IBook printing with Belkin Wireless Print Server

Question

Hi Guys
Ok, I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction. I am a windows user (groan!, get a proper computer, yes, I know. lol lol) But trying to set up a simple network consisting of three pcs, one laptop all running windows xp/vista and one IBook. Not the best on macs but can find my way round!! All works Ok as far as seeing each other on the network and communicating/internet etc. Have introduced Belkin wireless print server to network and all ok for windows regarding printing wirelessly over the network. However, the IBook I set up as IP printing and set the appropriate address in the ibook printer setup screen. But when printing from the IBook it says the print has gone but it is actually stuck in the queue and never prints. Can anyone help with what may be a simple entry in the setup or is it some black magic IBook setting that evades us windows users??
All help will be gratefully received and promise to look at conversion!!
Thanks in anticipation of help..........

Answer 1

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.
Next issue - print server setup. We don't have auto-setup software, so we have to read the manual closely and decide which protocol to use. If it's IPP (=internet printing protocol, not IP printing) or LPR/LPD, you need to find the print server's queue name (sometimes called port name), and enter that in Add printer dialog near IP address.
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 to redirect USB output, instead of using standard protocols.
Hope this helps.