Printer Issues With Mac Osx Tiger

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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Printer Issues With Mac Osx Tiger

tepolgar - May 21, 2005 - 10:23 am

I have a PC network using a D-Link DI-524 Wireless router with a Linksys EFSP42 Print server and a US Robotics wireless router configured as a WAP. Also have two stand alone print servers on the network with a total of four (4) HP Inkjet printers. I can access any of the printers via the wired network from the PC's and also access them from a wireless PC notebook computer. My problem is the Macintosh G4 Wireless extreme Powerbook accessing any of the printers. I can connect a USB printer to the powerbook and print fine. I don't want to lug the printer around the house, reason for the wireless. I have called Mac tech support and they will not support third party stuff. They suggested purchasing an Airport Express that would work for me. Problem is, it only supports USB printers, while two of my printers are parallel.
I have tried the cups/ghostscript thing too, w/o success.
My printers are:
HP Deskjet Plus and HP Deskjet 1000C on the Linksys EFSP42 Server, HP color inkjet printer cp 1700 on a stand alone network print server, and an HP Photosmart 7350 printer on a USB network print server.
My problem is: the Mac Powerbook does not see any of the printers when attempting to install from the Printer Setup Utility.
Any suggestions short of going to the Apple Airport express as suggested by Mac tech support????

tepolgar - May 21, 2005 - 7:56 pm

Hooray! Got a printer to work wirelessly on my Mac Powerbook. Used the following to allow printing to my HP color inkjet cp 1700 connected to network by stand alone Gigafast EE 171PR server. Had installed the cups/ghost software and used the Printer Setup Utility in the Mac, using the IP address 192.168.0.x and named the Queue "lpd" and Line Printer Daemon LPD and HP Deskjet 995C - Gimp-Print v5.0.0-beta 2 and was able to print finally. Tried the same idea with my HP Photosmart 7350 w/o success using the info posted on the Gimp site.
Any help would be appreciated.

Tom

tepolgar - May 21, 2005 - 7:57 pm

Saxphile - May 22, 2005 - 9:03 pm

Hi Tom,

From you descriptions it sounds like you know quite a bit about networking, so I'm gonna get to the point directly.

Check the connection types (I think it's called Printer port in Windows) for all these printers on your PC. You should have IP, port number, and queue name. Configure the printers using that information. They should all be IP printers (probably IPP rather than LPD).

Let me know if this helps.

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - May 23, 2005 - 3:26 pm

Reply to Charlie. I tried the IPP thing without success. Configured the mac using the LPD thing and was able to print to my two HP printers on the linksys EFSP42 server too.

Now one more to go, the HP Photosmart 7350 that is on a Gigafast EE171-PR server. Have had a little response to the printer from the Mac, but printed garbage, looked like printer was out of ink, but printing from PC says otherwise.
I was able to find some info on Linksys site, FAQ that steered me to the configuration used to get the server printing. "Setting up a Print Server under Windows XP/2000 using LPR. Cannot knock what works.
Any suggestions for the Gigafast thing would be appreciated.
Tom

Saxphile - May 24, 2005 - 12:21 am

Hi Thomas,

I think that's actually a printer issue. See this thread:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/we...fl.3@.68addb15

Remember to get the latest driver from HP website. If that doesn't work, then try this:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/we...2@.68ade373/57

or this:

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3

You might also find this thread useful:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/we...2@.68aeeb16/10

Let me know if you need more help.

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - May 25, 2005 - 9:11 am

Well, I got three of my four HP printers to print from my wireless Mac Powerbook wireless extreme. Called Apple Tech support, no help at all there, also tried HP online chat help, they only offered help for Windows o/s and then I called HP Tech support for my fourth printer, HP photosmart 7350 and they offer no free help for this printer, cost would be $30 per call. With the luck I have had at Tech supports, they probably wouldn't have helped at all anyway.
Here's how I got the three to work:
First, set up the IP addresses in Windows XP printer control panel setting them up per the TCP/IP LPR Port Printing Installation. Item #7.page 49-53 from the Gimp instruction PDF.
Once all that was out of the way, got on the Powerbook and set up my old HP Deskjet Plus. Protocol set as Line Printer Daemon-LPD, IP Address as 192.168.x.x, Queue as L1, (this printer is on Linksys EFSP42 Print server), Name as 192,168.x.x:L1, Location as SCB70987, (Linksys name) Print using HP Deskjet Plus Foomatic/deskjet, (PPD driver downloaded from Gimp site.

Did the same for the Deskjet 1000C with few changes. Protocal, Address remained unchanged, Queue set as L2 and name set as 192.168.x.x:L2 and location as SCB70987 and Pring using changed to HP Deskjet 1000C Foomatic/pmn2ppa(recommended) PPD driver from Gimp.

My hp CP1700 was set up similarly, changed the IP address and Queue to LPD, name was the IP address, Location left blank and Print using to HP Deskjet 995C - Gimp-Print v5.0.0-beta2.

