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How to print from Macbook Pro on a Cannon MP610 printer?

I have recently bought a Macbook Pro, and I have a wireless network set up at home.

I have no problems connecting to the internet or the network. But I can't seem to access the printer. I have a Cannon MP610 Printer. This printer is connected to the PC, which is connected to the modem. The printer is unable to connect directly into the modem which is unfortunate

It's a fairly big network. We have a master pc that is connected to the modem. This master computer also has a usb printer. We have a secondary pc ethernet linked to the master pc, which can connect to the internet and the printer via the ethernet.

The modem is a Thomson TG782T ADSL.

We have 3 windows O/S laptops, and 2 MAC O/S laptops.. No laptop can access the printer. Only the internet.

Can you access a printer from a laptop through the modem through the master computer the the printer?

The printer is turned on, and the PC is always running. The printer and file sharing is turned on.

What would be the least expensive way I could go about fixing this problem?

I have heard about people downloading Gutenprint; so i downloaded it, but couldn't get it to run.

I have tried many different ways, and after adding a new printer and finding it on the network.. is then says it is in the queue list.. but won't print. It just sits there until you cancel it.

Thanks in advance
Jason

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5), NA

Posted on Jan 5, 2011 6:25 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 5, 2011 9:38 PM

Jason Paige wrote:
Can you access a printer from a laptop through the modem through the master computer the the printer?

You should be able to. A printer that is connected to Windows and shared should be available to other Windows and Mac's to print to. There is the issue with Canon inkjets that you need to use the Gutenprint driver. Using the Mac driver can cause authentication errors which are misleading when the issue is actually the driver. So creating the Mac queue using the Gutenprint driver is one solution and the cheapest.

Windows 7 can be an issue for printer sharing to Mac and older versions of Windows. Can you tell us what OS the master PC is using.

What would be the least expensive way I could go about fixing this problem?

I think you should be able to get this working as you have it now. The IP addressing is most likely one cause so if you can provide all the IP addresses, subnet masks and gateway addresses of all computers then this will help with the problem solving.

An alternate to using the master PC would be to get a print server. This still requires you to use the Gutenprint driver on the Mac, unless you have an Airport Express, but since the MP610 is a supported model then using say a Belkiin or Netgear print server is no issue.

I have heard about people downloading Gutenprint; so i downloaded it, but couldn't get it to run.

I have tried many different ways, and after adding a new printer and finding it on the network.. is then says it is in the queue list.. but won't print. It just sits there until you cancel it.

If browsing to the shared printer does not work then you can manually create an SMB queue. Before doing this I would ensure you can ping the master PC from the Mac and Windows laptop. If there is a response to the ping then at least you know you have a path through the router.

You don't mention it but is the Thomson also the wireless access point for the laptops?
8 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 5, 2011 9:38 PM in response to Jason Paige

Jason Paige wrote:
Can you access a printer from a laptop through the modem through the master computer the the printer?

You should be able to. A printer that is connected to Windows and shared should be available to other Windows and Mac's to print to. There is the issue with Canon inkjets that you need to use the Gutenprint driver. Using the Mac driver can cause authentication errors which are misleading when the issue is actually the driver. So creating the Mac queue using the Gutenprint driver is one solution and the cheapest.

Windows 7 can be an issue for printer sharing to Mac and older versions of Windows. Can you tell us what OS the master PC is using.

What would be the least expensive way I could go about fixing this problem?

I think you should be able to get this working as you have it now. The IP addressing is most likely one cause so if you can provide all the IP addresses, subnet masks and gateway addresses of all computers then this will help with the problem solving.

An alternate to using the master PC would be to get a print server. This still requires you to use the Gutenprint driver on the Mac, unless you have an Airport Express, but since the MP610 is a supported model then using say a Belkiin or Netgear print server is no issue.

I have heard about people downloading Gutenprint; so i downloaded it, but couldn't get it to run.

I have tried many different ways, and after adding a new printer and finding it on the network.. is then says it is in the queue list.. but won't print. It just sits there until you cancel it.

If browsing to the shared printer does not work then you can manually create an SMB queue. Before doing this I would ensure you can ping the master PC from the Mac and Windows laptop. If there is a response to the ping then at least you know you have a path through the router.

You don't mention it but is the Thomson also the wireless access point for the laptops?

Jan 6, 2011 5:51 AM in response to PAHU

How can I use the Gutenprint driver on my Mac? All it does is downloads and installs, but it wont allow me to use it. (Like it doesn't come up under applications or anything).

The 2 desktop PC's are both running Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002.

IP address:121.222.186.51
According to "what is my ip address.com" it says my MacBook Pro and master desktop PC has both the same IP addresses. Is this meant to be correct?

How do I find the subnet masks and gateway addresses of computers?

No airport express, and not wishing to purchase any other equipment. Sorry.

How do I create a PMB queue? And how do I find out if I can ping the master PC? (what's your definition of ping?)

Yes, sorry the Thomson is the wireless access point for all laptops.

