Printing from Mac Snow Leopard to Buffalo LinkStation

I recently bought a new MacBook Pro only to be frustrated that I couldn’t print from it using my Buffalo LinkStation print server. All my Windows machines use it to print from my network but no such luck with my Mac. That was until today. Here are the steps to get a Macbook running Snow Leopard to print to a Canon MP780 connected with a USB cable to a Buffalo Link Station:

1. Open the Print & Fax preferences from the System Preferences.
2. Click on the “+” sign on the left hand side of the dialog box underneath the list of available printers.
3. Right-click the menu bar and add the “Advanced” icon to your menu bar.
4. Select Advanced from the top drop-down menu and then select “Windows” as the Type.
5. Device will default to “Another Device”.
6. In the “URL” field, type in “smb://ipaddress/lp”.  Be sure that you have a static IP for your LinkStation.
7. Enter a name and location for the printer.
8. From the “Printer Using” list, choose the Gutenprint print driver for your respective printer.  I grabbed the one available from the Canon site for my printer
9. Click “Add”.
10. Print away! Note: you may be prompted for authentication.  In my case, I could either use the account I use to log into my LinkStation (and add it to the Keyring) or Guest would work fine too.