Mac OS X/Windows Vista file sharing, printer sharing issues: fixes

From MacFixIt:

It appears that there are some issues with file sharing between Mac OS X and Windows Vista systems. Several users are reporting problems with seeing shared files in both directions via Samba (SMB) networking. Users are also reporting issues with previously used (under Windows XP) printer sharing methods.

MacFixIt reader Chic writes:

My Windows XP and Mac OS X have networked well for years. As soon as I upgraded to Vista Home Premium, I can see the Mac OS X computers in the workgroup but can not access the files.  On the Mac OS X side, I can mount the Vista Home drive but all of the folders are empty except for the Public folder. I have sharing 'on' on both machines and my passwords, etc are correct.

Logging into a Mac OS X system from a Vista system In order to login to a Mac OS X system from a Vista system, follow these steps:

1. Open System Preferences on the Mac OS X system and go to the Sharing pane.
2. Click on the "Services" tab
3. Check the box next to "Windows Sharing"
4. Click on the "Enable Accounts" button
5. Check the box(es) next to the Mac OS X user account(s) you would like to enable access for, and enter the appropriate password(s).
6. Take note of your Mac's IP address, which will be displayed at the bottom of the Sharing pane in System Preferences
7. On the Windows Vista system, go to the "Run" command line by pressing the "Windows Key" and the R key simultaneously
8. Enter the following: \IPAddressusername (e.g. \192.168.1.100bwilson)
9. You should now be prompted for a username and password. Enter the aforementioned (\IPAddressusername) again for the username after receiving the prompt, and your normal password.
10. Another option (or necessary procedure) is to authorize sue of LM and NTLM - use NTLMV2 session security in Windows Vista.

As described by Apple Discussions poster ydc:
Actually you will need to make a change on your Vista machine to enable this, but you can do it without the Group Policy editor or the Security Policy editor.

To do it:

1. Click Windows Visa Start Orb
2. In search box, type "regedit" and return
3. Once regedit opens, click File -> export to make a backup copy
4. Navigate to ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLsa.
5. n the right pane, right-click the "LmCompatibilityLevel" key and select "modify"
6. Change the value from 3 to 1
7. Exit regedit and you should now be able to properly authenticate to your Mac OS X (or other Samba) share.

Printing from Mac OS X systems to Windows Vista-connected printers Another point of contention with Mac OS X/Windows Vista interaction lies with printing. Some users have found that they are unable to print to devices connected to Windows Vista systems from networked Mac OS X systems via built-in printer sharing routines.

If you are having a similar issue, you can try using LPD printing via these steps:

1. Navigate to the Windows Vista Control Panel
2. Go to the "Programs and Features" pane
3. Click on "Turn Windows Features on or off"
4. Turn on te LPD protocol and make sure that all desired printers are set to be shared
5. On the Mac OS X system, open Printer Setup Utility (located in Applications/Utilities)
6. Hold down the "Option" key and click the "More Printers" button
7. From the top menu select "Advanced"
8. From the "Device:" field select "LPD/LPR Host or Printer"
9. In the "Device URI:" field, lpd://(name of your Windows Vista system)/(name of your printer), e.g. lpd://BobPC/Printer1
10. Click the "Add" button

Comments

[Jack Gebhardt]

I performed the above steps, tried to print something and the job starts and stops and nothing happens. Am I missing something?

[Shongzah]

I have the reverse. I would like to print from a Vista machine to a shared printer on my Mac (10.4.9). I have managed to get the Vista machine to see the Mac and the printer on the Mac. I added the printer to the Vista machine and it shows up as an option in the print dialogue. After it is sent, the print job queues, pauses, and then vanishes without printing. Any advice?

[George Kopp]

Seems to be a bug in Vista. See the link below for a way to make it work.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=292064

[Jeremy]

I got my mac in the network screen for vista but it doesnt show the name of my mac and when i try to connect it says 'parameter is incorrect'. When i try to conect from my mac to vista it says it couldnt be oppened because the original item cannot be found. What is the problem?

[slimdusty96]

I followed the above instructions (up to modifying LMcompatibilitylevel from 3 to 1), and as described, I can now access files in my Mac from Vista home premium (which is great!), but from the Mac side, I still get the empty folders when I try to access files in my PC (running Vista home premium) as described above (No problems mounting the shared files in my PC on the Mac, the folders are just empty when I open it on the Mac).

I've searched the net and unable to find answers to solve this. Anyone has any idea how to solve this?

