How to configure Windows printer on Mac
Problem: I recently purchased a Mac — it’s a MacBook with OS X 10.5.4 Leopard. I’m try to use it as my primary workstation as much as possible so I needed to set up the printer. Our network is a Windows network with domain and the printer is part of that network. Printer is configured to use domain authentication.
Now when I tried to add the printer in a layman way (System Preferences > Fax & Printer > click “+” in the bottom etc) everything seemed to work nice and the printer has been added quite nicely. Until I tried to print something. When I send document to the printer, the document gets stuck in the print queue and it displays the print status as “On Hold (Authentication Required)”. I must say that the print dialog asked for authentication and I entered my domain user name and password correctly, so this is not just a typo (rather a problem of interaction of *nix machine with SAMBA server).
Solution: fortunately I have been able to fix the problem and below is the step-by-step guide.
Before you proceed, please try this solution first which seems to do the same but in fewer steps.
Some foreword before we start. Here’s the data you will need to get the thing to work:
- Your Windows domain credentials (in the form of domain/username:password). Let’s assume ournetwork/joe:p4ssw0rd
- The name or IP of the machine your printer is connected to. Let’s assume PrintServer
- The name of the printer as it’s seen on your network. Let’s assume HPLaser.
Hint: to figure out this printer name, go to System Preferences > Print & Fax
click “+” > Windows > ournetwork > PrintServer. At this point you will be asked to enter the name and password. Enter username as ournetwork\joe and password as p4ssw0rd. (Remember these are all example names ;) - Assume the printer port on print server to be 139 but check with your network admin if that doesn’t work.
- Make sure you remember the root user name and password for your Mac machine
- Figure out the manufacturer and model of the printer, e.g. HP LaserJet 1200. In case you don’t know them you can read them on the back panel of the printer or ask your admin
OK now we are ready to add the printer.
Here’s the step-by-step guide:
- Open Firefox or Safari
- Navigate to http://localhost:631
- This will open the interface to CUPS utility which is a UNIX utility to configure printers
- Click Add Printer
- You’ll see the following screen
- Enter Name as HPLaser
- The trickiest one is Location. You need to enter it in the following form:
smb://ournetwork/joe:p4ssw0rd@PrintServer:139/HPLaser
Once again, all values (ournetwork, joe, p4ssw0rd, PrintServer, HPLaser) are just an example for demo purposes. - Enter any Description you like, for example “I like pizza”
- Click Continue and you’ll see the next screen
- Select the Device type as Windows Printer via SAMBA and click Continue
- In the Device URI field, enter the same location line you entered before, like this:
smb://ournetwork/joe:p4ssw0rd@PrintServer:139/HPLaser - Click Continue
- Select a manufacturer of your printer, in our case HP and click Continue
- Select a model of your printer, in our case LaserJet 1200. Click Add Printer
- At this point you will be asked for a username and password. Please note that you need to enter your root username and password for your Mac machine, not the domain username and password.
- If you’re lucky enough, the printer will be added successfully. Go to Home > Manage printers
- You should see your printer with no error messages next to it, like this
- Click Print Tets Page. Now walk up to your printer and see what happens.
- If the printer displays any errors or if it doesn’t print anything chances are you made some mistakes while configuring it. Please check all data and make sure you followed the steps above correctly.
Some notes:
- After you added your printer via CUPS utility, it will be the default printer on your Mac and will be available at all Print dialogs.
- You can also access some configuration parameters for your printer at System Preferences > Print & Fax
- CUPS utility should also good for other UNIX/Linux-like systems like Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat etc. However I didn’t try it there.
- Make sure your firewall settings on your Windows PC are not preventing your Mac to access the printer.
See also Apple forums, mac-forums, your CUPS utility (works for Mac/*nix users).
P.S. Just found a completely different solution from Expert Exchange:
I’ve found leopard to be unreliable with its username/password authentication. It is supposed to ask for credentials when it fails authentication but it doesn’t seem to do this reliably.
I’ve found better results by installing Printer Services for UNIX on the Windows 2003 boxen (available via Add/Remove Windows Components), and then setting up the printer on the mac as an LPD printer.
Hope my post helped someone. Drink one beer for me if that’s the case.
