[opheim]

Ok, I've spent waaaay too much time trying over and over to get my Canon i950 to work seamlessly on my windows/osx/linux home network. Via bluetooth, WLAN, LAN or shared from the G5. Either way it won't work on both the PC and the Mac at the same time. The only option I haven't tried is having it connected to one of the Windows computers, and sharing it from there. This might work, but is also the only solution I can't use, since none of the Windows computers are on 24/7, as the G5 is.

Other circumstances (the need for A3 printouts) now gives me a good reason the kick the i950 out the window and replace it with a new printer. Needless to say, I'd like to make the *right* choice this time. So my demands would be:

- Inkjet printer with sharp photo quality
- 4x6" up to A3 or A3+
- Borderless printing
- Preferrably LAN interface, or ability to sit behind a WLAN print server (DLink DP-G310)
- Drivers for Wintendo, Linux (SuSE 9.1) and Mac OSX. (Can live without the Linux-drivers, but not the two others)
- Preferrably moderate ink-costs (this goes against HP printers, but suggestions are welcome none the less)
- Preferrably no more than $6-800 in purchase

Added bonus points for cd-printing, memory card reader, integrated lcd-screen, blue leds and integrated coffee-maker.

Sooo - which printer would be the best buy in this scenario? Thanks!

[JLFanboy]

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know too much about networking, even at the level you're talking about. I will say, however, that I can't imagine any problem is bad enough that you'd have to get rid of a printer as great as the i950.

What are the different steps you've taken? I did a quick search at Apple Support (Mac OS X 10.3 Help: Sharing your printer with Windows users via SMB) and it looks fairly straightforward.

Sorry if this post wasn't helpful, but I just hope you don't have to dump the Canon.

[opheim]

Well, "dumping" was kind of a "spirit of the moment" thing... It's more of a "replacing", as in selling the i950, and buying a new one. The main reason for this is not the networking troubles, but the lack of A3 support on the i950. So I'm of course considering the new i9950, which seems to be an upgraded version of the i950, but with A3 support and now 8 colors instead of 6.

As for the networking problems, I have tried the following:

- Connected the i950 to the G5, installed and tested ok.

- Connected the i950 to a Tecom BT3051 Bluetooth Print Server
- Found the print server from the G5, but was unable to install correct drivers. Works fine on Windows, but not on the macs.

- Connected the i950 to a DLink DP-G310 802.11G Print Server
- Found the print server from the G5, but was unable to install correct drivers. Works fine on Windows, but not on the macs. (Hm... Deja Vu?)
- This I tested on both WLAN and LAN, made no difference.

- Connected the i950 to the G5, "Windows-shared" it
- Found the printer on the Windows machines, installed ok, everything seems fine, up until a test print, which basically never makes it across to the mac.

I have a sneaking feeling that the three best solutions (wlan, lan and bluetooth, in that order) are messed up by the fact that the Canon drivers seem to be made in a way that makes it impossible to use for other purposes than a local USB connection. This is why I'm considering other brands, just in case those have better drivers, which could possibly enable me to use one of the preferred solutions.

[mbryda]

Sharing from the Mac side is pretty simple. I have a i560 set up on my iMac which is shared to my lonely WinBlows box (as well as other Macs).

Taken from www.osxhints.com (Search on print sharing):

Turn on Printer sharing and make sure your firewall is open on port 631.

Go to the Mac and enter "127.0.0.1:631" in your web browser. This takes you to CUPS. Set up a NEW printer (in ADDITION to the printer setup you use to print from the mac) choosing a short name with no spaces and NOT TOO LONG. 8 letters should be plenty. Adding more than 12 or so will stop windows using it (cos windows is stupid). Tell CUPS where your printer is, but set it up as "raw". You can give it a description if you like.

Go to the PC (mine is running XP) and add a new printer. Dont browse for it, just go to the box that lets you type an internet address and enter:
http:/your.mac.IP:631/printers/nameofprinter
Then, install the correct printer driver on the PC. By setting the mac up to allow "raw" access to the printer, you get all the functionality of the PC driver.

This works like a charm on my iMac - I print from the Windows side with the regular Canon driver and all is good. The only other thing I did was go into print utility on the Mac and make the new queue not show up in my printer list.

Also, if you can't print from the Windows side, you may need to specify the userID and password from the Mac to print (I did, but my Win box is also a member of a domain - work laptop)...

[opheim]

Yeah, that brings me right back to another problem I've tried to remedy by asking for info here, but it seems so weird that noone has seen it before, and I'm unable to fix it as I can see. The problem is that I for some reason can't access the CUPS interface. I get the main page, but the second I press the "Add printer" button, I get asked for a username and password to enter the CUPS area.



I have tried with my long and short username, all the passwords I have ever used on this computer (3 different), "root" as username, no username, no password, and every other weird combo, but nothing works. So at the time being, I don't have CUPS operational. This prohibits me from further testing with the CUPS system... The thought of the actual solution being in there drives me nuts...

And just to make the confusion complete; This occurs on both my G5 and my PB17...