Printing to a Windows XP shared printer

I have long printed from my Macbook with Snow Leopard to my Windows XP computer with a shared printer. I began encountering intermittent connection issues, so I reset my printers. Now when I go to add a printer, under Windows, I see my Windows XP computer, but I get the "unable to connect to server" message. I have been able to add my IP printer, but I cannot add any USB shared printers on my Windows network. I can still connect to my Windows XP computer as a server.
I have scoured the forums and tried many different fixes, repaired permissions, etc. Now I'm at wit's end. Any suggestions?

Kappy, thanks for the input. Your suggestions didn't solve my problem, but through your links I was able to find another fix at macwindows.com relating to modifying the WINS settings and it worked. See below. Thanks!
+Daniel Hoit also sent configuration info for accessing Windows shares, and disagreed with a previous reader about Leopard's file sharing:+
+Samba based services are updated to reflect revisions to the open source Samba project in Leopard, and are not a step backwards. The addition of packet signing alone is a huge and welcome addition.+
+As for the poster's complaints regarding WINS workgroup and Finder browsing, the options are still there in Leopard. You can configure the WINS information in System Preferences/Network/ Advanced/WINS section. Choose a workgroup, and choose a wins server if you have one on your network.+

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Mac OSX - 10.8.3
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This is a very common problem. I encountered this using an HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus printer which was USB connected to a Windows 7 SP1 machine. It was shared to all users using Windows print sharing. Bidirectional file sharing between Windows and iMac 27 running OS X 10.8.5 worked fine. Windows 7 was configured for workgroup sharing, not homegroup or domain-based sharing. This is the simplest, most basic level of sharing in a cross-platform situation.
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After adding it the network shared printer on the Windows PC was visible from the Mac and I could check print status, toner levels, etc. However upon trying to print, it would hang in the Mac print queue with the message "on hold (authentication required)".
In my case the solution was pressing the refresh button on the print queue, which ONLY THEN displayed a login authentication screen. It was defaulting to my Mac admin login which (maybe in the goal of visual simplicity) was not shown.
I changed the login to Username: guest, Password: guest, and it printed fine.
This is extremely frustrating, as it took me hours to find this. I see many, many other discussion threads where this is likely the problem. Some of them struggled with this problem for days. This activity is in the COMMON PATH of a large % of users. It is not a fringe or rare activity or an "edge case".
Ideally Mac OS should just transparently handle this. Lacking that, the build-in help documentation should cover it. Lacking even that, at least an Apple KB article should cover it. Lacking even that, if the authentication dialog was not suppressed but popped up by default, at least it would point some users in the right direction.
As it is, not a single one of those things were done, and many people continue to hit this over, and over, and over. It is an embarrassing situation. There are 80,000 Apple employees. If just one of them spent a few minutes to write a KB article about this, it would help a lot.
There are likely other sub-cases which could cause the same error message. You don't want an excessively broad, poorly-worded KB article which implies there's a single solution to a given error. However the problem is nothing has been written or done to address this, and it's apparently been causing users problems for years.

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Hello,
I have a shared Canon PIXMA MP160 attached via USB to a windows Vista box. I have tried several ways to print to this printer form my macbook. I have tried the normal 'Windows Printing' with no success. It pops up a box with user name and password, i enter it, and nothing happens(just times out). I then found a thread that recommended the following:
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2. Select "Programs and Features" pane
3. Click "Turn Windows Features on or off"
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5. Ensure printer(s) are shared
On the Mac
1. Start Applications/Utilities/Printer Setup Utility
2. Hold down the "Option" key and click the "More Printers" button
3. From the top menu select "Advanced"
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5. In the "Device URL:" lpd://VistaPCName/PrinterShareName
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You have done some good research. One more thing - the driver from Canon was written to support direct USB printing only. You need a CUPS driver to use the various protocols available in the CUPS printing system in OS X. Look for CUPS drivers for your model here:
http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/macosx
http://www.printfab.net/
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Can't print to Windows 7 shared printer from Mac OS Lion

