Mac: Accessing Vista shared printers

[Pettsi]

Help!
I just can't get this working for some reason?
I have been on the Mac forums and followed the instructions and can't seem to get it to work!
Any help from you MAC guru's is very appreciated!

Cheers

Matt

 

[The Boosh!]

you buy one then petts? how you finding it?

went in to the mac shop today tempting myself. i was told i get 150 pounds off for being a student hehe

 

[Pettsi]

Anyonee?

 

[@Spoonie]

One way would be to install the LPD Server feature.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc731857.aspx

You could then set your Macs to use LPR.

What instructions are you following?

 

[mas]

Its a pain in the arse, mine wouldnt work in the end!

 

[Pettsi]

Got it working!

Printing from Mac Leopard to a shared Vista Printer



Holly smokes, I’m sure you will bow to me for figuring this s**t 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, I’m sure this method will work for any.

Let’s start with Windows Vista.

1. 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.
2. Once you can print from windows, goto control panel, Programs and Features
3. Click Turn windows features on and off
4. Print services, make sure all that stuff is checked.
5. Goto Control Panel, Printers
6. Right click your printer, click sharing
7. Make sure Share this printer is checked, keep your share name short ( I use the name printer )
8. There’s a link Network and Sharing Center at the top, click that ( or go there from control panel )
9. 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?
10. Take a break, that was rough.

Let’s head over to Leopard

1. Note. You may need to install your printer drivers first if they aren’t in the list
2. Goto Apple, System Preferences, Print & Fax
3. Click the little + button
4. Right click or CTRL click the top grey bar and click “Customize Toolbar”
5. Drag “Advanced” to your toolbar, click done
6. Click “Advanced”, this will probably freeze or be greyed out…. Have patience, wait.
7. Wait a little more
8. Still nothing? Click another button, say ip, then click advanced again
9. There we go, now for TYPE:, select windows
10. 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
11. Print Using: Select a driver to use, then select your printer and click add. If the driver is not on the list, you need to download this from the manufaturers website.
12. You now have a brand spankin new printer in your list
13. Print a page and pee your pants, you are done.

How anyone can figure out something so convoluted is beyond me.