[Stephen47]

My son has an iBook G4. He connects wirelessly tho our home network which is set up on a Windows based pc. How can I make is so he can acess the printer wirelessly? His OS is OS 10 Panther I believe.

[Yankee Rose]

Hello:

I assume on the Windows side of things/network, you have this printer shared.

To connect to the shared printer from the Mac, you can use Bonjour, Apple's network service for detecting devices.

Open a new Finder window.

Navigate to the Applications folder, and choose the subfolder Utilities.

Click the "Printer Setup Utility".

You'll see a list of currently added printers. Click the "add" button.

Make sure "Default browser" is selected.

Wait until your printer is listed, and then select it, choose the correct driver and enter a name for it if you want.

Additionally, your Mac may need drivers for your printer, so have the driver CD that came with your printer handy (and make sure it is OS X compatible!)

Hope this helps.

[Stephen47]

I don't see a "Default browser" to select. I used the printer setup utility. I found the network and the printer name for the network when I chose it the printer model isn't listed in the dropdown menu. it is now adde and listed as generic. I tried to print a page. The status is printing but nothing is happening. I also saw no reference to "Bonjour"
Also, when I select the printer a pop-up appears asking for the password. I assume this is the password I have as an administrator on my computer, which I leave blank, so I leave it blank here and then choose select and it adds a generic printer.
I tried printing and get a message "connection failed withe error NT_STATUS_ACCCESS_DE

[Yankee Rose]

Hi again:

Do you have the software for OS X for this printer installed on the Mac? May I ask what make/model printer?

Can you tell me what version of OS X he is running? Click the blue Apple logo then click "About This Mac". It will tell you Version 10.x.x, for example.

[Stephen47]

yes the software for this printer is installed. he can print with this printer if he uses a cable. The Os version is 10.3.9

[Yankee Rose]

Hi -

Here is an article from Apple's support site which discusses troubleshooting locating a shared Windows printer.

Specifically from within the article, an alternative way to add a shared printer:

How to manually add a Windows shared printer.

Open Printer Setup Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities).

Mac OS X 10.4.x users: Choose Add Printer from the Printers menu, then hold the Option key while clicking the "More Printers" button.

Mac OS X 10.3.x users: Hold the Option key down while choosing Add Printer from the Printers menu.

Choose Advanced from the first pop-up menu.

Choose Windows Printer via SAMBA from the Device pop-up menu.

In the Device Name field, type the name you would like to use for this printer in Mac OS X.

In the Device URI field, use one of the following formats to link to the printer:

smb://user:password@workgroup/server/sharename
smb://user:password@server/sharename
smb://workgroup/server/sharename
smb://server/sharename

Notes: "user" is the name of a Windows user who has privileges to use the printer. "password" is the password of that Windows user. "workgroup" is the name of the Windows workgroup to which the computer sharing the printer belongs. "server" is the name of the computer sharing the printer or its IP address. "sharename" is the shared Windows printer's share name.

Tip: You don't need a "workgroup" when specifying the IP address of the computer (such as when the printer is on a different subnet), or if your Mac belongs to the same Windows (SMB) workgroup.

Choose the appropriate PPD or printer driver from the Printer Model pop-up menu.

Click Add.

Hope that helps.

[Stephen47]

That didn't work either. The printer isn't in the drop down list. I tried using gemeric and that didn't work. I am sure I have the Address right in the Device URI field. the name of the computer sharing the printer is STEPHEN and the shared name of the printer is Printer,so I typed in
smb;//STEPHEN/Printer and got got the same cannot connect message as before.

[Yankee Rose]

Have you tried temporarily disabling any firewall software on your Windows system and then trying to detect it?

[Stephen47]

I disabled the firewall and still no printing

[Yankee Rose]

Hello again:

What is the make/model of the printer?

I've been reading that it is common that the HP and other print drivers for OS X are not fully supportive of network printing to shared printers on Windows XP.

Some of them will print if it was connected to a Mac, but when it is a shared from a Windows PC, the Mac may be unable to communicate properly. Hmmm.

Take a look at these links:

Printing to a printer on an XP PC from a Mac running 10.3.x

Printing to a printer .... Mac running 10.3.x (Alternative Method) Slightly more complex

IP Printing (10.2.8) but may be helpful info

Also try this: on the Win XP machine, open the printers and faxes window and right click on the printer icon. Select Properties and then the Ports tab. Select the port that the shared printer is on and then deselect the "Enable bi-directional support" option.

If it is an HP, try choosing the GIMP drivers for the printer when setting it up in OS X.

GOOD LUCK.

[Stephen47]

It is an HP 5400 series, but the model isn't listed when I add a printer. Should I just use generic? I will check out the links you provided. thanks for the help.

[Stephen47]

I tried all the suggestions, nothing worked. Now my home network doesn't even show up in network neighborhood.

[Yankee Rose]

That's a stumper with your home network now not appearing.

Interestingly, I found instructions similar to my prior post with a link to the Apple article (How to Manually Add a Windows Shared Printer). Only in this case (see the 7th post) they state to type in smb:\\, not smb:// (as stated in the Apple instructions. It might be worth a shot trying. The link I provided discusses an issue with Tiger (10.4) but the information may be useful to you.

Is your home network wired or wireless? What router do you use? I've read that others who have this similar problem (you are not alone if that makes you feel any better) have had issues because of a Netgear router.

[Yankee Rose]

I have come across this article several times in trying to help you with your solution. It's pretty complex but might be worth a shot!

It involves downloading and installing some free redirection/emulation software, and setting up an emulated Postscript printer on the Windows side of things first. It is very well detailed .... might be of interest.

[Stephen47]

Thanks for hanging with me on this. I have a wireless network but the main computer is wired through the router. My router is a Hawking HWR 54G. I will try the \\ first then check out the other link. Again, thanks.
Will the methodin the linked article work with a WAN as well as a LAN?