PD6: Can't install network printers in XP

Hi there
I am trying PD 6 and so far it's a great update. Very fast.
But today, at work (big corp), I used it for the first time and, as I had to print some reports, I tried to install our network printer drivers (Canon IR 3300) with Windows's "Add Printer" wizard.
But, no matter what I tried, I always got the "Win can't conect to the printer" error.
I even tried with my DP6 boot camp machine and i couldn't install the printer either.

As I also use VirtualBox, I tried to do the same (exact same conditions) and it worked perfectly.
Also, when I used DP5 (which I deleted to install the demo of DP6), I remember I had installed the network printer with no problems too.

So the problem seems to be on the DP6 side.
Meanwhile, I am back to VirtulBox and I'll give Fusion i try too.

Vic
--
Macbook pro Unibody 15 mid 2010, Core i5, 4 Gb RAM
Snow Leopard 10.6.4
Windows XP SP3

 

Did you try bridged networking? Can you ping other computers or the printer on the network?

 

Have it solved now: first, in the guest I reinstalled Paralles Tools, then in my Local Area Connection's Properties, I installed a service called "Quality of Service Packet Scheduler", which was missing.

How did I solve it? Well, I have bought VMware Fusion (9.99) since last reply and then I installed the network printer in Fusion and it worked. Then just compared the two VM. Sure enough, the missing service in the PD6 VM was running in the Fusion VM.

I still found PD6 is much faster than Fusion 3.1, but these kind of details make me hesitate a lot on which is the better virtualization solution for Mac.

 

Hello,

thank you very much for this information, we'll check what's happening in PD6 and why this service could be missing!

 

So you have two virtual machines, one in Parallels and one in Fusion? Two instances of Windows running?

Also, have you used Windows RDP in Parallels or Fusion to connect to a Windows desktop machine?

 

I just had a similar experience. Running SL and Parallels 6. I have two ethernet printers (both are 192.x.x.x) on my router and HP AIO Installer Assistant within XP could not see a printer since it was outside of the IP range (default is 10.x.x.x) and the router issues 192.x.x.x. If you know the IP address then I probably would have had an easier go but the IP address was "logical" when looking from within the HP utility on the Mac. (I have installed a static IP address on the other printer)

I finally got the HP assistant to "see" the other network printer by going into the TCP/IP pane in Local Area Network, hit Properties then Alternate Configuration and then forced a static IP address in the same subnet as the Printer (192.x.x.x). Not the best solution but it works.

One thing I did notice is that within Parallels (in the Mac title bar) I could change the printer "connected" to the printer port (Devices>Printer Port1>Printer...) and I could print to both printers from within XP but printing to a logical named printed and the output goes to the wrong printer seemed wrong.

 

Chilbear,

Do you really want to connect to the network printer from Windows? The easiest way to print from Windows VM inside P6 is to share your Mac printer If you already configured a printer in MacOS.

There are some manuals in P6 Help (P6 -> Help -> Parallels Desktop Help -> Printing from Windows)
* Sharing a Mac printer
* Setting up a printer via Bonjour
* Setting up a network printer
* Connecting USB devices to a Virtual Machine

I guess first and third could be helpfull for you.

 

You're using Shared Networking. Parallels acts like another router for all the virtual machines using Shared Networking. The router settings are setup in the Parallels Desktop -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network: Change settings.

If you use Bridged Networking for the virtual machine, then the virtual machine will behave like it's connected to the same network as your Mac which means the router that assigns an IP address to your Mac will assign a similar address on the same network for the virtual machine.

 

Thanks for the replies. These printers are not connected to any machine, both are hard wired to a Switch and the Router on the Network issues the DHCP to the connected machines (printers have static IP addresses). There are XP, Windows 7 and Mac machines using these two printers (one is BxW laser and other is Colour inkjet). I do need to print to these from within Windows as the two programs I use (Accounting and label generation) are Windows only. It is working so when things pop up with others it may be an issue. I will read the help and see if the guide will confirm a better solution than I found.

 

Is the printer on the same subnet as the Mac? If so, then I think using Bridged Networking for the virtual machine is a better solution.

 

Yes all the machines get DHCP from the router. I am surprised that during the install of PD that it does not check for other subnets. In fact I would bet all installs would be a different subnet from 10.x.x.x that is default in PD. Is there any sense to changing the subnet within PD from the 10.x.x.to the office subnet? Currently it now works so I am good just trying to help the product development.

In a separate occurance, my son's university supplied laptop easily found the same printer over wireless but the difference is Windows 7 Enterprise on the laptop and XP on my PD install. I would bet XP is the dumb component here.

 

Using ifconfig on the Mac side and ipconfig on the Windows side:

My Mac has IP address 192.168.0.171 using DHCP from my router which is at 192.168.0.1

My VM with shared networking has IP address 10.211.55.6 using DHCP from the Parallels shared networking router/gateway at 10.211.55.1 which belongs to the vnic0 interface that Parallels creates on the Mac side at IP address 10.211.55.2. Parallels uses the same shared networking subnet for all the VM's that use shared networking. This hides your VM's from other computers on your Mac's subnet. It's a feature. The feature includes port forwarding options just like your real router has. Parallels Desktop -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network: Change settings.

My VM with bridged networking has IP address 192.168.0.175 using DHCP from my router at 192.168.0.1. This allows other computers on the Mac's subnet to see the virtual machine.

Using shared or bridged, I can ping from my VM the 192.168.0.x range which includes the printer at 192.168.0.174. I can print to the printer using shared or bridged networking. I'm not sure about automatic printer discovery though. In the case of shared networking, it may be necessary to input the IP address of the printer manually since it's outside the VM's 10.211.55.xx subnet.