[HazelGirl]

I thought I did everythign right! I dont get whats going on.....note that my mac mini does not have airport or bt...i have the bare bones model...this is my first mac. I didnt think i would need the wifi.

Anyway, i have both my windows desktop and my mac mini connected to the net through a router via ehternet.......my printer is successfully installed on both machines. both machines are on...my Windows will not recognize my macs address...i typed in \\my address\my name\ and it said that it coudl not be found! I am giving basic info here...needless to say I am lost and have no idea what I am doing (I just followed someones instructions but then when i got to the part ont he windows side by tryign to add a network place, it went downhill from there. ALl perfect onthe mac side of course but the Windows side is not wanting to cooperate at all. Maybe i am doing something wrong....shoudl i have gotten airport?? i am so lost :-(

[torifile]

You don't need airport, but you need to make sure that you're pointing your windows machines at the right place.



That's the address you should be putting in your windows settings, rather than the other way you were doing it. And remember that you need to turn on Windows sharing (basic, I know, but you said you were a beginner )

Adding a printer that's being shared through windows couldn't be easier. You didn't say if you were having problems with that or not, but if so, just post and we can talk.

[alcimedes]

One thing you might want to check is to make sure the Firewall is off on both computers before you set up printer sharing.

[HazelGirl]

i managed to get windows ot see my mac finally and the reason it didnt beofre is...well...yeah, the fireweall. i have zonealarm and i forgot to make my mac minis address trusted......i know...silly me! once i didi that though it worked...but now either computer will only print if the printer cable is hooked directly to it. i can send a job to either one, but only when i plug in the usb will it go through. what am I missing here?

[T-Man]

Kinda same here, we have a printer connected to a new WMC PC, I have yet to try the networked printer, if it even is...

Do you have your printer over the network alone, or cpnnected to one computer and trying to access it from another? Maybe I'm just confused

[torifile]

Have you told Windows to share the printer? And you need to make sure you've set up the printer (on the Mac) as a networked one, not as a USB one (this is what's happening when you plug the cable in and the job prints).

[alcimedes]

Turn off zone alarm entirely to take that out of the equation. Often times it will still block things like printer sharing for trusted resrouces. Also make sure if you've got Zone Alarm running, you aren't running the Windows Firewall. Those two usually don't play nicely together.

[HazelGirl]

ok i was trying to make it so that the printer was hooked up to one computer and then accessible to the other. I think i want to keep the printer hooked up to the Mac mini though and maybe try to let Windows be able to access it. so i must not be doing osmethign right on windows side.

Maybe i shoudl delete the printer software that is manually installed on the windows machine? Because when i got the printer i installed all the drivers and stuff using its disk so in that way it needs the usb to run..but maybe if i erased the software and then tried to make windows find the printer on the mac?

[HazelGirl]

oh my goodness, i just was able to connect to my desktops docs, music, an dpics and it wasnt even difficult!! WOW! just after kinda fumbling with some stuff...forgot how i did it but it got did! now i just have to figure out the printer part! this is seriously the coolest thing ever. cheers