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#1 2006-04-22 2:15 pm
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Printing on a windows network
I'm a recent Mac convert, and was extremely pleased at how seamlessly my new Macbook Pro worked to access files on my home Windows Network. However, I've been unable to print to a Canon Pixma 780 which is connected to the network. I installed the drivers that came with the printer on my Mac, and it works fine when I connect it directly by USB. The Mac can also find the printer on the network, but doesn't seem to be able to access the driver when I select it. Any suggetions?
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#2 2006-04-22 2:24 pm
- MacBoy4139
- BHA

- From: Big Hair Anonymous
- Registered: 2000-10-31
- Posts: 10911
Re: Printing on a windows network
Can you select the driver from the "Print Using" drop down on the bottom of the dialog? You will have to select "Canon" first.
Dive in the Pool!
I'm still trying to figure out if you're a girl posing as Macboy4139, or a boy posing as a girl, and a bit confused sexually. <shrug> laughinol
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#3 2006-04-24 11:49 am
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Re: Printing on a windows network
Thanks for your reply! I did go throught that step. When I select Canon, the pulldown menu contains only dirvers for Canon BubbleJet Printers, which I assume are the ones that are preinstalled on the Mac. The drivers I loaded don't show up...
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#4 2006-04-24 12:20 pm
- MacBoy4139
- BHA

- From: Big Hair Anonymous
- Registered: 2000-10-31
- Posts: 10911
Re: Printing on a windows network
EDIT: Click on the "More Printers" button in the bottom of the window. Try changing the drop down on the top there. For example, for my Epson printers to use the Epson drivers, I have to select "Epson USB." There is a "Canon BJ Network" option there. Try using that.
If that doesn't work:
Try using "Generic PostScript Driver" instead of the Canon one. You may lose some functionality(?), but a lot of other users are reporting success with it.
Last edited by MacBoy4139 (2006-04-24 12:23 pm)
Dive in the Pool!
I'm still trying to figure out if you're a girl posing as Macboy4139, or a boy posing as a girl, and a bit confused sexually. <shrug> laughinol
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#5 2006-04-24 1:04 pm
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Re: Printing on a windows network
Thanks--I seem to be getting closer. I can select the Generic Postscript printer, and when I try to print I get this message: "Unable to connect to SAMBA host, will retry in 60 seconds, followed by "Connection failed with error NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME ." I noticed that the printer name on the Mac said "Canon MP780", and I changed that to match the exact name of the printer on my windows network, which is "Canon MP780 Series Printer", but that did not seem to help. The location in the printer info says "Mshome", which is the name of my network--I tried adding "/Office" which is the name of the computer the printer is attached to, to see if that made a difference, but it did not. Any thoughts?
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#6 2006-04-24 11:10 pm
- MacBoy4139
- BHA

- From: Big Hair Anonymous
- Registered: 2000-10-31
- Posts: 10911
Re: Printing on a windows network
Try installing Bonjour for Windows.
Search www.apple.com/support/ for it.
Dive in the Pool!
I'm still trying to figure out if you're a girl posing as Macboy4139, or a boy posing as a girl, and a bit confused sexually. <shrug> laughinol
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#7 2006-04-25 2:01 pm
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Re: Printing on a windows network
This may be a dumb question, but from everything on the web site it looks like Bonjour is already part of the Mac OS10.4, and the download is designed to be installed on a Windows machine, in order to help it see the network better. I can install it on the Windows computer on my network that has the printer attached, but how does that help my Mac see the printer?
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#8 2006-04-25 3:17 pm
- MacBoy4139
- BHA

- From: Big Hair Anonymous
- Registered: 2000-10-31
- Posts: 10911
Re: Printing on a windows network
No dumb questions.
Bonjour is part of Mac OS X. The way it works is the software "announces" to the network that a device is available. So if Bonjour isn't on the Windows machine, it is just sitting there, and another computer has to look for it.
With Bonjour installed, the Windows machine will start saying "hey, I got this printer attached. Do you want to print on it?"
All in all, it just makes life easier.
Dive in the Pool!
I'm still trying to figure out if you're a girl posing as Macboy4139, or a boy posing as a girl, and a bit confused sexually. <shrug> laughinol
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#9 2006-04-27 12:29 pm
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Re: Printing on a windows network
So, I downloaded Bonjour onto my Windows machine and used the Bonjour Printer Wizard to install the printer. The list showed two different names for the printer, MP780 on Steven Schultz's computer, and Canon MP780 on Steven Schultz's computer. I installed both. I also made sure that that the UPD 5353 port was open in my ZoneAlarm firewall (Windows firewall is turned off) and that incoming and outgoing UPD was open. Didn't find anything I could check off about packets. Still no luck--I get the same message: "Unable to connect to SAMBA host, will retry in 60 seconds, followed by "Connection failed with error NT_STATUS_BAD_NETWORK_NAME ." I turned off Zone Alarm Security Suite, but that didn't change anything...next? (And by the way, thanks for hanging in there with me on this MacBoy4139--I appreciate you offering your time and expertise!)
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#10 2006-04-28 2:24 pm
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Re: Printing on a windows network
One additional piece of information--the choices of printers provided to me by the wizard showed up under the name of my laptop (Steven Schultz's computer) rather than the name of the Windows machine (Office), which I assume is a good thing, in that Bonjour is seeing my Macbook machine on the network...even if the darn thing isn't working yet!
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#11 2006-04-28 2:54 pm
- MacBoy4139
- BHA