Three for four is not bad, considering I have been working on getting to print from the Mac for almost 2 years come September.

I tried the outline to correct printing to HP 7350 without success. Maybe it works for a USB connected printer, but didn"t work on my network. I couldn't get the mac to find the printer let alone the IP address. When I tried to create an IP address, it said it was No devices found. Saw somewhere on internet that the drivers for 7350 won't be available until July.
I ordered and received the software from HP for my HP color inkjet printer cp1700, installed that software with similar results. When attempting to print a document, Status reports Job error: Open Port Error Maybe I shouldn't have installed Tiger and maybe the HP software might have worked on previous o/s.

Saxphile - May 25, 2005 - 6:29 pm

Hi Thomas,

Can you try to connect to the problematic printers via USB and see if it works? If it doesn't work via USB then there's no reason why it should over TCP/IP. According to the reports all these printers should work with HP's latest driver (free download, although over 100MB).

Cheers,

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - May 26, 2005 - 11:59 am

No problem connecting to the printer through USB from the Mac. I talked to HP yesterday concerning the HP RIP software that wouldn't work over network, but does work via USB connection. He thinks it is the print server that is not allowing connection to the Mac. I am using a ZOT P100S on the cp1700 printer, while a Gigafast EE171-PR on the 7350 printer. The Gigifast says it supports Appletalk, but I haven't been able to see the printer there, matter of fact, haven't seen any of them in Appletalk, Hp Mac rep says that Mac doesn't support parallel printers which 3 of my 4 are. The 7350 is USB, while the cp1700 is both, USB and parallel. I have a USB version of the ZOT server ordered, should be here in a day or so. Will try it on both USB printers.
Later.
Tom

tepolgar - May 26, 2005 - 12:01 pm

Charlie, your comment, "According to the reports all these printers should work with HP's latest driver (free download, although over 100MB)." What driver is this? Is it HP's or Gimp?
Advise.
Tom

Saxphile - May 26, 2005 - 6:05 pm

Hi Thomas,

I meant the HP drivers. I don't know where to download them, so you might have to do a little digging yourself.

If you don't see any printer in AppleTalk, go to System Preference -> Network and make sure AppleTalk is enabled in your connection. Also, Tiger (probably also Panther) only allows AppleTalk based on TCP/IP, so if the Gigafast doesn't support that you won't be able to connect to it through AppleTalk. From specifications the ZOT server looks better than the Gigafast, so you might get lucky.

Also, can I ask where you're located? Gigafast and ZOT are Taiwanese local brands and I've never heard of it being available in North America.

Cheers,

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - May 26, 2005 - 6:49 pm

Hi Charlie:
I am in North America, Detroit, Michigan area, Lincoln Park to be exact. I found them through Google search. The one I just ordered, the ZOT is coming from Canada. I just got off the phone with Gigafast and they are emailing me the Mac drivers for the server. I did download some software from HP, some 87MB. There was a driver version at about 37MB I think. Are these the ones you are refering to?
Can find them here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...n&cc=us&os=219

48mb and 87mb downloads.

Want to get my new ZOT server and see if it works for me. HP says I neet the 175X jetdirect. $135 while the ZOT was about $37.
Later.
Tom

tepolgar - May 29, 2005 - 8:31 pm

Received the ZOT usb print server. Didn't do the job either. ZOT FAQ says to use LASER WRITER printer to make apple talk work. The software I'm using, HP Imaging software wouldn't allow it. When I try to print a document from the RIP software, it appears to be working then just disappears and nothing prints to the printer. HP Macintosh support told me that I would need a jetdirect 175x server to get my cp1700 printer recognized in apple talk.
Anyone???

tepolgar - May 29, 2005 - 8:32 pm

Saxphile - May 29, 2005 - 8:41 pm

Hi Thomas,

Don't worry about using AppleTalk. Your ZOT server should be able to suport IP printing. Set the printer up that way and choose the proper driver. The ZOT should also support SAMBA, so try setting it up as a Windows computer.

Cheers,

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - May 30, 2005 - 12:26 pm

Tried the IP thing. The HP software would not connect to the printer when input the IP address. IP address shows up in the settings menu, but will not print the document to the printer. Haven't seen SAMBA since updating OSX.

Saxphile - May 30, 2005 - 7:06 pm

Hi Thomas,

IP printing requires a queue name and port number - you should be able to find that in the manual.

Can you give me the model number of the ZOT printer server? I might be able to find some information that way. Look in its manual and see how it's meant to be set up in Windows. Make sure it works in Windows then try to do the same thing in Mac (you might need to figure out the different terminologies). Also, trying and see if you can add the Printer as a Windows printer (same thing as SAMBA).

