How do I connect to a windows based printer through a windows based computer on my mac? I have a HP Laserjet 4 printer connected through a windows 98 machine in which I would likte to print through a network. I am stumped, have any ideas? Thanks again
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How do I connect?
- Thread starter MacManiac1224
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It's actually trickier than you probably want to hear. If it's a USB printer, there's a *chance* you might be able to do it using Dave. If it's not USB, you're totally out of luck if you want to print directly to the printer from the Mac.
A good (although annoying) solution is to create a public folder on the Windows box with read/write access. You can then save your documents to that folder using samba (saving the files as PDF's minimizes font incompatibility issues, etc) and print from there.
It really might just be easier to buy a new printer for the Mac- that's what I did, as all I needed was decent inkjet printing and I could get a solid HP printer cheaper than I could get Dave.
Hope this helps.
A good (although annoying) solution is to create a public folder on the Windows box with read/write access. You can then save your documents to that folder using samba (saving the files as PDF's minimizes font incompatibility issues, etc) and print from there.
It really might just be easier to buy a new printer for the Mac- that's what I did, as all I needed was decent inkjet printing and I could get a solid HP printer cheaper than I could get Dave.
Hope this helps.
Oh, good call. Forgot about Maclan. That will do the trick, but in my case it was exactly twice as expensive as a solid printer, so there wasn't muh of a decision to be made.
RedMon and Ghostscript
I've run into the same type of situation. I don't have the exact answer but I can point to in the direction to an answer. You can use GhostScript, which is a PostScript interpreter and RedMon, which is a port redirection program.
I do not think Windows 98 has a built-in LPR server so you might need to get one somewhere. Windows NT/2000/XP have one built in. It's called "Print Services for Unix".
I don't remember all of the specifics but you setup GhostScript and RedMon on the Win98 machine and print to it using the LPR client in the Mac OS X Print Center.
To get RedMon go here.
To get GhostScript go here.
There is a great manual on how to setup RedMon here.
I hope that this helps.
Brian
I've run into the same type of situation. I don't have the exact answer but I can point to in the direction to an answer. You can use GhostScript, which is a PostScript interpreter and RedMon, which is a port redirection program.
I do not think Windows 98 has a built-in LPR server so you might need to get one somewhere. Windows NT/2000/XP have one built in. It's called "Print Services for Unix".
I don't remember all of the specifics but you setup GhostScript and RedMon on the Win98 machine and print to it using the LPR client in the Mac OS X Print Center.
To get RedMon go here.
To get GhostScript go here.
There is a great manual on how to setup RedMon here.
I hope that this helps.
Brian