HP 2600n add new Printer Model

I'm sorry to say, after reading the manual for this printer, you can't print to the printer when it's shared from Windows. The HP-provided driver supports direct USB connection from the Mac and Bonjour connection via ethernet. That's all. (page 29 of the Manual - "Installation Options") The reason you can't use Windows Sharing is that this driver isn't a CUPS driver - it uses/includes in the driver only two comm protocols.

I'm sure you will be successful if you connect the printer via ethernet.

Good luck.

I have a HP 2600n connected to my Windows XP machine
(due to logistics reasons).

The 2600N is a network-capable printer. If you put it on the network, the Mac and the XP box will see it.

In this Max OS 10.4.3 when I go into the screens that
allows me to add printers and select windows
printing, I can see the printer I want to print to.
I select it, but the printer model I want isn't
there (Closest is HP Color LaserJet 2550). When I
select that and try to print, it doesn't work.

1) Is there a way I can get the 2600n printer model
to show up?

Two ways:

1 put it on the network.

2 attach it directly to the Mac via USB.

2) Is there a better way to do this without changing
how I have it setup?

Nope. HP, in its infinite wisdom, did not release a driver which would allow a Mac to do that. A HP printer which is connected to a XP box can be shared to other XP boxes. A HP printer which is connected to a Mac probably can't be shared to other Macs, much less to XP boxes. And a HP printer connected to a XP box almost certainly can't be shared to a Mac. It's an HP problem. Sorry about that.

We have this printer also. It was no problem printing to it using a direct connection to the USB port. Network printing is another thing. As someone else said this printer can use Bonjour connection via ethernet but a lot of routers/switches don't pass it. We are in a small office and use a Firebox X Edge wireless router and it doesn't pass it so we can't get to this printer via the network...
a real pain.

G5, Xserver, Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.3)

G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

We have this printer also. It was no problem printing
to it using a direct connection to the USB port.
Network printing is another thing. As someone else
said this printer can use Bonjour connection via
ethernet but a lot of routers/switches don't pass it.
We are in a small office and use a Firebox X Edge
wireless router and it doesn't pass it so we can't
get to this printer via the network...
a real pain.

As far as I know (and I must stress that I'm not an expert on this...) Rendezvous/Bonjour/zeroconf (same thing, different names) and its Microsoft equivalent, UPnP, are supposed to be local network support systems. They're not supposed to go past the router; the point of a router is to connect two or more dissimilar networks, and one major reason to have more than one network is to wall off some users and resources from other users. R/B/z and UPnP are supposed to be passed along by a switch, though. Switches live inside your local net.

Also, while R/B/z and UPnP make it easy to connect stuff, they don't disable older connection systems. If you know the IP of the printer you can still force a connection, even if the printer is on a different net... if your router knows about the network the printer is in, and has been configured to allow you access.

I was (finally) able to print to a 2600N on a different subnet via Bonjour. I used Bonjour Browser to get all the properties for the printer while connected to a computer on the same subnet as the printer. Then, I installed Network Beacon on the computer on a different subnet and created a printer entry using those properties. When Network Beacon is running, I can select that printer as a "new printer" in Printer Setup. Now I can print to the 2600N on another subnet even with Network Beacon shut down (not sure that I completely understand why the new printer setup works but the old one does not).

Here are links for the two programs mentioned:
Bonjour Browser
http://www.tildesoft.com/Programs.html

Network Beacon
http://www.chaoticsoftware.com/ProductPages/NetworkBeacon.html

PowerBook G4 1.25GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Slight correction: Network Beacon has to run in order to print to the printer on the other subnet (must have had a temporary cache of the printer immediately after I stopped Network Beacon last time).