Share a Brother MFC 3100C from Jaguar to Win98

Oct 31, '02 09:29:05AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

I have been unable to find any help on the 'net on how to share my Brother MFC 3100C from my Mac OS X 10.2 machine to a windows '98 machine; however, there were other helpful hints (far too many to list) that allowed me to find the following solution. I'm submitting it here in case it can be of use to other people. My email address is tb-mac_hints@nixnerd.net. I suggested to Brother that they publish this as well in their own FAQs. I hope it is easy to understand and helpful. :)

The following instructions enable you to share your Brother MFC 3100C from your mac running Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) to a windows network. This involves 4 steps:

Read the rest of the article for the how-to...

1. Installing the printer on your mac
Download and install the latest OS X driver using the instructions here. Follow the instructions on downloading the driver, installing the driver, and setting up the printer in Print Center. Make sure to test this setup by printing a test page of your own choosing.

2. Adding a second definition of your printer for windows sharing
Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) ships with CUPS: the Common UNIX Printing System. Sharing the printer from step one doesn't seem to work. A second printer definition is needed for remote printers. Open the following url in your web browser on your mac: http://localhost:631. This brings up the CUPS administration page. Click on "Manage Printers." This displays all printers on your system. The list here should be the same as that in Print Center. The difference is that in Print Center, the name of the printer is what CUPS refers to as the description of the printer. For example, on the system this was tested on, there are 2 printers in Print Center, "MFC-3100C (local)" and "MFC-3100C (remote)." These names are in CUPS under "description." The name of the printers in CUPS has an entirely different meaning; however, it is the name in CUPS that you will see from your windows machine.

Click "Add Printer." Enter a name, the location, and a description of the new printer definition. The name will be seen from the windows machines and must be no longer than 10 characters (a windows limitation). This name cannot contain any characters other than alphanumerics and the underscore. On the test system, "mfc_remote" was used. The location is the name of the computer as defined in System Preferences -> Sharing -> Computer Name. The description will be used by Print Center as the name. On the test system, "MFC-3100C (remote)" was used.

NOTE: It is important to distinguish between the local definition and the remote definition of the printer because applications on the mac cannot print to the remote definition. Trying to do so will cause problems. Make absolutely certain that the default printer is the local definition.

After entering the name, location, and description, click "Continue." When asked for the device, select the MFC-3100C device from the drop down list and click "Continue." Now, the printer make and model are required. Select "Raw" for the make, click "Continue." Select "Raw Queue" for the model and clic "Continue." The printer should now be successfully added. To verify, bring up Print Center to see if you have two printers defined. Make absolutely certain the local printer is the default.

3. Enabling printer sharing in samba
Enable "Windows File Sharing" and "Printer Sharing" in System Preferences -> Sharing. The next step requires the command-line. Be sure you are logged in as an administrative user. Samba is a collection of programs that allow UNIX machines to participate in a windows network (sharing files/folders, accessing files/folders, sharing/using printers to/from windows machines). It has been around for over 10 years and has been ported to Mac OS X.

Bring up the Terminal application. It is in /Applications/Utilities. Edit the samba configuration file by typing:

sudo pico /etc/smb.conf
NOTE: sudo allows you to run privileged actions. Be careful using this utility. pico is a command-line text editor. You can use another text editor if you like, but for simplicity, these instructions suggest pico.

sudo will ask for the password of the current user before running pico. For those of you who are not experienced UNIX users, pico has a set of commands you can do across the bottom of the page. Each is performed by holding down the CTRL key (depicted by ^) and a corresponding letter. For example, to exit pico, hold down the CTRL key and the X key at the same time. Scroll down to the "[printers]" section of the configuration file. By default, it is:
  ;[printers]
; comment = All Printers
; browseable = no
; printable = yes
; public = no
; writable = no
; create mode = 0700
The semi-colons at the beginning of each line tell the samba process that these are comments. Remove the semi-colons on each line to tell samba to share all printers on this machine. Exit pico by pressing CTRL-X. When prompted if a save is desired, press Y and then press return.

The samba process must be restarted. For the inexperienced UNIX users, merely reboot the machine. Experienced users can perform the following steps (If you choose this route, be very careful! If these steps are not performed properly, you can severely cripple your machine!):4. Installing the printer as a "Network Printer" on your windows machine
The following instructions are merely a guide to installing a network printer on your windows machine. These instructions were used on a windows '98 machine and may not apply to other windows versions. Download the "Add printer wizard driver" here. Bring up the printers by clicking on "Start" -> "Settings" -> "Printers". Double click on "Add printer." Click "Next." Select "Network Printer" and click "Next". Click "Browse" and find your mac computer in the list. Click the "+" sign next to it to expand the printer list. Select the remote printer definition, click "OK", click "Next."

When prompted for the manufacturer/model of your printer, click on "Have Disc." Find the location where driver was downloaded to and click "OK." Select the MFC-3100C driver and click "Next." Follow the rest of the on-screen instructions.

[Editor's note: I have not tested these instructions myself, and any errors in them are probably the result of my bad editing!]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2002103106290511