tech question - networking

[quesarah]

How difficult would it be to have a Mac on the same network as a PC? Could both machines use the same printers, fax, et cetera?

::me, sans clue::

Comments

[i_kender]

Hi! Technoclueless here... but I know it can be done. Before my last flatmate moved out, we had two PCs and a Mac all running on the same network (through a wireless router) and it was fine.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Groovy! I looked around online and found some information about a program called DAVE that can apparently translate Mac-->PC so that you can share printers and such. This is nifty!

[madenglishbloke.livejournal.com]

my home network has 2 macs (one wireless), 1 'doze box & 3 'doze laptops (all laptops wireless), and 5 linux boxen (1 ubuntu & 4kubuntu, 1 of the kubuntu boxen is wireless), and they play together really nicely.
never tried running a networked printer - however, ive just bought a new one, so might try setting that up - ill let you know how it gets on...

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Mad.

[king-ghidorah.livejournal.com]

The mac is very pc friendly. If you windows printer sharing on, you can easily hook up your mac. Making mac printer sharing work is a little bit of work, but should go fine as well. If you have a fancy printer with its own IP address, it's even easier. I even print from my mac at home to the windows printers at work. It's a breeze once you configure it all.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I've read things that say that there's an application that you run on the Mac to let it communicate to printers on a PC network. Is this what you do or is it in the settings?

I ask because I know I'll buy a laptop in spring/early summer. I know that it'll be wireless and I'll use that to access the printer associated with Carin's desktop PC. I'm very interested in the new iBooks, but I want to know how difficult it would be to configure before I make a decision. Ta da.

[king-ghidorah.livejournal.com]

In theory, you should just have to turn on file and printer sharing on the PC hooked up to your USB printer. Then you might need to install the right drivers for the printer on your Mac -- though that's seldom a problem. MacOSX has printer drivers for a dizzying array of printers. Then...

• Go to the Apple menu and choose System Preferences.
  
• Select "Print & Fax" then click on the "+" button to add a printer.
  
• Click on the "More Printers" button at the bottom of the window.
  
• In the menu at the top of the window that pops up, select "Windows Printing"
  
• Find your printer in the menus that pop up and, Windows willing, you will be able to print.
  

And, if you buy a current MacBook or MB Pro, you can install the beta version of Boot Camp and set up a windows partition and run both MacOS and Windows on one computer.

Hell, print to a windows network all the time and I run windows remote desktop to get to all my windows apps at work regularly. Macs play quite well with windows. My only complaint is that iCal does not sync with Exchange servers, but I have found some software that will allow me to do just that.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I guess the write-up I found was old. Also, I have but one reaction to the above information. Well, shiiiiit.

The more I learn about Macs, the less justification I can find for investing in a PC. The only thing I can think of just now is if I choose to get heavily back into PC gaming, which is doubtful.

Do you use Office for word processing? I imagine so, if you do work work on your laptop. How does it run? Any hiccups or weirdness, or do you run it in a Windows partition?

-->me, picking your brains

[king-ghidorah.livejournal.com]

I use an older version of office for Mac OSX and find it more stable, smooth, and organized than the Windows version. The MacOS versions of word and excel are great, as is PowerPoint (though I use and prefer Apple's Keynote). All work beautifully with their Windows counterparts. Mac Office lacks a database and has a mail/calendar program that is less robust than Outlook, but is pretty good... though I like Apple's simple built-in Mail program and tolerate iCal (which would be fine for me if I could use it with my office's Outlook-based calendar system).

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Good to know. Thanks, buddy.

[madenglishbloke.livejournal.com]

the mac version of office is usually pretty much on a par with the latest 'doze version (last-but-one at the worst), and here in the UK you get a 60-day evaluation copy pre-loaded.
we also get a 60-day avaluation of iWork, which is apples equivalent to some of the MS office suite, and which can read/write MS office documents.
thats £55 over here - no idea what it costs in the colonies.
alternatively, theres OpenOffice.o, which i use myself on mac, 'doze, and linux - this will also read/write just about everything in the MS suite, but with the added bonus of being utterly free - no activation, no product key, no codes - just install and run.
and theres a surprising amount of games availible for the mac as well - because the number of people buying macs has gone through the roof (many of them because they like their iPods so much) the games publishers are starting to release their games in mac versions, although often months after the 'doze version comes out.
then again, some macs running windows in a virtual machine are getting better performance than a native 'doze box, so if you have a valid windows cd, that might be an option.

[biogeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Fantastic info. Much appreciated, man.