I don't think anyone has answered you yet (apologies if I've missed
something), so here goes. I'm not an expert, but I've had some success in
the last year and a bit. My background included teaching Unix, but that was
SCO Unix many years ago and Ubuntu is a whole new situation. In most ways
far superior and easier.

Remote printing shouldn't be a problem, but setup of SMB (Windows) printers
can be a bit tricky. I assume that you have that printer shared in Windows
and is seen by other Windows machines.

In Ubuntu 8.04, which is all I have installed at the moment, I go to System,
Administration, Printing, then in the Printing Administration box click on
New Printer. After a brief search, which probably finds nothing, I click on
Windows Printer via Samba. I find I have to use the IP address of the
printer hosting computer, the shared name of the printer and the login
information to get it to work. You may not have to use all of this, but this
always works for me. You have to get a "This print share is accessible"
message when you click on Verify. You should look at the Server setting menu
too.

Clicking Forward takes you to a choice of the manufacturer's name and then
the model of your printer. If you don't find the exact model listed you will
have to go to a lot more trouble to get it working. Print a test page and
your done.

I've been lucky in that my HP Laserjet 1018 and my Canon Colour Pixma MP150
are both in the list. If your printer is not there it would be much easier
to buy a new printer that is supported. Check on
http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/OpenPrinting to find one that is
compatible.

Some things come easily, some are almost impossible without (too) much
blood, sweat and tears. I prefer to go the easy route!