[X Newbies] Sharing a usb printer between 2 macs

[Barry Lyden]

First: If they are both on a network together, you could simply attach 
the printer to one computer and then set up printer sharing. But since 
you mention that one computer is OSX and the other is OS9, I believe 
you will have to set up sharing within OSX's classic environment. Check 
out the following Apple support article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=151988

Another alternative: Again, if they are both on a network, use a small 
1-port print server with USB and set up both computers to talk to the 
printer via the print server (IP printing is easy). I use this method 
to share a USB printer between a PC desktop (don't ask :-), a wireless 
PC laptop, and my wireless TiBook. Works just fine.

Lastly: If they are NOT on a network, you can set up the printer with a 
2-way switch box (available at your local computer supply store or thru 
the internet). You will have to manually turn the switch to change 
computers, but at least you won't have to move cables around.

For reasons that have been discussed before, using a USB hub probably 
will not work, unless you attach only one computer to the hub at a 
time. I don't believe you can simply hook up everything and have it 
work automatically. USB wasn't designed to do this. Here's an excerpt 
from the archives of this mailing list (the link listed below is 
helpful):

--------
  Have you ever tried anything like that? For one thing, it's an issue 
of physical mismatch the A and B plugs. Moreover, if you try to do the 
deed with A to A cables, you might, conceivably, burn the Macs' power 
supplies (cf. <http://www.usb.org/faq/ans5#q6>). For another, USB was 
not designed for more than one initiator, so it most assuredly won't 
work (unless you use some kind of bridge).
----------

Hope this helps,
Barry


On Mar 5, 2004, at 12:04 AM, Gen Hadlow Mac Impact Dbn wrote:

> Hi All
>
> Is there a way to share a Samsung ML1210 printer with a G4 and an 
> iBook?
> Ibook is on system 10.3.2 and G4 still on system 9
>
>
> Isn't a 2 port USB splitter available so that one could run usb cables 
> from
> each device to the splitter? Something like a "usb network"?
>
> Regards
> Gen
>
>
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