Cheers,

Charlie
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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - May 31, 2005 - 8:08 am

Hi Charlie:

Appreciate all the attention you are giving me on this issue. Thanks again.
My new ZOT server is a PU101, a USB to network server. I have set up the server as TCP/IP and it works well in Windows 2k and xp. I have the Pdf file for the manual here, it is 77 pages, don't think I should post it here. Would it be of some help to you in solving my mystery? Like I said earlier, I haven't been able to see any SAMBA printers since updating to Tiger and even before in OS X 10.3.9. Avise if you would like the pdf file. I can access the printer on the ZOT through the Mac using Gimp Print and Ghostscript with the PPD printer driver HP deskjet 995C just as I did with the other servers. Like I said earlier, the printer doesn't show up in the HP RIP software program, cannot see Appletalk nor the TCP/IP when configured that way. Will work connected to Mac via USB.
Thanks again.
TOM

Saxphile - May 31, 2005 - 5:35 pm

Hi Thomas,

I'm not sure how the HP RIP software works, but shouldn't you first add the printer in Printer Setup Utility? Or do the RIP software deal with printers directly? In that case it is quite possible that it only supports the HP ethernet adaptor. If this is the case then perhaps you can try to export the image as a postscript file and use other programs (Preview, GraphicConverter, etc) to print it via OS X printer support?

I don't know why you can't see any SAMBA printer, but let's try to make this work via IP and go down that road when we have to. Note that SAMBA browsing is quite slow in OS X, so give it a little time if you don't see anything.

Cheers,

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - May 31, 2005 - 8:04 pm

I don't mean to sound stupid, but I cannot see any SAMBA command available from the printer setup in OSX Tiger. I have IPP, LPD, & HP Jet Direct available in the IP Printer menu, while the default browser offers; All, AppleTalk, Bonjour, Firewall, open directory, shared and USB available. Under More Printers; there is AppleTalk, Bluetooth & Windows Printing plus Canon, Epson, HP, & Lexmark but no SAMBA.
In the manual on the install CD for the ZOT server, there is Internet Printer Connection and HP Web JedAdmin instructions offered along with the Network Print Monitor and the TCP/IP LPR Port Printing Installation which includes UNIX.
Tried to cut/paste it here w/o success.
Don't know what else to tell you, maybe I can try the print to file from the HP RIP software and see what happens.
Later.
Tom

Saxphile - Jun 1, 2005 - 5:58 am

Hi Thomas,

Windows Printing = SAMBA. You can put the PDF file in my .Mac public folder. Username = Saxphile.

Let me know if printing to a .ps file works.

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

Saxphile - Jun 3, 2005 - 8:09 pm

Hi Thomas,

Just want to check if you've resolved the problem. Don't forget to try Advance in More Printers in Printer Setup Utility. There's a few more protocols there and you can type in the printer address manually.

Cheers,

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - Jun 4, 2005 - 8:46 pm

Tried the print to file w/o success. I have a Jet-direct 175x due here Monday. I'm going to try that too. Since all my experimenting with the printer issues, I've lost my Linksys server. EFSP42. I cannot gain access to it at all. I have tried re-installation of drivers in Windows, R&R BiAdmin software etc. When checking for the server, BiAdmin cannot find it and I cannot get an IP address set. It keeps responding with the server is busy when I know it is not. The switch part of the server, the four ports, still work, I can network to other devices through it.
Later
Tom

Saxphile - Jun 5, 2005 - 4:16 am

Hi Thomas,

This is getting more and more frustrating even to me; I'm sure you're getting really cooked now.

EFSP42. Right, I have no idea why that happened. Have you tried to reset the server (usually just power on and off)? If the EFSP42 acting as the DHCP server on your network? If not, it should have a default IP address (see manual) so try connecting to that.

Let me know if the Jet-direct works for you. If not at least now HP has to help you set it up.

Cheers,

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - Jun 5, 2005 - 3:45 pm

Linksys reply was as follows:
Thank you for contacting Linksys Customer Support.

There is a previously configured printer port on the computer that is the reason why you can't just simply run the Printserver Driver and create a new printer port.

Go to Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes -> right click on the printer -> Properties -> Ports tab -> look for the Printserver port number ->delete the item.

Re-run the printserver driver after you have removed the previously configured printer port on the system.

Did all that a number of times. Will try it again though. Guess I should have been better off to leave well enough alone when I had 3 for 4 printers working on the Mac, but where is the challenge in that?

Later

Saxphile - Jun 8, 2005 - 4:51 am

Hi Thomas,

Just want to check up on how you're doing.

Charlie

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Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso

tepolgar - Jun 8, 2005 - 8:50 am

Well, received the Hp JetDirect175x and pluged it into my 7350 printer and Mac found it and it worked as it should. Also tried it on my cp1700, not quite as well as the 7350. I think I will be satisfied getting the 7350 working from the Mac and I can use the cp1700 with Gimp Print and Ghost. I still have the problem with the Linksys EFSP42 that quit working. Some day soon, I will try again, maybe by deleating all the print servers and trying it alone. I had this situation once before and somehow got it working again.
Thanks for your concern. I'll follow up when I can.
Tom

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