- From: Big Hair Anonymous
- Registered: 2000-10-31
- Posts: 10911
Re: Printing on a windows network
The only thing I can think of is try turning the firewall off. Just to see if it works.
I'm drawing a blank here....
Sorry!
Dive in the Pool!
I'm still trying to figure out if you're a girl posing as Macboy4139, or a boy posing as a girl, and a bit confused sexually. <shrug> laughinol
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#12 2006-05-03 12:35 am
- MCriswell
- Member
- Registered: 2006-05-03
- Posts: 2
Re: Printing on a windows network
I just bought a Canon PIXMA MP780 as well. It's connected by USB to a Windows PC, which I operate a wifi home network from. My Mac OS 10.3 laptop can find the printer on the network, but -- like you -- not pull up the right driver from the Canon list in Printer Setup Utility. I can print, but I have to use the Generic driver or the wrong Canon one - so it prints text without formatting, fonts, etc. If I plug the Mac laptop into the printer directly with a USB, the missing driver miraculously appears and prints beautifully.
I found a similar discussion string on the Apple website. Here is the answer (to quote a user):
"The printing system in OS X is CUPS. To be able to use the network print protocols, you need driver(s) that work with CUPS. Not only does Canon not provide CUPS drivers, but they don't cooperate with the open source community so that Gimp-Print (free CUPS drivers), for example, could support your model. The only CUPS driver (I know of) for your model is available for purchase from www.printfab.net."
I emailed Canon about the issue and they said: "Canon does not support the configuration you are inquiring about. Our staff is trained to ensure that the printer is working when connected directly to the Mac. If it is working to that standard, then the printer is working to specification. While it may be entirely possible to use the MP780 for example, on Airport, we do not provide support to assist you with networking issue or problems. Canon has found that network/print server/print sharing environments do not function with 100% compliance to Canon compatibility standards. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."
Pretty pathetic answer and sad thinking in this age for a respected company to think they don't need to support network printing. I haven't tried the printfab.net site yet myself.
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#13 2006-05-04 9:03 am
- MCriswell
- Member
- Registered: 2006-05-03
- Posts: 2
Re: Printing on a windows network
Update: The "PrintFab 2 Home for Mac OS X" driver works beautifully to allow wireless printing with the MP780. I have the free trial version working on my system. The catch is that it costs 49 euro (US$61).
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#14 2006-05-04 10:09 am
- MacBoy4139
- BHA

