2008
03.26
03.26
Holly smokes, I’m sure you will bow to me for figuring this shit out because I couldn’t even find from Google or the Apple support site/forums… After hours of digging ( literally had a shovel to my computer ready to smash it into pieces ) I’ve managed to finally print something from Mac to a shared vista printer. My printer is an Epson Stylus CX4800, but I’m sure this method will work for any.
Let’s start with Windows Vista.
- Make sure you can print from Windows before you start, I’d love to help with this but my patience is thin after hours of twiddling.
- Once you can print from windows, goto control panel, Programs and Features
- Click Turn windows features on and off
- Print services, make sure all that stuff is checked.
- Goto Control Panel, Printers
- Right click your printer, click sharing
- Make sure Share this printer is checked, keep your share name short ( I use the name printer )
- There’s a link Network and Sharing Center at the top, click that ( or go there from control panel )
- Make sure printer sharing is on, you can optionally turn off Password protected sharing, I mean, seriously, do you want to enter a password every time you print?
- Take a break, that was rough.
Let’s head over to Leopard
- Note. You may need to install your printer drivers first if they aren’t in the list
- Goto Apple, System Preferences, Print & Fax
- Click the little + button
- Right click or CTRL click the top grey bar and click “Customize Toolbar”
- Drag “Advanced” to your toolbar, click done
- Click “Advanced”, this will probably freeze or be greyed out…. Have patience, wait.
- Wait a little more
- Still nothing? Click another button, say ip, then click advanced again
- There we go, now for TYPE:, select windows
- URL: type your ip address of your windows computer, follow by your printer share name so it looks something like smb://192.168.0.111/printer
- Print Using: Select a driver to use, then select your printer and click add
- You now have a brand spankin new printer in your list
- Print a page and pee your pants, you are done.
How anyone can figure out something so convoluted is beyond me, bravo technology, I love the.
worked like a charm… you are the man!
I am zeroing in on a method using Ghostscript running on the Vista machine to provide support for Windows-only printers with no Mac support (like the Lexmark mentioned earlier). Once working, this will allow use of the Generic Postscript driver to print to the shared Vista printer which can be any type as long as it works under Vista
Thanks for the help i refer back to this all the time when I connect to a network printer through a windows network. Has worked every time and has saved me a lot of hassle.
Freaking awesome man!
Your site and then some info about gutenprint finally got me able to print from my MacBook to my Canon MP 800.
This has been bugging me for MONTHS.
Bollox
Everything worked as advertised, but the printing. I get the following error: Unable to connect to CIFS host, will retry in 60 seconds…Please help1
mate, you are a rareexample of awesomeness!
Thank you! I spent hours on this until I found your post… you are the man!
Dude you are a god. I have sat here for a good 2 hours trying to figure out how to configure my macbook with my vista desktop and this worked perfectly after trying 10 billion different methods. Thank you a ton. Your guide is a huge help.
I just wet myself.
The first fully-functioning communication between my PC and Mac. Brilliant.
You should write a book on Mac how-to’s.
Cheers.
Dude. You are the freaking man. I started ready one tutorial and it was telling me to edit my registry. What the heck was he doing? Thanks.
I can find the Vista printer on my mac, add it, even print to it and see it pop up on the spool on Vista, sit for awhile, then go away as if it printed, but the printer did nothing. No error message or anything. Anyone have any ideas? The printer is a Canon PIXMA310 and I am using the driver right off the CD.
Thank you! Thank you! And thanks to Evan for the ipconfig tip. Had forgotten how to do that. You guys rock!
From a new Mac user…
DITTO!!
Now my wife is not so smug talking about how easy her Mac is.
OH THANK YOU KIND SIR! Oh my god this is such a relief. I’ve been frustrated for a while.
Are you angel sent down from the heavens? If not, you sure could have fooled me!
Thanks to you, I am now able to suckle on the warm, supple teat glorious wireless printing.
Many thanks indeed!
[...] Click Here [...]
Hey thanks for your help. Before I found your post I first tried using lpd://servername/printername, but couldn’t get that to work…not sure why. After finding your post and using smb I was able to print to Vista from the Mac. Thanks again.
I followed the above steps but when I typed in Vista’s IP address and the printer name, the IP address became the printer name (rather than the opposite). I tried reversing the two, which properly changed the name of the printer, but still didn’t get the printer to print from the Mac. Any thoughts?
I don’t know if this pertains to a lot of other people, but if you’re trying to print over a network to a Windows Vista printer using a PCL print driver, make sure after you follow the above steps with the SMB connection NOT to use the manufacturer’s print driver! I know I wasted half an hour of my life printing out gobbledygook on my Ricoh Aficio printer even after following the above steps because I downloaded the printer drivers from Ricoh and selected that printer-specific driver from my Macbook.
Instead, if you’re trying to print to a Vista PCL networked printer, be sure to select Generic PCL 6 (or 5e) printer driver that Apple provides (Gutentype or some such?). Simply search for “PCL” on the printer driver screen rather than your specific model of printer.
