Sharing Printers Between a PC and a Mac
I have a few PCs and a few Macs, and I want to share a multifunction printer between them all. Ideally I want the printer physically connected to a mac but when i try sharing it, it’s very slow and sometimes crashes. Is there a better way of doing this with 3rd party software? i know i could get a print server but I would lose the ability to scan.
All you need to share a printer between a PC and a Mac, or multiple Macs, is Apple’s AirPort Express. There’s a USB port on the base station. Plug in your printer to the Airport Express and all your computers can share the printer.
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Thanks for the answer, but it i think you might have misread the question. Ii know i could use a print server (such as airport express) and even say so in the question but this loses the ability to scan.
Hewlett-Packard sells a number of multi-function printers that are networkable and sharable between Macs and Windows PCs — HP usually includes both Mac & Windows install CDs with both. The HP PSC 2510 is a good example — it has built-in WI-Fi 802.11 networking on its own, and comes with drivers/software for both Mac & Windows. It does ink jet color printing, scanning, reading of CDC or SD cards to directly import or print pictures from your digital camera, and if you plug it into a phone line, it will even be a FAX for you. Be warned, though — it is notoriously sloooooow on anything other than drafts over the Wi-Fi. for stuff like that, you might want a larger Laser printer or more expensive multi-function printer with some sort of networkable connection and software drivers for both Mac and Windows. They exist out there — most every major printer brand has variations on them in their product line. You just have to get out there and research each a bit. Good hunting!
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