Mon, Jan 05, 2009

CPMH Tips: July 3, 2000

Sharing a Printer: Part 3
Apple's USB Printer Sharing

by David L. Hart

For those of you trying to share printers on the cheap, Apple has heard your pleas and responded with some new, free software for just such a need. Called USB Printer Sharing 1.0 (http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11726), this control panel for Mac OS 9 lets you share USB-connected printers across a TCP/IP connection.

For those of you with older Macs, those requirements may stifle your cheers of joy, so let's be more explicit up front. To use USB Printer Sharing, you need:

  • A printer connected via USB to one of your Macs, the printer host, through the built-in USB ports. Plug-in USB adapters and USB cards are not supported. To share a USB PostScript printer, the client Macs must also have USB ports.
  • All Macs must be using Mac OS 9.
  • The host Mac and any Macs that want to share the printer must be connected by TCP/IP -- as with a spare-bedroom-area network (SBAN) running Ethernet. LocalTalk/AppleTalk will not suffice. However, just about any Ethernet connection, including AirPort, will suffice.
  • All Macs must have the driver software for the printer that is being shared.

If your situation does not meet any of these requirements, you are probably stuck using one of the alternate methods for low-cost printer sharing: a printer, such as an Epson Stylus 740/740i that has both USB and Mac serial connectors; or a LocalTalk-connected printer and the LocalTalk Bridge control panel. I have successfully used both of these methods to share a printer between an iMac and an older, serial-only Mac system.

SHARING A PRINTER

Here are the steps for installing and configuring USB Printer Sharing to share a printer from the Mac to which the printer is connected (the host Mac).

  1. Install USB Printer Sharing on the host Mac.
  2. Install the USB printer drivers on the host Mac.
  3. Restart the host Mac.
  4. On the host Mac, open the USB Printer Sharing control panel, shown here, and turn printer sharing on by clicking the Start button (which then turns into a Stop button).
  5. Click on the My Printers tab and check the checkbox next to the printers to be shared, as shown below. The printer is ready to be shared.

USING A SHARED PRINTER

  1. Install USB Printer Sharing and the printer drivers on all client Macs.
  2. Restart the client Macs.
  3. Open the USB Printer Sharing control panel and click on the Network Printers tab, as shown here.
  4. If the printer is not shown, click on the Add button. Choose the neighborhood where the printer is shared -- for most home networks, this is the Local Services neighborhood.
  5. Select the printer to be shared by clicking on the Use checkbox.
  6. To print to this shared printer, select the printer using the Chooser or Desktop Printer Utility, and print as usual.

That's all there is to it. No extra cables, no extra money, just the USB Printer Sharing software. Enjoy!