.

Questions: On the PC side, does the user browse for the Mac printer, create a new printer and enter a path (e.g \jims-computer.local heprintername) or use the Search command and connect to the printer? Or something else?

I ask because (at least for me) on an XP machine I can’t browse or use a path to a Mac network share – I must use Search->“Find Computers or People”->Find Computer->(some Mac’s name)->login. I’d assume a Mac-connected printer would have a similar issue.

7

You can browse for your printer, and see all of your shares, provided you create an account on your mac that mirrors your ID/password of your windows user. Otherwise there may be authentication issues. If you create a new user on your mac to mimic your windows PC, note that you DON’T need to log in as that user on the mac–it’s just for authentication of the windows pc.

I’ve also seen it recomended that you make your Mac workgroup name the same as your windows workgroup name.

If you do these things, then if you type “net view” from your command prompt in windows, you should see both your windows computer AND your mac computer in the list.

The best way to ensure you have connectivity to your mac is to start the web server on the mac, and pull up “http://MacName/” in IE on the windows box. If your system name is “Mac.local”, then “http://Mac/” should work.

You should be able to browse for the network printer, or enter the name directly such as “\Mac\printername”. I have no trouble doing this…I’m running Mac 10.3.7 and Windows XP SP2.

I should clarify that I am not an expert at this and we’ll probably need someone else to chime in if you have specific problems with your printer driver.

8

Oh. Just remembered. If you’re one of the fortunate ones with a printer that will connect to your AirPort device, then just connect the printer to the AirPort instead of to the Mac, and download and install Rendezvous for Windows Technology Preview 3 on the Windows PC.

Then Rendezvous on Windows will allow you to automatically detect your printer. Supposed to be pretty easy.

Unfortunately I don’t think it will detect it if the printer is installed on the Mac–only on the AirPort. Hopefully they change this in the future.

Let me know if that works. I am not one of the fortunate ones…

9

If you have problems with the built-in sharing, I’m sure you can do it through by running SMB/samba on the Mac.

10

Wow, thanks for all of the detailed information. I’ll pass this all along to my friend.

11

Here is a pretty detailed page with screen shots that describes the whole process.

Hopefully one of the solutions we presented will work for your friend…