Mac to PC Printer Sharing via D-Link DP-G310

[DisabledTrucker]

Okay, Firstly let me say I have a wireless router from Netgear that come with the Comcast Home Networking back when it was introduced, from it I have plugged in my PC's which all run Windows XP, both MCE and x64 as well as SP2, I have the Powerbook with the Airport Extreme card in it and I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.x, (I've upgraded it from 10.2 to 10.3 and now to 10.4 and still have the same problem.) My printer is the Epson Stylus CX6600, when using the Wireless Print Server, I'm unable to use a lot of the features of the Printer and I also seem to have problems keeping the printer where it can be seen by the Mac, I don't have any problems using this with the PC's at all, only the Powerbook. My network is all using the same sub-net, etc as far as connecting goes, and I can open and see the Print Servers configs with the Powerbook, but for some reason nothing else seems to work properly. Like I said I'll have problems with the printer not being seen from time to time, (it keeps losing it, but still sees it in the properties. The scanner isn't seen at all with the Mac but it is with the PC. When I connect the printer to Mac, I can see it all with the PC but my problem lies in when I turn off the Mac I don't have the connectivity with the PC's anymore, which is why I went with the Print Server. Is there a better wireless print server out there which is more compatible with the Mac and will still allow me to see the Scanner in OS X? Is there a setting somewhere I'm not seeing that I need to set? I've looked this issue up over the last few years and everything I've tried still gives me problems, I either can't see the scanner and/or the printer with the Powerbook, or I can't see the printer/scanner with the Powerbook turned off. I've even tried the Mac version of the Epson software and still have problems getting the Powerbook to see the printer/scanner/copier while being connected through the network. When I purchased the Stylus CX6600, the Epson guy at CompUSA, assured me that it would work networked with the Mac OS X "just fine" but gave no other help with it. And I've still not been able to get this working correctly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gsahli]

Hi, D-T,
OS X is capable of connecting to the wireless printer, but the drivers provided by manufacturers AREN'T. (By the way, postscript printers are a different story because the native output of OSX is postscript - so, for a postscript printer, a driver isn't required, just a PPD and menu plug-ins) You need CUPS drivers to do network printing. So, unless a scanner or printer or all-in-one was designed for network printing (in which case they do provide network-capable drivers), you need to find and use networkable drivers. Your model printer is included in a newer version of the Gimp-Print drivers (included in OS X). Now called Gutenprint. You should download and install version 5.0.0-rc3:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1537

For print server setup, since OS X doesn't have auto-setup software, we have to read and understand the print server manual a bit more. First, figure out which protocol(s) is supported. LPR=LPD; IPP = Internet Printing Protocol, not IP printing; TCP/IP raw or socket printing = HP Jetdirect on OS X. For IPP and LPD, the queue name (=port name) of the print server is important for entering into Printer Setup Utility.

Sharing from OS X may be the best choice if you're willing to leave the Mac on. I haven't tried sharing a scanner to Windows, but the Image Capture app on OS X has a setting for "share my devices."

Finally, Airport Extreme/Express work better for Windows and Mac sharing, because a whole different mechanism is used for printing from Macs (PCs still use standard protocols).

You're probably thinking this is a bucket of worms - you're right. But the flexibility and possibility to do what you want is there.

 

[DisabledTrucker]

All protocols are supported, from what I understand even Apples own protocol is supported, but I haven't been successful in getting any of the settings working correctly in it. The problem is the Powerbook doesn't get left on for various reasons, primarily because the previous Powerbook overheated from leaving it on too long which caused me to get this one as a replacement. But also because it's not even at the location all the time being the other reason for needing a different way of connecting the printer/scanner/copier to the network.

I thought the flexibility was there, I just have been unsuccessful in accomplishing this task up to this point.

 

[gsahli]

I recommend you use the LPD protocol. The queue name (port name) is preset to be something like PS-142634-P1 (see page 26 in your admin manual for the print server), but you can set the port name as you wish - something simple like U1 and U2 (USB 1 and USB 2) might be better.

Did you notice that any Mac reference in the manual was for OS 9 - over 5 years old?

 

[DisabledTrucker]

Yes I did notice that, but I found OS X info in other places on their site, but it still didn't give me consistant results. For example there was times that the D-Link Printer Server was still accessable to OS X but the printer itself wasn't. Even when using the settings as you suggested, it would lose the printer, not to mention that it never could see the scanner/copier portion of it at all in OS X. Even with all the latest drivers installed, I've not had a chance to install the Gutenprint set that you mentioned above but it looks like all it supports is the printer portion of the EPSON units, not the scanner. It mentioned something about using "SANE" or something like that and I've been trying to learn about it all night, but it none of it makes any sense to me what they are talking about on that site, so I'm not sure what I need or need to do to get it installed or if it will even work with my printer if I do install it.