Thanks again for the help. Sorry I don't know much of your lingo :S

Jan 6, 2011 3:43 PM in response to Jason Paige

Jason Paige wrote:
How can I use the Gutenprint driver on my Mac? All it does is downloads and installs, but it wont allow me to use it. (Like it doesn't come up under applications or anything).

Installing printers on Mac's is usually a two step process. The first is to install the driver software if it is not on the Mac already and the second is to add the printer queue. OS X 10.6 comes with Gutenprint v5.2.3 already so would be no need to download and install again, unless you customized the OS X installation and selected not to install the printer drivers or you have a model of printer that only a later version of Gutenprint supports. Since your MP610 is listed as a supported model with v5.2.3 then the downloading was probably a waste of your time.

To add the printer when it is shared by Windows you open Print & Fax, select to add ( + ) and then select the Windows icon. This will open a pane showing three columns. The first column is for workgroup names and since you mention you're using XP Home then your workgroup name will be 'mshome'. If your Mac does not see 'mshome' in the first column then we need to look at the IP addresses being used by your computers.

IP address:121.222.186.51
According to "what is my ip address.com" it says my MacBook Pro and master desktop PC has both the same IP addresses. Is this meant to be correct?

Looking at the IP address listed this is going to be the address of the Thomson router. If all computers were using the same address then this would be a problem but given that you used a web service to tell you the address then this won't be the case.

To see what IP address, subnet mask and gateway address you are have configured, you can use Command Prompt on XP and type "ipconfig /all" (without the quotation marks) and press Enter. This will give you a list of all the network settings in the PC. Write these down for later reference.

For the Mac you can open System Preferences > Network and select which port you are using (Ethernet or Airport). Then in the right pane will be the current IP address. To get more information you can press the Advanced button and then select the TCP/IP tab in the next pane.

How do I create a PMB queue? And how do I find out if I can ping the master PC? (what's your definition of ping?)

It's an SMB queue and I suggest that we leave that process for now. Besides you will need to know the IP address of the XP sharing the printer before we can try that process. So let's just try to get the computers appearing in the Windows Add Printer browser and using the Gutenprint driver instead of the Canon.

Jan 6, 2011 6:06 PM in response to PAHU

So my mac currently has OS X Version 10.6.5, and I have not customised it.

I went to add the printer, clicked the windows icon, and mshome showed up. The second column has 'user-b05099fed5'. I'm guessing that's the master PC's name? Cause on the 3rd column is a list of all the installed printers we have used.

On the master PC, I have named the Printer as NETWORK PRINTER (so it can easily be found). Network Printer is in the 3rd column as well as Printer, Printer 3 and Printer 5. What should I select in the drop down box on the Print using: ?

Do you still want IP addresses since I can view mshome?

IP Adresses:
Master PC: 10.0.0.6
MacBook Pro: 10.0.0.5

Subnet Masks:
Master PC: 255.255.255.0
MacBook Pro: 255.255.255.0

Gateway Address:
Master PC: 10.0.0.138
MacBook Pro: (can't find on the MacBook Pro)

Jan 6, 2011 7:10 PM in response to Jason Paige

Jason Paige wrote:
On the master PC, I have named the Printer as NETWORK PRINTER (so it can easily be found). Network Printer is in the 3rd column as well as Printer, Printer 3 and Printer 5. What should I select in the drop down box on the Print using: ?

If you open the Print Using and click 'Select printer software' and then type MP610, you should see the "Canon PIXMA MP610 - Gutenprint v5.2.3". Select this - you don't want the "Canon MP610 series".

Do you still want IP addresses since I can view mshome?

No. Since you can see the shared printer then the IP addresses must be correct.

Jan 6, 2011 7:50 PM in response to PAHU

Okay, awesome 🙂 I can now print on both MAC laptops and 1 windows Laptop at the moment!

One last thing..

When you want to print from a MAC laptop, it comes up with a dialog box saying " Enter your name and password for the printer "Network Printer" Connect as: Guest or Registered User.

I always click guest, and then it allows me to print. Is there something I can change so this dialog box won't keep asking me?

Thanks again for your help!

Jan 6, 2011 8:39 PM in response to Jason Paige

Good to read that it's working.

Regarding the authentication box, the only way I've managed to 'bypass' it is by manually creating an SMB queue with the Guest account. There may be other ways using AppleScript or some other application that I am not aware of so someone else may chip in.

If you want to try the manual method here are the steps.

1. Open Print & Fax and click + to add a queue
2. Move your mouse into the toolbar, near the Windows icon is good, and Control-click.
3. With the menu that appear click Customize Toolbar.
4. Drag the Advanced icon next to the Windows icon.
5. Click the Advanced icon in the toolbar
6. For the Type menu, change this to Windows
7. Leave the Device menu at Another Device
8. In the URL section, after the smb://, entering the following information

Guest@computer name/sharename

where computer_name is the name of the sharing computer and the share_name is the printer sharing name.

9. For the Print Using menu, select the Canon PIXMA MP610 - Gutenprint v5.2.3.
10. Click Add to complete.

Now when you print you should not get prompted to authenticate.

Good luck

How to print from Macbook Pro on a Cannon MP610 printer?

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