Mac OS X 10.6 Setting up and Printing to Windows Domain Printers

Question

Hi Guys,
I have a Windows Domain currently running here at work. I am running a print server on one of our Windows 2003 Servers.
I have successfully joined 4 Mac Pro machines to the domain. They are all logging on to the domain and can access shares etc.
My problem is that I wish to add the networked printers that appear on the domain print server to the Mac Pros.
When i go to System Preferences > Print and Fax then click the + button. I see a list of all the printers that are exclusively installed on the Windows Print Server.
Some are listed in the Add Printer window as Bonjour and some Open Directory. The Bonjour items I can add fine, its the Open Directory ones that are causing me problems.
How can I add these printers to each machine without manually installing the drivers for each printer on each Mac. Why am I seeing some Bonjour listed printers and some that are not?
Any help would be very much appreciated

Answer 1

Some are listed in the Add Printer window as Bonjour and some Open Directory. The Bonjour items I can add fine, its the Open Directory ones that are causing me problems.
How can I add these printers to each machine without manually installing the drivers for each printer on each Mac.
The answer depends on what printer description language (PDL) these Windows shared printers support. If they are Postscript then it is possible that a PPD for the printer may already exist on the Mac and so all you need to do is select it from the Print Using menu. And if the PPD is not present then you can still select Generic Postscript. But the thing to note is that since you are sharing the queue from Windows, rather than connecting directly to the printer (as you are doing with the Bonjour printer) then the Mac does not know what the printer is so you still need to manually select the correct printer on the Mac.
If the printer is not Postscript and requires a proprietary printer language then would have to manually install this driver on every Mac. And even with this driver installed on the Mac there is no guarantee that it will work via the Windows share. Many vendor drivers are written for direct communication to the network printer. Sticking a Windows queue in between stops the Mac driver from communicating with the printer and this in turn stops the Mac from printing. So if you can tell us what printer models you have then we can provide better information.
Why am I seeing some Bonjour listed printers and some that are not?
Not all network printers support Bonjour. Often only newer models of business printers support this protocol, while it is more prevalent in consumer printers. And what you are seeing is a multicast coming directly from the printer. So if you don't want the users to bypass your Windows print server and connect directly to these printers, then you may not want them broadcasting their presence.
But the benefit of the printer using Bonjour is that they are able to communicate with the Mac what they are and this helps with the Mac determining which printer driver to use,  so as you have noted the setup for the Bonjour printer on Mac is easy, because it helps the help with selecting the correct driver.
Hope this helps with your questions. Please reply if you need more information