Problem with network printer on Windows 7 machine

The "Unable to connect to" message doesn't sound like a driver issue or a dhcp, etc. issue.

It's probably a SMB2 (Apple's new samba-windows connection protocol) issue.

Make sure the Windows LPD service is enabled (is it called unix printing service?), including jotting down the printer's queue name, and try adding the printer using IP > LPD on the Mac.

You should be able to use generic PCL, Brother BRscript3, and generic postscript drivers.

I haven't tried this, so I'm not sure about "recommending it."

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20131122083837447

Hello James.

Reading your postings I would like to suggest a few things.

1. The Mac's IP address. You mention setting the Mac to use DHCP. If you have its Ethernet cable connected directly to the Win7 PC then I would recommend you use static IP addresses, as there is no server to allocate an IP and the Mac will then use a self assigned address. So if the PC is using 192.168.33.2, then you would need to set the Mac to the same IP subnet, determined by the subnet mask. For example, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, the Mac will need to have an IP subnet of 192.168.33 and a different network address than 2. 20 should be a safe number if you have less than 12 devices on your local network.

Also ensure that the Gateway address is set to the IP address used by the PC.

With the IP address set to static, then see if you can connect to a shared folder on the Win7 computer? On the Mac, open Finder and select Go > Go to Server. Then type smb://192.168.33.2/shared_folder_name and then press Go. You should get a prompt to enter your Windows user name and password and once correctly entered a new window will appear showing that folders contents.

2. Windows Network Profile. There are a few different network profiles on Windows 7 (and 8) that determine different things like network discovery and sharing. If you have your profile set to Public, this can block connections and locating the PC as it is designed for public places like Library's. To check what profile you have set, open Control Panel and select Network & Internet > Network and Sharing Center. Here you will see your network profile, ex Private or Public. This needs to be set to Private (aka Home).

Another setting that can stop the Mac seeing the Win 7 PC when you try to add the printer is Homegroup (you mention this issue in your last post). Homegroup is a Windows to Windows setting for sharing, but with it enabled it can stop the Mac from seeing the PC workgroup and thus the printer share. So if it is set then click the link to leave the Homegroup.

3. Use LPD instead of SMB. As Greg mentioned in his first response, enable the LPD service on the Win7 PC and then you use LPD for the protocol on the Mac, which does not require you to authenticate to Windows every time you print. On Windows, open Control Panel and select Programs > Turn Windows features on/off. Then scroll down to Print & Document Services and expand this to see LPD Print Service. Enable this and then click OK.

With LPD enabled on the PC, check the share name set for the Brother. If this has a long name or spaces, then change it to be one short name with no spaces, such as brother.

Now on the Mac, select to add a printer and select IP. Then enter the IP address of the Win7 PC, set the protocol to LPD, and enter the queue name of brother. Change the Name from the IP address to Windows Printer and select the Brother driver in the Use menu. Click Add to complete and then see if you can print.

Hope this helps...

James Wilde wrote:

1. I forgot to say that it was the Mac equivalent of dhcpd that I turned on so that the Mac is the server, on 192.168.33.1, and it has assigned the number 192.168.33.2 to the Windows box. And yes, I do prefer in these cases to use fixed addresses, but the Windows box seemed reluctant to accept its ip address thus the decision to start dhcpd on the Mac. After that I could not ping the Windows box from the Mac box. I didn't try to ping the Mac from the Windows box. I'll try that tomorrow. As to the network, there are only these two machines on the cable network. The default router on the Windows box is, if I remember correctly, set by dhcpd to the ip address of the house router. I have now disabled the cable network. See below.

Unusual that you could not ping Windows from the Mac. Would explain why you got a connection error with this setup. But if you have now stopped using the cable connection then this is mute.

James Wilde wrote:

2. The network profile is set to Home on the Windows box. I don't see any references to Homegroup in any of my messages on this topic. If you are referring to another post I made on a different subject, I am aware of the problems with Homegroup, and as far as I know, I have avoided this, since my wife's Windows box is the only Windows box in the house. Everything else is either Mac or Ubuntu, apart from one or two Windows virtual machines on my Mac and Ubuntu boxes.

No, you didn't mention Homegroup but you did mention not being able to see the Windows computer "Incidentally I now find that I can't get any result from selecting Windows in the Add Printer dialog." So I thought I would mention that Homegroup can cause this.

James Wilde wrote:

3. I've tried all three options in the Add printer dialog, IP, Windows, and Advanced. Under Advanced I have tried lpd and spoolss and ipp, under ip I have tried ipp and lpd. The share name is Brother-HL-5340D, and the hyphen between Brother and HL I put there myself to make it one 'word'.

I've just tried your suggestion and get the following when I click on Add.

Unable to verify the printer on your network.

Unable to connect to ‘192.168.1.202’ due to an error. Would you still like to create the printer?

I've seen this occur when the LPD process is not working. Open the Services pane on the PC and check the LPD service has started. If it is running and you still get the error message, what happens if you say yes to creating the printer?

James Wilde wrote:

As i said, I have disabled the cable network and am using the house wifi network (all machines with fixed IPs). I can ping the computer and have just mounted a disk on her computer with smb using Finder/Go. The mount does appear to be read only, but at least I can open all the folders.

Anything else I can try?

That is a good outcome. Proves there is a functional path between both computers.

Since you can connect using SMB, and if you cannot LPD to work, then try adding the printer again using the Windows view in the Add printer pane. You should see the workgroup used by the Win7 PC followed by the Win7 computer name. Selecting it should prompt you to authenticate (unless you have saved the account in Keychain) and then the printer share name should appear. After selecting the share, select the Generic PS driver as a test to see if you can submit a print job - open the print queue on the Win7 PC to see if the print job appears. If this does work, you can remove the printer on the Mac and add again, this time selecting the Brother driver and then see if this works.