No way I would do this with printers. With a webserver based printer I would be too scared of having it hacked and then gaining access to everything else.

tricky69

I've been doing this with CUPS for years. Any computer on my network can use the printer. It even takes care of the driver problems for our MAC since CUPS uses a raw printer queue, requiring no drivers for the client machine.

plasticbiker

assuming that you keep at least 1 machine turned on, just sharing it among the network seems to do the trick for me. never saw the need for anything else.

Norcross

I've been doing this with Hamachi for years without a problem. No tweaking, no registering, and at a >1Mb download, a total no-brainer.

Rodriguez

@plasticbiker: How did you set up the raw printer queue with CUPS? I have a printer set up with CUPS on my headless server, but it still requires a driver on the client side. My printer doesn't have a Mac driver, so I'd love to be able to set up something like this.

mulletmandan

PrinterShare has become pretty bad. It used to be named PrinterAnywhere where it was completely free and did not print a cover sheet. If you install "PrinterAnywhere" before version 1 (0.99 and below) on both machines, it still works, but doesn't print the ad. It will however nag you to update to the newer version everytime.

retrac1324

AWESOME!! can't wait to try this out when I get home..between a linux/windows laptop and a macbook pro, printing can be a nightmare sometimes

navigator99

@tricky69: That is why you don't give the outside world access to your printers. I haven't looked really close at this one, but CUPS, which is has a web based component to it, is intended to be used on a private network.

plasticbiker

@mulletmandan: I believe the raw printer queue is always there for the ipp port, you just need to point your client at it. Setting up for the MAC is a little bit of a hack, but not too bad.

Link to multi platform sharing through CUPS:
[www.tjansson.dk]

plasticbiker

@retrac1324: you can probably turn that nag off using either group policy or setting the nagging app to "deny"

Norcross

I had serious issues with this and could never get it to work. Tech support just dropped it and never got back to me about my problem.

It seems that some don't understand that this will allow you to print to your home pc from anywhere - even across the world!

FreshFocus

But, I do not understand its purpose. What is the use if I printed my document somewhere in Africa while I am physically present in America...I still cannot have the hard copy? I don't understand why I'm unable to understand.

DWiner

This sounds easy to use but I'm not too excited about the ads (extra paper, extra ink, extra print time). Can anyone point me to directions on how to set up my network to share my home printer on my Mac with my PC laptop? Thanks.

SalvatoreAdonis

On Linux and Mac OS X machines, I often use the following to print PDF documents:

cat document.pdf | ssh server_name lpr

It's a nice trick when I have a PDF (or can generate a PDF) and don't have direct access to a printer because I am on a different network.

Zaccoon

Why not just use Bonjour?

Senethior459

This would facilitate the printing of documents over the Internet from, for example, your laptop at Panera to the printer attached to your Mac at home. Bonjour would not be able to help. Without software such as this, you would set up your home router to share a printer over the Internet, but that would require twiddling around with configuration settings.

OscarNJ

@DWiner: I think it's so if you find something you want at work (bank statement, mail-in-rebate coupon, directions to party, some email, etc.), you can print it at home and have it sitting there for you when you get home.

baglunch

I've used this program for about a year now I think. I like it. Yeah, it prints an ad page for every print job. It beats having to pay anything though. My printer is one that isn't able to be connected to a router, so this is the only way I can remotely print with my laptop without having to set up a workgroup. The ad page itself is very pale and I just reuse it by having the printer use the other side of it for another print job. The great thing about the program for me is that you can be elsewhere on a different internet connection and just print to your home say from the office and pick it up when you're home. One probably rather large drawback is that the computer connected to the printer (in my case, a desktop) must be powered on and awake for any remote printing to be done.
Another way I've used this program is to print out something for my mom to read without having to send her the link or make her do any work.

Anyway, I like the program. But I'm probably pretty easy to please.

Wolfess

The simple solution to share printer (if it's not network printer) is to have common shared folder. This can be use a common basket for users. I am not user of Mac, but I thinks is pretty straightforward to have shared folder between any OS. And no extra ink/paper/time involved :)

SatiErginus

Plasticbiker:
I have been using CUPS but some of my printers don't respond well at all via CUPS from my MAC when printing to my PC. All print fine when directly connected. Got any ideas on the best resources for refining driver or print issues via CUPS?

jimimidi

If I have this, then can ANYONE print to my printer? Is there anyway to keep that from happening? I don't want to come in one morning and find all my paper printed from people all over the world - imagine what that would look like. I've read the FAQ and Help on PrintShare and they don't address that issue.

SaparnaArion

retrac1324 is right on. The service is great when it works. It used to be ok; however, now they go down alot, and never post any updates on their forum. You can't rely on the service as your only means to print (ie. from a laptop, etc).

ZalikaLadybug

I had huge grief after I installed this app/applet in OSX 10.5. Took me hours to get it off my machine. My suggestion would be to avoid it altogether.

ShubhangiMacGuyver