So then. I have an iMac, and my two roommates each have an XP machine. We’re using an Airport Express for wireless. I’d like to do two things:
Share a directory on each computer with the other two, so we can transfer files freely.
There’s an HP printer connected directly to one of the XP machines. I’d like everyone to be able to print to it. I know it would be easier to plug the printer into the Airport Express, but space is limited, and the printer’s current location is pretty much the only place it would fit.
Sharing a directory is easy. Macs can see Windows file shares, so just make a shared directory on one of the Windows computers and you can connect to it with Cmd-K from Finder. Type “smb:\<ip address>” to connect.
I’m not sure how to share the printer. We just have a single Windows box hooked up to the printer and remote in when we need to print.
I think that first of all you will need to see if there’s a Mac driver for the printer. If there is one, it might just find it on the network; I’m not really sure.
I use Bonjour (available from Apple’s website) to network my XP laptop to my printer connected to my iMac. I don’t use Airport (I have an old Linksys router) so I can’t help you there, but Bonjour makes networking printers easy.