iMac to PC printer sharing ???

[bj]

I have a wireless set up in the house with PC, Pc notebook, and a new iMac (intel) all working through a linksys rougter, and working fine. Have tried to use the printer with the mac through the PC but wont work. The iMac reconizes the printer (address), but just does a stop job. I find out that the printer is only usb supported by the imac, which does work usb to printer. So Im wondering if I can somhow get all the computers sharing this printer. Will a usb hub work, although that looks like its would be backwards. Thanks in advance.

 

[Iceblue]

Using the Mac to print to a shared printer attached to a PC should work, but using a PC as a print server is basically a PITA anyway, even with all PCs.

To share otherwise, you can't use a simple USB hub for this because of the simple master-slace USB protocol. You'd need a "shared USB device" switch (which typically are a manual switch). You need to run a USB cable from each computer to the switch and from the switch to the printer. The biggest switch I've seen will support 4 computers connected to one printer.

A better solution is a network printer server, but these tend to cost more than the simple USB switch. If you go this way, make sure the device will support your model of printer.