[ink]

How come 15+ year-old technology can auto-detect, browse and install a printer perfectly, but current technology just sucks? I tried attaching to an Xerox Phaser 8400 from my Powerbook; clicked on 'Appletalk', saw the printer, done.

Trying the same thing from Windows... uhhh. Click on Add Printer, click on Network, see 7 "workgroups" under Microsoft Windows from "TECH SUPPORT" to "WORKGROUP" and "BOB'S NETWORK".

No printers.

Hmm, try each "workgroup" in turn. Double-clicking on each one causes the OS to freeze for about 10 seconds, but only yields a Laserjet 1100 (and we have at least 7 network printers). Hmmm, try searching for it with \\10.0.0.123 (no printer found). Try putting the IP in naked "10.0.0.123"... no dice.

OK, let's add a "local printer", "Create a TCP/IP port" (local??), put in the IP address "10.0.0.123". Then it asks for a driver... Xerox Phaser... hey! No driver there for this printer. *sigh*... OK..., where the hell do I....? Ahh, click on the button that says "Windows Update". The button goes grey and the computer sits there for about 5 minutes. Eventually a list of "available drivers with Genuine Microsoft Signed blah blah" printers shows up. Xerox Phaser 7500... Phaser 8500... No such 8400.

Fire up a web browser and go to Xerox.com. Go to support, look for printer drivers. Find Phaser 8400N, downloads are available for every version of Windows *except* Windows XP.... uhh, OK, let's try Windows 2000. It downloads, and installs, finds the printer on the network and exits.

After installing a systray service, desktop icon, and start menu item.

Ahh, the beauty of "progress".

[turtle777]

Ethertalk was so great that Apple abandoned it. Couldn't handle the success

[olePigeon]

It's not really Ethertalk, but the wonders of PostScript. EtherTalk was just AppleTalk over ethernet. PCL is retarded, but it was cheap relative to PostScript back in the day. So naturally, every single printer out there started using PCL instead of PostScript (which only worked with Windows, then eventually UNIX.)

Apple has a very good generic PostScript driver and it can talk to probably 95% of PostScript printers out there that support PostScript. You don't need anything special.

Windows is just retarded.

And, yeah. I never really worked with Windows PCs, so when I started my job and started to really troubleshoot Windows, I thought that had to be the STUPIDEST thing about printers. You want to add a network printer, oh no, don't go to the Network option. Use the Local option! And add a "physical" TCP/IP port.

Good luck doing network printing on Windows98. Looking back on it, System 6 was way ahead of its time and AppleTalk was awesome.

[Tesseract]

Bonjour is the new Ethertalk.

[Tomchu]

To add a network printer, you click Add network printer, select the "Internet" printer radio button, and type http://[Printer's IP]. It's not difficult at all. I wouldn't blame my ignorance on Windows. :-P

Driver support is obviously Xerox's fault, but since it's a PostScript printer, any PS driver should work, along with a PPD for a similar model (which you can just modify by hand).

[starman]

PCL is not retarded.

[residentEvil]

Originally Posted by Tomchu

To add a network printer, you click Add network printer, select the "Internet" printer radio button, and type http://[Printer's IP]. It's not difficult at all. I wouldn't blame my ignorance on Windows. :-P

Driver support is obviously Xerox's fault, but since it's a PostScript printer, any PS driver should work, along with a PPD for a similar model (which you can just modify by hand).

Actually, even easier: Start Menu > Run > \\printer share (assuming your printer is setup as a share on the local LAN)

Done.

[Millennium]

Install Apple's Bonjour for Windows. Among other things, it allows Windows machines to detect and work with Bonjour printers just as they do on Macs. I use it at home; it works well.

[ink]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

It's not really Ethertalk, but the wonders of PostScript. EtherTalk was just AppleTalk over ethernet. PCL is retarded, but it was cheap relative to PostScript back in the day. So naturally, every single printer out there started using PCL instead of PostScript (which only worked with Windows, then eventually UNIX.)

Partially true; but the remote "discovery" of the printer had everything to do with apple/ethertalk. That is what I was mostly lamenting on the Windows side. I would have been happy if Windows had said something along the lines of "Unknown printer 'Phaser 8400N' found". Instead, it just pretended that it didn't exist.

Originally Posted by Tomchu

To add a network printer, you click Add network printer, select the "Internet" printer radio button, and type http://[Printer's IP]. It's not difficult at all. I wouldn't blame my ignorance on Windows. :-P

No dice, sorry. It doesn't work. So, how many ways are there to add a remote printer in Windows now? I can think of at least five...