Print shares for MAC OS X

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I had set up print sharing from our IMAC through SMB, and it worked fine for a while, and then stopped working due to some kind of authentication error. The SMB shares work fine for my windows laptops. Some searching on the web brought up the solution of using the LPD protocol for serving the printer, which is more natural for a UNIX based operating system anyway.

LPD is the Line Printer Daemon protocol developed for UNIX systems for printing over TCP/IP. It uses TCP port 515. OS X uses CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) to access this protocol.

On my WIN7 machine serving the share

  • Access "Programs and Features"
  • Click "Turn Windows Features on or off"
  • Turn on the LPD protocol.
    • It was already on

On the iMAC

  • Access System Preferences... -> Print and Fax
  • Add a printer by clicking the + below the printer list
  • Click Advanced on the toolbar of the dialog that pops up.
    • If Advanced is not there, right click the toolbar, click Customize Toolbar... and drag the gear icon to the toolbar
  • Set Type: to LPD/LPR Host or Printer (Device: will default to Another Device)
  • Set URL: to lpd://win7pc-ip-address/sharename
    • lpd://192.168.1.8/hp2200pscript in my case
    • Sometimes the host name works, but I have not yet worked out how to make this reliable. The IP address is safest.
  • Fill in the name and location flelds
  • Pick a driver
    • Generic PostScript Printer in my case
  • Click the Add button