Dear all,
I would like to share my experience battling to figure out how to print to Windows 7 shared printer from Mac OS Lion. Myself had this problem and looking throughly in internet without success. But finally I figured out the solution by myself, hope this can help other Mac user with similar problem.
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2. Then looks for the + sign just below the box to add a new printer.
3. From the option toolbar above, I select Windows. I have connect this MacBook with my Windows Network, so the workgroup will appear to the left column.
4. After I select this group, the computer list will appear in the middle column
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7. After that it will automatically put your printer sharename to the "Name". And then I select my printer driver at "Print Using" and find my printer manufacturer which is Canon MX300 series from driver lists. Finish!
My printer appear in the Printers List. But the problem is everytime I try to print there will be error message saying "ON HOLD Authentication Required".
This problem start to kill me, I search all around for similar problem, but the solution was never worked for me!
Until just now I figured out accidentally for the solution.
THE PROBLEM LIES ON MY PRINTER DRIVER!!!! Although I have downloaded the most update driver from Apple site and Apple Software update said there is no more update for my system!
The solution for my problem is Gutenprint Printer Driver! You can download this driver at http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php, then select for the latest driver gutenprint-5.2.7.dmg. Install this driver!
Then back to Print & Scan in System Preferences, then right click on Printers List box, then choose "Reset Printing System..." to clear the previous failed printers.
After that, repeat the above step 2 - 7. Only for the last step I need to select the Printer Driver for my Canon MX308 for the driver name : "Canon PIXMA MX300 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.7"
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I have the same setup but with a Canon MX850. This did not fix my problem.

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I got file sharing working just fine, but nothing I did would allow the Mac to see the shared printer...
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HELP!!!!

I'm struggling with the same thing, myself. The Snow Leopard and Windows 7 machines are right as rain, and I can print without problem. (Did turn off Homegroup, as I read somewhere that this is only useful if all the machines in the environment are Windows 7.) The Tiger machine, though... it can see the computer and connect to the shared drive, but it does not see the printer.
The document given above is for 10.5, it's 10.4.11. However, I found this article on the same site (see below), printing between 10.4.11 and Vista (not Windows 7), and I'm gonna give it a whirl tomorrow. I don't think for Windows 7 that SMB has to be specifically enabled, because again, no issues from the Snow Leopard machine in that regard. What caught my attention specifically is in this article on this page, enabling Line Printer Daemon (LPD).
http://macs.about.com/od/macwindows/ss/prtsharevsta104_4.htm
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Can I print from my ipad using a windows 7 shared printer?

Can I print from my ipad using a windows 7 shared printer?

yes... all you need to do is go to the app store and look up something like; printer for ipad and then you are good to go. my ipad lets me so im sure it will you too. i hope i helped you

Firefox crashes on Windows 7 when printing to a Windows 7 network printer.

On Windows 7 running Firefox 3.6.10, I cannot print to a Windows 7 network printer. Firefox crashes every time as soon as I hit print.
However, the situation is very specific. I can print from Windows XP using Firefox 3.6.10 to a Windows 7 network printer. I can also print from Windows 7 using Firefox 3.6.10 to a Windows XP network printer. The only situation that doesn't work is using Firefox and printing from Windows 7 machine to Windows 7 machine.
Firefox is also the only program that does not print. I can print using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, MS Word, MS Excel, and every other application just fine. Firefox is exclusive in that it is the only program that crashes and refuses to print. The drivers that are being used a PostScript drivers.
I have tried multiple versions of Firefox from older ones to the Firefox 4 beta and the program crashes every time.
Again, the only time it crashes is printing from a Windows 7 client computer to a Windows 7 network printer. Printing from XP to Windows 7 and from Windows 7 to XP works.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. The only program I've noticed the problem with is Firefox, so I'm assuming it's a problem at the application level.

Here is the Crash Report for a user more experienced at reading Crash Reports than I am: <br />
http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/45f47e99-ea8e-449f-aa1e-6399e2101014
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Looks like a Windows problem, but not restricted to Win7 or 3.6.10 - there's one on Vista SP2 with Firefox 3.6 and another with 4.0b6 on Win7.

Macbook Pro w/ Lion 10.7.2 & Windows 7 Shared Printer (Lexmark X5650)

