Help needed to setup my Printer to work on home network...Please!!!

Question

I recently purchased my first Mac, a G5 PowerPC. I have connected it to my home network (3 windows PC's and my G5) by way of a LAN router and everything works fine except getting my printer to function correctly.
I have an Epson DX4850 which works fine when connected directly to my G5 via USB but I cannot get it to work properly when connected to one of the Windows's PC's, its prefered location.
I have done the following;
Opened the Printer Setup Utility and clicked "Add"
In the Printer Browser I selected "More Printers"
In the 2 drop down menu's I selected "Windows Printing" and "Network Neighborhood"
Then selected the name of my home network, then the name of the computer the printer is connected to then the actual printer.
The problem seems to be that the Printer Model is listed as "Generic". When I try direct it toward my specific printer all I can find are GIMP drivers under Epson. If I select "Other" in order to navigate to my specific printer driver I seem to have trouble locating it.
Any help would be appreciated
iMac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

Answer 1

I recently purchased my first Mac, a G5 PowerPC. I
have connected it to my home network (3 windows PC's
and my G5) by way of a LAN router and everything
works fine except getting my printer to function
correctly.
I suspect that I know why. Several printer vendors, including Epson & HP, have for reasons which make sense to them elected to NOT properly support the CUPS print system which OS X uses and has used since 10.2. Those who support CUPS properly deliver drivers which will work with any connection, including being shared across a network. Those who don't, well...
In the particular case of Epson, they're trying to push this thing: <http://www.buyepson.co.uk/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?PID=C12C824025>.
Actually, it does make more sense to use a device which puts the printer directly on the network than to share it from a computer. However, it seems... unlikely that anyone with sense will actually buy a 160GBP thingie to attach to a 100GBP MFD... Buying a second MFD would appear to make more sense.
I have an Epson DX4850 which works fine when
connected directly to my G5 via USB but I cannot get
it to work properly when connected to one of the
Windows's PC's, its prefered location.
I have done the following;
Opened the Printer Setup Utility and clicked "Add"
In the Printer Browser I selected "More Printers"
In the 2 drop down menu's I selected "Windows
Printing" and "Network Neighborhood"
Then selected the name of my home network, then the
name of the computer the printer is connected to then
the actual printer.
The problem seems to be that the Printer Model is
listed as "Generic".
There should be a specific GIMP driver for it. I think. I'm not sure, as the DX4850 isn't sold in the US, and many/most of the GIMP drivers for Epsons are written in the US. Which means that there may not be a driver specifically for that device, because the guys who'd write the driver for it haven't been able to get their hands on a machine to work with. If you can find out which print engine is at the heart of the MFD (the Stylus C86 or C88 engine is a possibility, but I don't know, I've never actually touched a DX4850) you can use the driver for that printer and it'll work just fine. At least, my old CX5400 used to work using the C84 GIMP driver.
When I try direct it toward my
specific printer all I can find are GIMP drivers
under Epson.
This is because Epson's own drivers don't do sharing. This is a Feature, according to Epson. That way it doesn't interfere with their external, expensive, USB-to-ethernet print thingie. The GIMP drivers do do sharing.
If I select "Other" in order to
navigate to my specific printer driver I seem to have
trouble locating it.
There isn't one from Epson. (Unless you have 160 pounds you're not doing anything with...) There may be a GIMP driver which will work.
Any help would be appreciated
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)