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Share Panther printer to Leopard laptop?

Submitted by cwsmith on November 12, 2007 - 3:08am. PowerPC Macs

Okay, I've banged my head against this for an hour now, and I'm to the point where I 'm certain I'm overlooking some small, stupid detail.

I've upgraded my G5 tower and my iBook G4 to Leopard. All seems to work quite spiffily, except that I can't print to the shared printer on my Strawberry iMac, which runs Panther.

Every other machine on my home network, whether it's running Jaguar, Panther, or Tiger; whether connecting via EtherNet or AirPort; can print to this printer without a hiccup. The two Leopard machines cannot. At all. Period. Just ain't a-gonna happen.

I can "see" the printer, and sometimes even add it, in the "Windows" section of the Add Printer dialog. But when I try to print to that share, it times out every time with an error.

The printer, an HP Photosmart C4180, is connected via USB to my Strawberry iMac. Strawberry is running 10.3.9 (Panther), and has the latest HP driver installed.

My AirPort base station is a white dual-Ethernet model with no modem. It's running firmware version 5.7. The Admin Utility does not report that any firmware updates are available for this base station.

The iBook and the G5 are both running Leopard, and all updates are current. Permissions have been repaired. I just found and installed the latest HP update for this printer for Leopard, but it is no more able to connect than is the G5 (where I've not yet installed the updated driver).

My wife's iBook runs Tiger, sits two feet from my iBook, and is able to print via AirPort to the Strawberry. I booted the G5 to my most recent Tiger backup, and then it prints via Ethernet to the Strawberry without problem. But the Leopard machines won't.

What am I missing here? Have I overlooked something? Is this a Leopard issue? An HP issue? Am I slowly going insane? Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

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catmistake's picture

leopard, imo

Submitted by catmistake on November 12, 2007 - 6:03am.

I've had reports from 2 different leopard upgraders who can't print to their shared printer. Just now occurs to me something to try... see if switching off your firewall helps, at least eliminate that possibility.

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cwsmith's picture

Re: leopard, imo

Submitted by cwsmith on November 12, 2007 - 2:31pm.
catmistake wrote:
... see if switching off your firewall helps, at least eliminate that possibility.

Good thought. I'll try that tonight when I get home.

Anyone else have suggestions?

» 24 Macs running System 6 thru Leopard
5 PCs running Windows (3.1 thru XP Pro), Ubuntu and Fedora
Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, Color OneScanner, QuickTake 150
Black iPod nano 1G 4GB, purple iPod shuffle 1GB

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catmistake's picture

1 of 2 resolved

Submitted by catmistake on November 12, 2007 - 5:42pm.

by installing a more recent version of CUPS and a printer driver Leopard didn't have.

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cwsmith's picture

Still, after four days and 10.5.1, nothing.

Submitted by cwsmith on November 16, 2007 - 2:44am.

I can add the Photosmart C4180 under "Windows" printers (even though this is a Strawberry iMac running Panther), and can print to it from Safari or Word. I get a progress bar telling me the document is printing, and the job completes. But nothing ever comes out of the printer. Ever.

I can't find the Strawberry under the "Default," "IP," "AppleTalk," or "More" tabs under the Printer Browser. Only under Windows. I'm supposed to be able to add a Bonjour or CUPS printer, but darned if I can find them anywhere.

Machines running Jaguar, Panther, or Tiger can print to Strawberry with no complaints. My two Leopard machines just can't see Strawberry's printer at all.

At work, I can add an AppleTalk printer in two minutes or less, depending on whether the phone rings in the middle of the process. But at home, I've been banging my head against this problem for days, and the lights are beginning to dim. What on earth am I missing here?

» 24 Macs running System 6 thru Leopard
5 PCs running Windows (3.1 thru XP Pro), Ubuntu and Fedora
Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, Color OneScanner, QuickTake 150
Black iPod nano 1G 4GB, purple iPod shuffle 1GB

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cwsmith's picture

THE SOLUTION: use IP printing instead

Submitted by cwsmith on November 19, 2007 - 2:03am.

1) Went to Strawberry and opened Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network > Built-in Ethernet. Took note of Strawberry's assigned IP address. Our network is assigned by our AirPort Extreme base station, so Strawberry's internal IP address is 10.0.1.9.

2) Went back to the iBook and the G5, and opened Apple Menu > System Preferences > Print & Fax. Deleted earlier attempts at Strawberry's printer. Added a new printer, then selected the IP tab. Added the address 10.0.1.9 (see above) into the appropriate field, and left the "Print Using" drop-down menu set to "Generic PostScript Printer."

3) Sent a test print from the iBook and from the G5. Both seem to work just fine. But what a hassle!

» 24 Macs running System 6 thru Leopard
5 PCs running Windows (3.1 thru XP Pro), Ubuntu and Fedora
Apple IIe, Apple IIgs, Color OneScanner, QuickTake 150
Black iPod nano 1G 4GB, purple iPod shuffle 1GB

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solution to leopard printing problem

Submitted by dm20087000 on August 2, 2008 - 7:39pm.

The 3 step fix above was very helpful to the same problem I had recently getting an airport networked G5 on 10.5 to print to a networked printer connected to a G4 running OS 10.4.

I did basically the same thing -- added the printer in the "windows" section. I couldn't find an internal IP address though. I had to use the ID that appears in the format ##:##:##:xx:xx:xx (with numbers and letters. That did work -- or at least it didn't make it not work .

I agree with cwsmith -- what a hassle! Apple should be embarrassed about not thinking this through. FWIW I also had a major hassle with Apple's mail application after upgrading to Leopard /10.5. Like the printer problem, I had to rely on other user's to get the solutions.)

Best,
DM

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Our office was using xerox pr

Submitted by jasonla on October 22, 2008 - 2:43pm.

Our office was using xerox printers talk about a pain to get configured properly shared over the network etc. Our firewall turned out to be the cause so we reconfigured some port forwarding.

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