networking mac & pc problem!

[wing]

I have the mac which we design on at work, and the boss wants me to network it to the PC so the PC can print to the postscript printer I've got connected to the mac. Here is the problem: The mac is a sawtooth G4, and apparently they got rid of printer ports. The only way it connects to the printer is through this little box called the iPrint adapter which is unfortunately discontinued which means i can't get any support on the product. So I got a network hub/switch to connect the mac, printer, and PC. I downloaded a demo of DAVE from thursby software. I successfully got the PC and mac to see each other. However, no luck seeing the printer. First off, it seems that iPrint adapter is only mac compatible. Also, seems that the printer needs to be directly connected to a PC in order to successfully be seen through the network. So, since I have no way of connecting the printer directly to the mac, I went ahead and hooked it up to the PC via the parellel port. All worked just fine. But I'm going to need a better solution soon, because my boss REFUSES to pay $150 for a DAVE license, yet expects the job to be done. She doesn't care how. She's cheap, unwilling to pay for anything more, and just wants it working. Which I can understand. for what we're going to do, $150 is really steep.

So I need suggestions and help in either... getting it to work with the iPrint adapter, or finding me a freeware method of getting a mac and PC to see each other rather than deal with DAVE.

sorry if my way of describing all of this sucks... hope someone can help me soon though! thanks.

[soundhack]

the easiest way to have a pc see an appletalk printer is with miramar software's maclan. it gives a windows machine the apple networking protocol (DAVE gives a mac the windows protocol). it also gives you file sharing between the machines. it isn't free though.

other possibilities:

1 - if you have os x installed, you can configure samba (wndows networking that runs on os x and linux) to share the appletalk printer with any windows box on the network. google around for samba and os x to see how to configure. samba will also do filesharing.

2 - some printers have both appletalk and parallel connectors, and allow you to use both at once.

3 - probably not an option, but if you can put linux on the pc instead of windows, linux has appletalk drivers which allow it to do apple printing and file sharing.

i don't think there are many other solutions. current network printers will talk to both mac and windows, supporting the old gear takes a lot more effort.

[tateeskew]

tom is right on with his reply.

pc maclan is your best bet. although it does cost around 190 bucks. if the mac is running osx you should really install samba. it's a breeze to get working and it will do the trick. i'm sure there are small bugs with syntax on connecting to volumes, but i'm sure it would work just fine.

i think tom's best advice is that of installing linux on the pc. you wouldn't lose a step with it. anyway, kudos on good advice tom.

[wing]

ah, thanks guys. i've installed pc maclan and it works great. i'll figure all the tiny details with my boss out. BUT, the only main problem, is i can't print from our program adobe inDesign, which tells me "cannot print to a postscript level 1 printer" or something to that effect. i used to be able print just fine when connected directly. quark xpress, pagemaker, illustrator, and all other applications print to it fine. just inDesign. what can I do to get it to print right?

also, does anyone know printing ascii vs. printing binary as far as images go? just figured i would ask while i'm at it...

[soundhack]

is the right printer description file selected? its possible that got messed up... a generic setting for the printer might cause this problem

[wing]

is the right printer description file selected? its possible that got messed up... a generic setting for the printer might cause this problem

on the PC side, there is no PPD to select from. I selected generic postscript printer... it was either that or other printer names and types that don't match. on the mac side, in chooser, the right PPD is selected.

[soundhack]

if you can find a printer driver for the pc (this is where you are having troubles?), you should be able to select the right printer. even selecting a printer that is similar might do the right thing (i did this for an oddball xerox model)

[wing]

oh no, in order for the PC to see it, i had to install drivers...

my only other choices are things like "apple colorwriter" or something and a few other completely strange and old choices, a lot of ink jets. most of these are least likely to support postscript to begin with, i would assume...