How do I share a printer between my mac and pc -- through the router?

Question

this is what I have:
Mac OS X, system 10.4.7
HP Media Center, Windows Xp
HP photosmart 7350
Westell Versalink 327W
Verizon DSL

Right now I have the pc connected to the printer. I tried connecting both computers to the printer but that didn't work. I'd like to be able to print from either computer. The computers are next to each other so I'd like to do everything with wires. Right now I have both computers connected to the router, so I am getting internet on both, no problem.. just need to get from my mac to the printer. Is this possible? Any help would be really appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

The HP Photosmart 7350 does not have a network port, so you cannot turn it into a Network printer connected to your router.

You have three options:
1 - Connect and setup up the printer to/on your Windows XP machine and then turn it into a shared resource that your Mac can access through the Network.

2 - Option 1 the other way around: Connect your printer to your Mac and then turn it into a shared printer that your Windows machine can access through the Network (use Bonjour to make this work).

3 - Buy a USB Print server, use this to connect your printer directly to the router, thus turning it into a network printer after all that both the Mac and the Windows machine can access.

Option 3 is obviously the most elegant, but will cost you money: about 60$ to buy the USB print server. Option 1 and 2 are free and relatively easy, but the disadvantage will be that then you will always need to have the primary computer (the one the printer is connected to) turned on if you want to print from the secondary one (the one that using the printer as a shared resource).

Which option works best depends I think on what your usage pattern is. If you print from your Mac most of the time and just occassionaly from the Windows box, then option 2 is best etc.

I won't go into the details of how to make each option work here, you can probably find a good tutorial on the internet by doing a search after you have made your choice. If not, then just another question on here! :-)

Good luck!

Answer 2

You could do a couple things. 1) You can share your printer in windows then the mac can print to it through your PC. 2) If it is a usb printer, you could get a printer hub that will connect your printer to the router.

Answer 3

it should be simple, just share the printer on your XP machine and install a network printer on the mac.

Answer 4

All you ought to do is create a Workgroup on the W7 gadget - contained in the administration panel --> gadget - less than the computing device call section and to the right is the "replace settings" decision. click on that and use the wizard to affix the workgroup the path is a similar for XP