I just recently purchased a MacBook Pro with Lion OS 10.7.2 for my wife and have been trying to connect her Macbook to my Lexmark X5650 Printer that is connected to my Windows 7 Professional PC. Tried everything with no success. Any ideas? I have always been a PC user and this is my first MAC and really know nothing about them. Wife had to have it for Dental School and I am getting very frustrated
List of things I've tried thus far:
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     smb://server/Lexmark
     smb://workgroup/server/Lexmark
     smb://username:password@server/Lexmark
     smb://username:password@workgroup/server/Lexmark
     where the server is I have tried using both the IP Address and Computer Name of the shared Printer
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-Tried the LPD setting as well as just setting it straight up by selecting "Windows" under "Print & Scan", selected workgroup, computer name, and printer and everything appeared to install correctly until attempting to print test page
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-Even tried creating an Administrative User and Password specifically for Printing
-Made sure I had the latest MAC Driver for the Printer
I have pretty much tried every setting and suggestion that can be found on google and always get the "Authentication Required" error or nothing at all printing just pauses.   When I click resume and enter in the username and password for my windows pc, it says that its sending the job, but then nothing happens and also whenever I try to print another test page after that, I have to constantly click resume and enter the username and password manually regardless of how I set it up.
Is this a printer compatibility issue, is this an issue with Mac OS 10.7.2 (Lion) w/ Windows 7 or what? Every thread that I have read does not appear to have any responses from Apple with a workaround or any kind of explanation. All that I have come across is that most people had no problems printing through shared Windows 7 printers until they upgrade to Mac Lion OS.

The "Authentication Required" error can be related to the print driver. Many vendors create their OS X drivers for direct communication from the Mac to the printer. As soon as you stick a Windows computer or 3rd party print server in between the Mac and the printer, then you can get this error.
The thing to note is that when you added the printer via the Add Printer > Windows pane, vs CUPS or the Advanced SMB, you would have been prompted for your Windows credentials to see the printer share after selecting the Win7 computer name. If entering these details then showed you the shared printer, this rules out the problem being related to authentication information.
Working on the premise that the error is being caused by the driver then there are other driver options for OS X, such as Gutenprint. However, looking through the supported driver list for Gutenprint v5.2.7, there is not that many Lexmark printers and certainly not the X5650. And looking at other driver packages available for OS X, I cannot see this model so you may need to look at other options.
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So another workaround is detailed in this blog. This allows you to use the vendors driver on the Mac but I have to say that I have not tried this with Lion and Win7. My last test with this setup was with Win XP and Snow Leopard.
What may prove to be the easiest win is to purchase a Airport Express. With the printer connected to the USB port of this wireless device, the Mac can use the Lexmark driver and Win7 should have no problems printing to it either, although it would be handy to install the free Bonjour for Windows utility to help with locating the printer.
Hope this helps and please respond if you need any further information/assistance.

Printing from a MacBook Pro to a Windows XP shared printer

I have a desktop Windows XP pc with a shared HP PhotoSmart 7760 printer connected via USB and a Vista laptop. They connects to the internet via a wireless router. I recently added 2 MacBook Pros and an AirPort base to access the internet with the Mac's. The pc's can "see" each other and print. The Macs cannot see the pc's and the printer.
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Hi pmackins,
Welcome to the forum.
I have a desktop Windows XP pc with a shared HP PhotoSmart 7760 printer connected via USB...
Based on the above, my assumption is that the Printer is connected to the XP PC. The following may help:
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http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/3015.html
Kryten

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When I browse more printers it sees my windows box, but when I "Choose" it, the mac prompts me for a username/password and won't accept anything I give it, even though the same credentials worked fine when viewing shared files on the windows box from the very same mac.
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What am I missing?
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Message was edited by: perfnorm

I am having the same problem - although I have been working on it for a while longer (which i really hate to admit).
It appears that Windows 7 has dumped any support it had for Samba. (Although I would have sworn I had been printing successfully with the RC of Windows 7 with NO problem, but I wonder if the final version of Windows 7 has changed the TCP/IP stack and print sharing properties.
Had I known on July 1st what I know now, including the new iMac 27" machine - I would have struggled longer on XP and bought my new iMac this week.
Never the less, I am trying to print from my iMac to my Win7 machine which is sharing a printer.
I have been able to get file sharing to work (at least viewing shared files on the Win7 machine via my Mac.
Similar to your message above, I can try connecting via the Windows Workgroup printing features on OSX 10.4 and I can see my machine name under WORKGROUP. I have a USER ID set up on my Win 7 machine with a user ID and password - the same as what my iMac uses.
I can print to the windows 7 machine via XP - but NOTHING via the MAC.
I have tried different renditions of printing using \\WORKGROUP\MACHINENAMESHARED_PRINTERNAME, also using login / password via SMB as well as IP addresses\sharedprintername...
I have also posted for the last several days on the Windows 7 forum of Microsoft but I only get very basic suggestions that don't work. I have also tried changing some of the security settings, and I have also removed firewalls with no success.
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"Dr Who"

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Hello!
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Hi,
Welcome to the Discussions.
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(Be aware that i'm new to Mac haha)
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Hi,
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