Windows 7: Mac Wireles Sharing a Windows 7 Connected Printer

OK,

I have been struggling with this for quite some time. I've read tons of posts and articles and have gotten nowhere.

Does anyone have any idea how to get a Mac Powerbook (10.4.11) to connected to a Printer (HP Officejet 4215) that is connected to a PC (Windows 7100) through a Linksys Router (WRT54GS)?

I've got printer sharing enabled on the PC and have tried so many things that I'd rather not post everything here.



If there is anybody that knows of a surefire way to get this working, I would appreciate it

Steve

By the way, my PC is running 64 bit Win 7 and my printer is connected to my PC via USB. My laptop is wirelessly connected to my router. I am able to share files but I can't find the shared printer anywhere on my laptop

Check your firewall on Windows 7. Make sure it is allowed.

Are you able to print to the printer fine with the windows machine? Also, check your printers, make sure you don't have duplicates and aren't sharing one that is not being used or offline.

Check here in Windows to see your printers:
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Devices and Printers

I would assume that if I were able to share files between the two, then it would have been allowed. Nevertheless I check and yes, it is already allowed. Thank you for the quick reply.

Yeah I figured also, but worth a try. Did you check things on my 2nd post?

Yes, it is printing just fine from the PC. I checked for duplicates, nothing. I've read a lot of posts on this and haven't really seen any solid answers on how to solve this problem. Have seen a lot of people struggling with similar situations.

Please explain the steps you are using to make the connection between the mac to the windows machine. But in the interim try this
Gutenprint Printer Drivers- this is for the drivers
. Open the Printer Setup Utility (in the Applications/Utilities folder). Click the Add button.
2. Click the More Printers button. In the resulting Printer Browser window, make sure that the top option is set to Windows Printing and the second option is set to Network Neighborhood. You should know the name of your Windows workgroup. Double-click it to get a list nearby computers in your Windows workgroup, then double-click the computer that has the printer attached. (You may be asked for the name and password of a valid user for that computer; you can add these to your keychain to avoid future log-ins). At that point, you should see the shared printer.
At that point, you may be tempted to click the Add button . . . but don't. Look at the bottom of the dialogue box - while it's got the printer's shared name (a comment that identifies the printer model), as far as your Mac is concerned, it's a "Generic Printer". Unless you're only planning to print plain text, that won't do. Trust me.
Instead, you need to take a look at the dropdown list of Printer Models. If you see your printer listed, you're in luck. Since the driver for that might not work across Windows networks. Instead, pick the model driver for the Gimp- print driver, and (finally) click Add.
The new printer should show up in your printer list, and should work just fine (as long as you don't expect photo-quality graphics).
Compared to the fully manual process needed in OS X 10.2 and 10.3, 10.4 is semiautomatic. "Tiger" finds the shared Windows printer for you, but you still have to know which driver to use with it.
It's easier than it used to be, but for too many printers it's still not automatic enough or intuitive enough, so the Gimp-Print list of supported printers remains a vital resource

Thank you Zay,

I seem to have a problem with accessing my Computer. I see my PC listed in the Printer Browser and I attempt to access it. It asks for my name and password. It doesn't seem to like my username and password, even I am entering it exactly as i do when i log in with my administrator account. I remember reading a while ago that sometimes MAC needs to add a character or something to the password like a "$" or something? I'm not sure if that applies anymore cuz that was a long time ago. Anyway, I changed my permissions in the network sharing center to not require a password to access files and printing. So at this point i enter nothing and it doesn't seem to complain, but still no printer is available.

I'm not convinced that this means it doesn't see the printer because there was another post, I think on the Apple site, that said if you don't enter anything, it won't complain about wrong username and password, it just won't list any devices.

Not sure if this is clear enough, do you follow?

Go back to using a password, and try this option:
You need to add the shared printer via the hidden “Advanced” printer feature in the Print & Fax preferences.

• Open “Print & Fax” in “System Preferences”
• Click “+” to add a new printer
• Control-click (or right-click) on the toolbar at the top of the window and select “Customize Toolbar…”
• Drag the “Advanced” icon to the toolbar and select “Done”
• Click on the “Advanced” icon … and be patient … after a moment or two, you can select “Windows” from the “Type” dropdown-menu
• Enter the SAMBA URL of the shared windows printer in the “URL” textfield:
  smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@WINDOWSDOMAINNAME/PRINTSERVER/PRINTERSHARENAME or
  smb://USERNAME:PASSWORD@IPADDRESS/PRINTERSHARENAME
  If the shared printer does not need a password, you can use smb://USERNAME@…
• Fill out the other fields “Name” and “Location” as you prefer
• When printing the first time you will get prompted for your USERNAME and PASSWORD. Fill in your windows printserver username and password and enable the “Add this to your keychain” checkbox.