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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Wireless connect to HP Printer
Lyn - Jun 18, 2006 - 5:04 pm
I just bought a MacBook and it's great. I have a wireless network (Belkin router) that is Windows-based (my job requires my working on a PC)and I am trying to figure out why my MacBook doesn't see the networked printer. It's an HP 9300 series deskjet. My Mac sees all of the shared documents and folders on the network, but not the printer. It will print if connected directly through a USB, so detecting the driver is not the problem. Thanks for any help, and I am so glad I found this site!
gsahli - Jun 18, 2006 - 5:38 pm
There's good news and bad...
The good news - you're not crazy, and OS X is working exactly as the programmers wanted.
The bad news -
Your printer is a non-postscript printer and requires a CUPS driver in order to use the network printing protocols which are part of the CUPS system in OS X. Except for Brother, no manufacturer of non-postscript printers is providing CUPS drivers. The printer model doesn't show up because the OS X driver only works for USB. Apple tried to get around this by including open source Gimp-Print (CUPS) drivers with OS X. But very few HPs are supported. You should try HP Deskjet 900 Series, Gimp-Print driver to see if it "might" work.
For PPC Macs, there is another open source driver set that supports most HPs, including yours:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/hpijs/
But, these aren't Universal binaries, so they don't work on Intel Macs. The source code is available, and I think it will readily compile on your Mac, but I don't have an Intel Mac to try that on.
There are other ways to do network printing. The Airport Express print server from Apple allows you to use the USB driver because it uses Airport-Bonjour software instead of the standard protocols.
When you buy a printer from HP that includes an ethernet or WiFi connection, you get a driver that works over the network, but it is selected as "HP IP" (it doesn't use the standard protocols, either).
I hope this helps.
The good news - you're not crazy, and OS X is working exactly as the programmers wanted.
The bad news -
Your printer is a non-postscript printer and requires a CUPS driver in order to use the network printing protocols which are part of the CUPS system in OS X. Except for Brother, no manufacturer of non-postscript printers is providing CUPS drivers. The printer model doesn't show up because the OS X driver only works for USB. Apple tried to get around this by including open source Gimp-Print (CUPS) drivers with OS X. But very few HPs are supported. You should try HP Deskjet 900 Series, Gimp-Print driver to see if it "might" work.
For PPC Macs, there is another open source driver set that supports most HPs, including yours:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/hpijs/
But, these aren't Universal binaries, so they don't work on Intel Macs. The source code is available, and I think it will readily compile on your Mac, but I don't have an Intel Mac to try that on.
There are other ways to do network printing. The Airport Express print server from Apple allows you to use the USB driver because it uses Airport-Bonjour software instead of the standard protocols.
When you buy a printer from HP that includes an ethernet or WiFi connection, you get a driver that works over the network, but it is selected as "HP IP" (it doesn't use the standard protocols, either).
I hope this helps.
Lyn - Jun 18, 2006 - 5:48 pm
Aha, and thanks. I did get as far as selecting the Gimp-Print option for the 900 series, but the color and configuration is just not right at all. Weirdly enough, I can print wirelessly without problems from my office with our Boujour-enabled printer. I can ask our department head how he set up that printer to be so compatible. I will try the link that you sent - the (blessedly) open source one, will write back about it, and again, thanks for the quick response. You have given me a lot of excellent information.
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