Supporting Windows workstations via a Mac Server

Yes, it is possible to support the Windows client using one of the three following methods:

Method 1 - set up a Windows secondary server

If you have a large number of Windows clients, it may make sense to set up a Windows-based Secondary Print Server. This system would host a set of Windows hosted print queues (these can of course be queues mapping to the same set of physical printers) and in turn report usage back to the main Mac Server (primary server). This way you can support the Windows system via “native” queues and hence take advantage of features like auto driver deployment. To support this setup you would:

1. Install the printers on a Windows system.

2. Share the printers.

3. Add a printer on other Windows systems mapping to \\printer_host\printer.

4. Download the Windows version of PaperCut NG or MF and install the Secondary Server component on the system hosting the printers. Follow the directions outlined in Configure a Windows secondary print server.

Method 2 - configure IPP printing from macOS to Windows

Windows 10 and newer systems support IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) and hence can print directly to a Mac CUPS based print queue. To configure a Windows system to print to a Mac print queue:

1. Select Add a printer from Control Panel → Printers.

2. Select A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer.

3. Select Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network:. This will enable IPP.

4. Enter the printer’s URL. This will be in the form of <a href="http://<server-ip>:631/printers/<printer-name>" reseed-ignore class="urllink">http://<server-ip>:631/printers/<printer-name></a>, where <server-ip> is the name or IP address of the server and <printer-name> is the name of the print queue.

5. Select and install the printer’s driver as appropriate.

   Note: You may need to enable Printing Sharing on the mac server. This should be enabled by default on the Server, however, printers hosted on a Mac workstation may need Printer Sharing enabled via System Preferences → Sharing.

   Note: We recommend IPP over Samba as a number of our users have reported issues with Mac’s Samba implementation. IPP seems to be much more reliable and easier to set up.

Method 3 - print directly to the printer and monitor/control the direct printing

If you have a single Windows system or a small number, it may be simpler to configure the Windows system(s) to print directly to the printer. Monitoring can then be done by installing the Print Provider component (also called the Secondary Server on the Windows system. The Print Provider monitors the local print queues and forwards details to the Mac primary server. In effect, the drivers are treated as Host Only drivers - that is, drivers that don’t print via a server.