Mixed Platforms on Wireless HomeNetwork

[sbillings]

I am a newbie, and need some help! I have a home wireless network (netgear) using a DSL line. I have an iMac G4 and an iMac G5 cabled to my wireless router and I have an iBook G4 running wirelessly on the network. In addition, I have an Epson C84 cabled to my iMac G4's USB port. All the computers can print flawlessly to the C84 using printer sharing in OS X 10.4.6. My problem is this: I also have a WIndows XP laptop that uses this home network for internet access but I want to be able to print to the C84 printer as well from the Windows laptop. I cannot seem to make it work. I have turned on "Windows" and "Printer" Sharing in OS X preferences and I have also tried loading "Bonjour for Windows" from Apple onto my XP laptop but that doesn't work either although it seems to "see" the printer - but gives me a connection error message and won't print.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[motulist]

The best suggestion I can give you is to ask your question again on a Windows forum if you want a good answer to what sounds like it may be more of a Windows problem.

 

[grapes911]

I'm not sure, but this guide may help or at least give you some ideas.
http://guides.macrumors.com/Networking_Windows_with_Mac_OS_X

 

[sbillings]

Follow-up

Follow Up: Last night I had success!!! My steps were as follows: 1) Made sure my Windows XP network was named the same thing as my OS X network which meant I had to change from the default XP name of "MSHOME" to the OS X default of "WORKGROUP" 2) Made sure the computer name of my "host" OS X computer did not exceed 20 characters and had no spaces or other special characters. 3) Deleted all previously configured printers on the XP. 4) Reinstalled Bonjour for windows and ran the printer wizard. Made sure I selected the default printer drivers setup in Bonjour ("generic postscript drivers"). 5) Rebooted the XP, made sure the OS X machine with the printer was on and then PRESTO - I was able to print.

 

[motulist]

Good for you man. It's important when people post questions that they post a followup explaining how they fixed the problem so when people with the same problem search the archives and find this thread they will get an answer rather than having to ask the same question again. The only problem that might come up with that setup is it sounds like the type of thing that will suddenly stop working one day for seemingly no reason and you'll have to go through the whole process again. For instance it may stop working because after a Windows reboot the name of the network will revert to the default name again or something like that.