Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

KenDallas · Jun 22, 2005, 01:28 AM

Greetings to all,

As helpful as everyone on here has been with all my other "rookie" mac questions and issues, I am hoping to solve one of my toughest mac problems yet. I want to apologize in advance if this is a lengthy post since I want to make sure that all the details are presented.

First, my setup. I have a PowerBook running Tiger 10.4.1. The printer in question is a Brother HL-5140 connected to a Linksys wireless print server.

The Powerbook came with Panther installed and ever since I installed Tiger, I have been unable to print anything to the printer using the wireless printserver. The printer was working beautifully using the wireless printserver under panther. Under Tiger, the printer works fine when connected via USB so I believe the CUPS drivers work fine.

I have attempted the following to no avail:

First Scenario:
Installed printer exactly the way I installed it under Panther.
- Went into Printer Setup Utility
- Clicked "Add", then "IP Printer"
- Selected LPD as the Protocol
- Entered corresponding IP address
- Selected the printer
- Clicked ADD
Result: Every time I print to the printer installed with this method I get "Remote Host did Not Accept Data File (32)"

Second Scenario:
- Went into Printer Setup Utility
- Clicked on "Reset Printing System"
- Under "Default Browser" selected the Printer
the print server as Appletalk option which I enabled
- Selected the corresponding CUPS driver
- Clicked "ADD"
Result: Printer prints junk, I try to print 1 page, I 10+ pages of garbage.

Third Option
- Went into Printer Setup Utility
- Clicked on "Reset Printing System"
- Clicked "Add", then "IP Printer"
- Selected LPD as the Protocol
- Entered corresponding IP address
- Clicked on "More Printers"
- Selected the right drivers
- Clicked ADD
Result: I get "Printer is busy will try in 10 seconds"

As you can see, there is something serious wrong here and I would absolutely love to be able to use my printer again using the wireless printserver. Since everything worked fine under panther I am convinced that its not the printserver, or the printer. I have ruled out the driver as well since everything prints just fine using the USB port.

Any ideas???? This has been driving me crazy. I would very much appreciate any and all help with this.

schalliol · Jun 22, 2005, 07:57 AM

Interesting. Brother would likely tell you to shove it if you called, but I'd call Linksys or look to see if there are any forums on Tiger with that wireless print server. If it's really a print server, then the server may not be compatible with Tiger.

KenDallas · Jun 22, 2005, 10:16 AM

My view is that this is not a Brother issue nor it is a Linksys issue since the brother drivers work in Tiger using the USB port, and the Linksys printserver has worked faithfully for over two months under Panther. I remember reading somewhere that the LPD protocol within Tiger is messed up. I was hoping that 10.4.1 would fix it, but didn't happen.

I am hopeful that someone on here knows a workaround to this issue till Apple address this issue in their next update.

Originally Posted by schalliol

Interesting. Brother would likely tell you to shove it if you called, but I'd call Linksys or look to see if there are any forums on Tiger with that wireless print server. If it's really a print server, then the server may not be compatible with Tiger.

KenDallas · Jun 24, 2005, 06:49 PM

Well... I kinda sorta have it working.

I have a PC desktop that also prints to the said printer using the wireless Printserver. I set the desktop to share the printer, and then connected to the printer using my Powerbook and guess what? the dang thing works !!!! go figure...

So, bottom line, I cannot print using the wireless printserver directly, but can go through my windows XP machine to the same printer and using the same wireless printserver and print just fine.

i am really confused, but at least I am able to sit in the dining room and print to my printer in the office...

ghporter · Jun 25, 2005, 08:30 AM

A "wireless print server" is explicitly a networking thing, NOT a peripheral. This discussion should have been started in the Networking forum.

Your problem is probably tied to the Samba setup you did or didn't do for the printer after you installed Tiger. The Samba implementation in Tiger seems to be a little bit different from Panther's, but not enough to mess things up. On the other hand, a Tiger installation overwrites everything from the previous OS, so you'd generally have to just reset all the settings.

If the printserver has a fixed IP on your network, it should be exceedingly simple to set it up using Samba. What have you done, other than giving up on connecting with the printserver and using your Windows box for that purpose?

KenDallas · Jun 25, 2005, 11:51 AM

First, let me apologize for not posting this message in the correct forum. Perhaps that is why I have not received many message. I thank you for pointing this out and still offering to help.

I am new to the Mac environment and do not know very much about Samba and such. The wireless printserver does in fact have a fixed ip address and you're right in mentioning that it should be exceedingly simple to set it up. I was able to set it up with in less than 5 minutes under panther when it was working.

Aside from going to the printer through the windows box I have not tried doing anything since I dont know much about OSX and didn't want to break anything trying different things of which I have no knowledge.

Thanks again for your help with this.

Originally Posted by ghporter

A "wireless print server" is explicitly a networking thing, NOT a peripheral. This discussion should have been started in the Networking forum.

Your problem is probably tied to the Samba setup you did or didn't do for the printer after you installed Tiger. The Samba implementation in Tiger seems to be a little bit different from Panther's, but not enough to mess things up. On the other hand, a Tiger installation overwrites everything from the previous OS, so you'd generally have to just reset all the settings.

If the printserver has a fixed IP on your network, it should be exceedingly simple to set it up using Samba. What have you done, other than giving up on connecting with the printserver and using your Windows box for that purpose?

ghporter · Jun 25, 2005, 03:02 PM

There are a few things different from Windows in Mac network printing, the biggest being that it often (maybe usually) takes some extra work to get it going. Here is a great source for step-by-step instructions for how to set up network printing under OS X, and it should apply to Tiger almost without change. You'll have to use your own queue name, and as most printservers like "lpt1" exclusively, I'd use that. Just skip the first part about "Collect Printer Information" since you should already know what you need to about your printer.

KenDallas · Jun 25, 2005, 05:17 PM

Thanks for your help with this. You have no idea how frustrating its been to get this problem figured out. I have it working and it couldn't have been easier. I followed your advice about not using the default queue name and instead used lpt1- didn't change anything else. I had been using the default queue name with my previous attempts. The instructions on the site you provided also suggests not using the default queue name. I cant believe the queue name actually makes such a big difference.

Thanks again, this was a big one for me....

Originally Posted by ghporter

There are a few things different from Windows in Mac network printing, the biggest being that it often (maybe usually) takes some extra work to get it going. Here is a great source for step-by-step instructions for how to set up network printing under OS X, and it should apply to Tiger almost without change. You'll have to use your own queue name, and as most printservers like "lpt1" exclusively, I'd use that. Just skip the first part about "Collect Printer Information" since you should already know what you need to about your printer.