How to print wirelessly from Windows Vista
 

I have a printer connected to my Fedora linux PC. I have a laptop running Vista. Can anyone point me to a howto to allow the Vista laptop to print to the linux printer. I have set up my printer in Samba and I can print from Fedora. I have looked in google, but I just can't make sense of all the advice that I found there

I don’t use Vista or Fedora but I see no reason why setting up a network printer should be any different from the following:

Add a Network printer to Windows Vista or Windows XP

Good Luck.

This only applies if all computers are running Windows. It doesn't help in my case.
I have heard of Samba and CUPS. Could this be used to network my printer?

It might have if you had a Samba network already setup.

Yes, but that answer is too short to provide much enlightenment.

Unfortunately it seems I have made several wrong assumptions. I will explain. I have successfully networked two Ubuntu PC’s and have shared a parallel port printer over the Samba network with the other Ubuntu PC. Also I can browse the shared folders on a Windows 98 PC from both Ubuntu PC’s. However! Today for the first time I tried to browse the Ubuntu PC’s from the Windows 98 PC and although I can see them both In Network Neighborhood I am unable to open the shared folders due to the fact that every time I try I am asked for a password which is then refused. I then tried to setup the shared Samba printer attached to the Ubuntu PC from the Windows 98 PC and guess what? I get the same runaround about the password as I did when I tried to browse the Ububtu shares. UGH!!!

None of this has been a problem since I had no need to share the printer with the Windows 98 PC as it has a direct connection to the printer via a switch box. Plus I just never tried to browse the Ubuntu PC’s from the Windows 98 PC. So now I have egg all over my face and will have to seek an answer to these problems that I just stumbled upon.

So where does that leave you? Well I do have two links that might be helpful. DistroWatch says Fedora uses Gnome for it’s desktop and Nautilus as it’s file manager so even though these links apply to Ubuntu they might have some relevance for Fedora:

Setting Up Samba

Setup a Peer to Peer Home Network with Point & Click

You’re welcome to ask me more questions but I should point out that I too am something of a beginner. If I lead you astray I invite you to start a new thread in the networking forum. If you do I recommend you leave out the part about your lack of success with Google and rename your thread to something like: How to print wirelessly from Windows Vista to Fedora. Just my 2 cents. Good Luck.

Thanks, I will try the networking forum

I saw your new thread in networking. I apologize for not suggesting that you ask a moderator to move this thread over there, it just never occurred to me. Supposedly the new thread is closed but the reply button is still visible. Unless I’m mistaken the button should indicate that the thread is closed. If you’re still interested I’ll give you what help I can. It appears I haven’t been much help so far though.

If you are using CUPS and Samba: In CUPS, create another printer, but instead of using the CUPS Epson driver, use the RAW driver in CUPS. Then point this queue towards the Epson printer. Then you'll need to add the printer to the Samba list of printers. Then on the Windows box, you'll add a new printer using the queue you just added to the Linux machine. You will have to use your Windows driver locally.

This is all covered in the Samba documentation. It takes a few steps, but it works - we have all of our network printers set up this way, and it works well. There are other ways to do this, but I know this approach works.

I tried a few tutorials on samba and cups and tried to set up the printer in Vista but no luck. I know it must be something simple I am missing, but don't whow what. Can you post your smb.conf and cups.conf config files
to see if I missed anything?
By the way, how can I post my smb.conf in a post? I tried it as an attachment and it says "invalid file"
I added a screenshot of the "printers" section of smb.conf

Also in Windows Vista when you add printers, what is the proper procedure?




Add a printer
Add a network, wireless or bluetooth printer

Is is Browse for Printer, Select a shared printer by name or
Add a printer by TCP/IP

I think it is add a shared printer. If so, what would I put in:
http://192.168.2.12:631/printers/Stylus-C86 ????

When I put in \\192.168.2.10 a popup box came up saying
Connecting to 192.168.2.10 asking for a username and password
I put in my linux account username and password and I get an error
"windows cannot connect to the printer Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000052e)

I's OK I found the answer.
I didn't set up a username/password using smbpasswd.
That's the step I missed
Thanks for all your help