Hopefully this tip to select the Generic PCL printer driver where appropriate will save someone some of the headache I just went through!
Thanx for the PCL thing… I’ve been like 10 hours strugglin’ with the @%$#”! VISTA, and finally printed the page I needed to start working!
Thanks for this!
FYI the way to find out your IP address on Vista is to run ipconfig from the command line. To do that:
Start Menu / Search for cmd.exe / from the command line type in “ipconfig” (without the quotes) and press Enter. You’ll get a bunch of info about your IP address. I used the IPv4 address of my Ethernet adapter and it worked.
doesn’t work for me, home vista premium – I’ve tried a dozen variations. Some send the file there – but it never prints, some can’t communicate enough to sent the file.
totally broken
Yolanda Polk, if Lexmark don’t write a driver there isn’t much you can do but trial and error with postscript drivers. I boycotted Lexmark a long time ago due to their shit products and support, it’s a terrible company unfortunately.
My Epson Stylus CX4800 is still kicking and have no complaints. I actually have 2 of them, one for the wife’s office. I would recommend them. Funny story actually, my first Lexmark 4400 ink holes got clogged. I called them up , they said they’d send me a new printer. I couldn’t wait so I brought it back to futureshop, they didn’t have 4400′s so they gave me a new 4800. A few weeks later I received one from Epson. Epson also sent a 40$ visa for me to buy new ink. Good company.
Cheers.
Well done! After trying 10+ different methods, this one actually worked.
Thanks!
YOUR TIP WAS THE BOMB!! THANK YOU SO MUCH. I only have one problem though and I am hoping you can help me with it. I hear my printer initiate printing but nothing comes out on the paper. I have of course verified my printer prints on my vista pc and it does like a charm! The type of printer I am using is the following:
Lexmark X7350 multi-function printer (purchased approximately 6 months ago!)
When I went to the lexmark support website live chat, I was told that this model will not have a mac drivr written for it “sorry for any inconvience this may have caused”. Do you have any suggestions? I hope I do not have to buy yet another printer
Yolee
You are the ***** shit!!!! thank-you thank-you! praise. you should contact apple and perhaps send them an invoice for this beauty of a gem post!
Have a printer connected to a vista machine at home and EVERYTIME for the past 8 months i have been coming home from university and always curse that I couldnt connect. Printing from my mac now is pretty surreal while at home.
Thanks again,
Fantastic! My wife got a new MacBook 3 weeks ago, and I have spent hours trying to set up access to a Windows shared printer. I have read loads of posts telling me to install postscript emulators and the like – knew there must be a simpler way. You are a star!
You beauty!!! It’s taken me 3 weeks, 50 websites/forums, much swearing at my lovely new imac and 3 inches from my hairline BUT I finally stumble across your amazing advice. Thank You!!!
This is SO great… thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you
I have wasted almost two full days tryin to find instructions that work.
I have come to believe that both apple and microsoft are totally lame and not to be trusted… they TRY to make their products NOT work with each other.
cheers,
tom
All hail the great and mighty lord of interop. Thanks for helping us all just get along. My wife’s Mac and my PC just crossed the great divide.
Thank You Soooo Much!! I Love you for this.. I’ve been struggling with this for days now… It Finally worked. Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!
man thanks
this is awesome! took forever to find anything about how to connect printers attached to vista @_@ lol
You are a genius and humorous one at that!
Tks you very much! Finally I found the hidden “Advanced” button. Why Apple did it again?
Leopard #4 did it for me. I was “right clicking” with no effect (I am a recent imac convert) and then I reread the “control click” advice !!
Thanks for returning my sanity
Thank you so much! I was seriously about to pull my own hair out…
Sweet!!
Thanks for the help, I was looking for ages and finally a solution!
Thank you. I’m a long time Windows user and gave up on Windows when Vista came out. Print has not worked for me since the last MAC security update. I’ve tried everything. I was ready to switch back to Windows (God help us all) because I can’t believe that Apple has allowed this problem to go on for so long.
It just reinforces the importance of the user community for me. Thanks for helping me regain my sanity.
thank you so much, you’re brilliant! this is just so simple and cool.
haha, advance tab, how did you ever figure this out. cool!!!
Yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo.
You do rule the web.
You are the best.
I specially loved steps 6 and 7 in the leopard section.
6 did not work, so I read 7 and hey presto it worked.
You Rock, Thanks!!!!
thank you very much for sharing.
max
Many thanks dude. I would still be stumbling around trying to figure this out if it wasn’t for you and your blog.
I LOVE YOU GOOGLE AND INTERNET.
I seriously love you!! I also love the sarcastic humor that you added to your directions. LOL! Seriously thanks very much for your help. There is nothing like when a company takes a simple process and over complicates it forcing everyone to search for a solution. I guess that is there way of keeping the internet alive.