Thanks in advance :)

[CRauch]

fixed it!!
this little problem was annoying me to no end.
the only way i have found to print from my macbook to vista is to do the following.

on the vista machine that is connected to the printer
1. hold the start button on the keyboard and hit 'r'.
2. type 'cmd' and hit enter.
3. type 'ipconfig' and hit enter.
4. write down the ip address of the vista machine.
5. open control panel.
6. open the printers option and write down the name of the shared printer you want to use from the mac.
7. go back to the control panel and open 'programs and features.
8. on the left sidebar click 'turn windows features on or off'.
9. expand the print services folder and enable all 3 options.
10. hit ok and then wait for the dialog to go away (might take a few minutes).

on the mac you want to print from
1. go to system preferences
2. open print and fax
3. click the plus sign to add a new printer.
4. hold the option button and click 'more printers'.
5. on the top pulldown menu select 'advanced'.
6. on the device pulldown menu select 'lpd/lpr host or printer'.
7. enter the name you want to use for the printer.
8. in the device url field enter:
lpd://(vista computer ip address)/(vista printer name)
9. select the printer model.
10. click add.

try to print something, it should work fine.
i found this after hours and hours of searching the apple support discussion boards.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3640079�

[Olly]

CRauch, thanks a lot. Your solution worked for me when none of the others did.

[Foster]

Your recomendations was the only one that that worked so far. A big thanks!

[Alex]

I've followed slimdusty96's procedure, and it works, but don't print the real page, just numbers and letters.
It's not possible to setup the real printer driver: I've a D78Series printer by Epson, and it works by usb.
If I follow that procedure, I can set just "Generic" printer, then it's not possible to tell it that D78Series is plugged in WinVista.
I'm so sad! I'm on this from 2 days!!!
If I try to change the printer model and choose "others" and find the D78Series.plugin in /library/printers/epson/inkjet, when I click to update this, it return to generic!

[Vador]

In Mac OS X Leopard it's quiet different in the Mac side.

The follow steps worked for me:

1) Open System preferences
2) Print & fax
3)add a printer and go to IP
4) Protocol choose Line Printer Daemon - LPD
5) In Address just the ip where the printer is e.g 192.168.1.1 nothing more
6) In Queue the printer share name (make sure that is correct or will not work)
7) In Name choose whatever you want
8) Put the same name that you put in Queue
9) Choose the correct print driver for your printer
10) You are done try printing...

[litsl]

Vador - HUGE thanks for that clarification. That cleared it up for me!

That totally rocks. I can now religate my brand new Vista Laptop to being a print server and just go back to my trusty old mac!!!

[Dug]

I operate 1 PC (Vista) on a Mac network (appletalk). I want to be able to access the printer (postscript) on the appletalk network with the PC for printing. I used to use XP and PC MacLan with great sucess ..... no so with Vista (PC Maclan not supported for Vista).

Help or great ones.

[Alex Ward]

If you are were able to successfully add the printer on either your Mac or your PC and your still having trouble printing check your printer drivers. It is likely that you will need to go to the manufactures website and download the driver for either vista or Mac OS X depending on which one your having issues with.

[Mark LaGrange]

I was frustrated as well. I was able to print to my HP on a Vista Machine (one upgraded from XP and one with Vista out of the box) using Tiger for months. But once I upgraded to Leopard the party was over. This told me that all the messing around on the PC was not necessary - as suggested above. The best solution after many hours of fiddling around was to delete all the network and printer info on the Mac. Make your location on the Mac the same as the workgroup for the PC (MSHOME) - it is easy to confuse this with the network name. When you want to add the printer, hit Windows rather than IP. The workgroup name appears (just as it did in Tiger) and when I click on that it shows the PC's in the group. When I click on the PC with the printer I want the printer showed up. I scrolled down the list of drivers to the exact driver (Tiger only let me use a gutenprint diver). I ran a test page and my heart skipped a beat when the printer kicked in an ran a test page. It will even let me print to Onenote on the PC. One thing that i think is important - I'm not sure why - is in the network pane, under advanced, enter the DNS address of the router in the left hand box. In the next pane (WNS) enter the workgroup name in the second space then hit + and enter the IP address of the PC. This seems useless since the IP address changes weekly but it ensured that the printing worked.

[Ed Sinclair]

I'm having problems still. I've got the Powerbook (using 10.5.2) to send up to 92% of the printed material to the VISTA machine via a wireless connection. But the VISTA machine still won't actually print the job at all and just PAUSES my print status. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Bill Smith]

I just tried slimdusty96's suggestion (dated May 22, 2007 at 01:58 PM), and it worked like a charm.

I have an HP 4MP connected to a laptop that is running Vista, using a Belkin Parallel-to-USB cable.

I wanted to set up printing on an Apple MacBook (13") running OS X v10.4.11.

[John Bohrmann]

I've tried many of the suggestions above, which seem valid - but my hangup is the fact that I cannot find my shared vista printer model on the list of printers shown on the Mac - it is simply not there ... this is compounded by the fact that the drivers are indeed installed somewhere - I was printing locally to the printer from the Mac just a few minutes before without a problem (as a workaround b/c I can't get it shared out!) Any suggestions?