How to share a Printer between Macs and PCs
September 23, 2008 by Ross McKillop
How do I make my non-network printer accessible to my Mac and/or PC on my home or small business network?
This is a common question with PC to Mac Switchers, likely there are potentially one or two PCs hanging around and now that Mac has taken over the roost or at least planted itself firmly, how do you go about sharing your Macs printer or even an Airport connected printer with a PC and or other Mac on your network?
Luckily for us, Apple was wise enough to make a very nice utility called Bonjour for Windows (Compatible with Windows 2000/2003, XP and Vista) that does a very nice job of making all of this printing on multiple platforms without the need for an actual network printer a real option for even the faint of heart.
Here are two scenarios that will make this work for you:
- Make sure your Mac has a printer connected to it via USB.
- Use an Apple Airport with a USB printer connected to it.
Sorry, this will not work if you want to connect the printer to the PC directly and share it from the PC to the Mac.
You will also need to download Bonjour for Windows onto all the PC’s you are going to need to have printer access with the Mac or Airport shared printer/s.
If your Mac has a printer that you want to share connected to it then you will need to share it via the System Preferences -> Print & Fax) settings. Beside the image of the installed printer you want to share is an option to Share this printer - select it and now all the other OS X Macs and Bonjour enabled PCs will see it as a printer option. Make sure to only share the printer from the host Mac.
If you are one of the lucky ones that has an Airport, it may be a wise decision to connect your printer directly to it, this will allow you to print without the need to leave your Mac running at all times as a print server. The Airport becomes the print server in its place. This is also great when you have a laptop and want to print wirelessly from anywhere in your home or business. The downside to this is if your printer is an All-In-One, scanning is not supported over shared USB.
So now that the host units are set up you need to make sure of a few things on the computers you want to have printer support with.
On a Mac you still need to make sure you have the drivers for the printer in question. On a Leopard based Mac, chances are the printer drivers are already there, a quick visit to the printer manufacturers website to check on printer driver versions never hurts and will pay off with improved printer option support and reliability.
On a PC the same is true, either use the supplied printer disk or make a visit to the printer manufacturers website for a quick check on the latest and greatest version. Once this is done you may also have to actually attach your printer directly to your PC during the Windows printer driver installation the first time. This is so the printer driver software knows exactly which printer is connected as some printer software is the same for multiple models. Once this is done make sure to remove the printer from the printer list and then install and run Bonjour for Windows to do the final setup rather than using the Windows Control Panel printer setup software.
And that’s about it, enjoy having network printer access without actually having a true network printer.
I need help!
Please walk me step by step, because I know nothing about computers. I had this set up working, but I changed to a different printer-I thought I know what to do but apparently I did not and it all went away.
Here is my situation: I want to print from my Macbook wirelessly while my two printers are connected to PC Windows XP trough usb cable. I downloaded both printers into both computers and I downloaded bonjour program onto both computers. I established (I think that it is still working) network on my PC and chose both printers on PC to sharing mode. What to do with my MAC??? I think I am missing a step or two and can not get through to printing again. Please walk me step by step.
I have HP LaserJet 3015 and Canon PIXMA MP610. I also know my IP number of my PC but I do not know if I need IP for my mac -if so I do not know how to get it and what to do with it. HELP!!