- From: Big Hair Anonymous
- Registered: 2000-10-31
- Posts: 10911
Re: Printing on a windows network
Any printer that I have seen that supports networking costs more money.
Dive in the Pool!
I'm still trying to figure out if you're a girl posing as Macboy4139, or a boy posing as a girl, and a bit confused sexually. <shrug> laughinol
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#15 2006-05-09 2:34 pm
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Re: Printing on a windows network
MCriswell, thanks for the new information. Yes, the answer from Canon is pretty pathetic--and probably a calculation they've made based upon the amount they'd need to invest in writing the software versus the share of the market that Mac users on Windows networks represent.
At this point I'm still plugging and unplugging my printer depending on who needs to print at our house, waiting until I get fed up enough to pay for the extra driver.
If anyone out there hears of a cheaper alternative to Printfab 2, please post!
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#16 2006-05-14 6:45 pm
- skschultz
- Member
- Registered: 2006-04-22
- Posts: 26
Re: Printing on a windows network
Loaded the The free trial version of the PrintFab 2 Home for Mac OS X on my Macbook Pro but didn't have Criswell's luck. My machine found the Printfab driver when I tried to install the network printer, which was encouraging, but I still have not had success in getting my Canon Pixma MP780 to print through my wireless network.
I'm interested in whether others have used Printfab2 successfully. Onward....
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#17 2006-05-29 1:59 pm
- DickN
- Member
- Registered: 2006-05-27
- Posts: 2
Re: Printing on a windows network
How do I print , from a MAC IBook running OS-X 4.3 via a Linksys Wireless to a printer attached to a PC running XP on a Windows Network. I have tried combinations of ""smb://:user:password@workgroup/server/sharename"". As well as substituting the Linsys wireless name for the user name, using the key 1 or the passphase for the password; with and without the Windows workgroup name, also using the WIN computer name or IP address, all to no avail. Please help.
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#18 2006-06-03 7:21 pm
- hdcool
- Member
- Registered: 2006-06-03
- Posts: 1
Re: Printing on a windows network
DickN wrote:
How do I print , from a MAC IBook running OS-X 4.3 via a Linksys Wireless to a printer attached to a PC running XP on a Windows Network. I have tried combinations of ""smb://:user:password@workgroup/server/sharename"". As well as substituting the Linsys wireless name for the user name, using the key 1 or the passphase for the password; with and without the Windows workgroup name, also using the WIN computer name or IP address, all to no avail. Please help.
You don't have think wireless is something special or something.. once the connectivity is there, it's just all the same.
to the others who get an NT_AUTHENTICATION_FAIL:
this is because Windows doesn't allow anonymous logons.
Either you you choose when adding a printer for Windows printing and browse through the network until you see the printer.
(if you don't, disable all firewall software et all to be sure.. re-enable after everything works...don't think you're the man
)
it should ask you for a username and a password (possibly not when you're running panther or earlier), if it doesn't, try the next step:
Another way is holding the option key when clicking on "more printers", select advanced
and type:
smb://username:password@windowshostname/sharename
(no ':' before username, no workgroup, no server, ...)
make sure you've setup a user on your windows machine who has sufficient rights to manage printjobs.. .
------
That being said, I'm also changing usb wire all the time when connecting to my Canon pixma ip1500, and i'm getting sick of it. The printfab thing works great, but I really don't want to pay for it. Especially not since printers aren't that expensive anymore (compared to their ink) and chances are then someday I'll just get another one... would be waste of money.
Their driver for using with USB is good, we should find a way into tricking the driver that the printer is connected through USB. Isn't there a way into doing that? In the old days of MSDOS programs, you could a make a virtual printer from a networked computer so that the old dos programs would think that it's locally attached... . That would be a solution. It's a step back, but that's Canon's fault...
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#19 2006-06-25 2:04 pm
- kaizhao
- Member
- Registered: 2006-06-25
- Posts: 1
Re: Printing on a windows network
I found a solution that seems to work okay. This guy at Texas A&M did a big how-to on making a "virtual Postscript Printer" on a Windows XP machine. His instructions are very clear, but it may not be for the faint of heart.
http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~henrik/GSPSpr … inter.html
I followed his instructions for the PC side (and shared the virtual ghostscript printer), then connected to the Windows Printer Share in Tiger. I used both the "fake/virtual" printer that I shared (HP Color Laserjet 4550) and the Generic printer on the mac side and they both seemed to work fine. I'm still tweaking his settings because it is a bit slow (on the PC side, on the mac side it is faster than using the real MP780) and (2) I have yet to figure how to print duplex or in B&W.
However, there are actually two (possible) advantages to using this than using the Native MP780 driver. I've posted elsewhere on the issue of the MP780 using color ink to print grayscale on the Mac, even "grayscale printing". This is a serious waste of color ink. However, I do not believe that the MP780's Windows drivers do this, thus, if it is possible to get the Windows drivers to print using 'special settings', this would save (color) ink. On my powerbook g4 1ghz, the MP780 seems to be quite sluggish (and uses 100% of cpu power). It may be possible to print faster (at least on the mac side) with the instructions above.
On the other hand, I did use PrintFab and I really like it (but do not want to pay!). It does NOT use color ink for grayscale printing, uses much less CPU power, and networks properly. But $61 is a bit steep.
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#20 2006-07-31 8:54 pm
- jrw2k
- Member
- Registered: 2006-07-31
- Posts: 1
Re: Printing on a windows network
New Mac user here... same problem... found this thread, tried printfab and worked for me... hmmm... freaking pricey.
.
need to try solution from kaizhao's post, but when i have more time.
If i don't find a cheaper solution i'll probably buy printfab2 at the end of trial....
my two cents...
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#21 2007-06-27 12:56 pm
- dr.ho
- Member
- From: torrance,ca u.s.a
- Registered: 2000-09-26
- Posts: 623
Re: Printing on a windows network
after reading this thread there is a few things i can try. im having similar issues, the powerbook can see the HP F300 all in one thats attached to the windows xp machine though the 'add printers' pref pane. but there is no drivers under the pulldown, i guess this printer is too new. ive tried different types but its no go, i still get the connection error, nt user thing...ill try some more things and ill see.
"Picture me rolling...."
-2Pac-
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#22 2009-10-01 12:52 am
- ast
- Member
- Registered: 2009-09-30
- Posts: 5
Re: Printing on a windows network
so far, i tried this, and it worked!
check this out and update us, thanks!
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php
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