Have you tried to add your shared printer as the default printer.
Go to System-­>Administration->printer and just add your printer as a
windows samba shared printer :

smb://yourworkgroup/yourwindowshost/print$

if needed, supply a local user and a password that has access to the
printer and you're done...

My printer is on a windows box and it works like a charm.

Your windows box should have firewall smb/cifs ports opened, the
printer must be shared and you need a local account.

The Linux box must have the SMB client installed (samba-common) wich
should be already installed.

What is the printer that you use? I have a HP 1005 MFP laserjet which works
perfectly

the printer is a HP 5650.ink jet. It works OK on the Windows
machine and from the computer with the dual boot. I have installed it in Ubuntu.
but it won't print from Ubuntu.

Have you go into System>Admin>Printing and set it up that way??

Try to use print-server like D-link DP-300U or similar products.
The printer will stand on its own. It's not depend to another machine
acting as server. Sometimes there are problem with printer files &
printer sharing in windows.

In this case you can see other windows machine, right? but not the
printer. There maybe something wrong with the sharing. Doublecheck it.

But using print server, it will become standalone network printer with
it's individual IP address. You can set priviledge too, for who will get
access to it.

Yes I went into system,administration,printing and clicked on add
printer. It added the printer. It wanted to know what printer and I specified
HP5650. I also asked whether it was a network printer I said yes Now I have two
printers one says add printer and the other says HP5650 This one has a green
check mark on it. If I right on it a dialog box shows and there is a properties
choice. when I click on properties under general it shows the HP 5650 there is
"print a test page" when I click on it nothing happens.
I know I am doing something wrong but I don't know what.

Looking at the HPLIP web page (hplip.sourceforge.net) shows that all
forms of the the DeskJet 5650 are supported for USB only - network
printing is not supported. From your first post, I understand that this
printer is not connected directly to your Feisty box but to a separate
Windows box - is this correct?

No networking support means no built-in RJ45 or wireless ports; NOT that
printing to the device from a remote machine over the network prohibited.

So, you should be able to print to the printer. It has to be a
configuration problem.

That'll teach me to read the footnotes first - I've always read
that page as meaning that this or that function was/was not supported by
HPLIP - it seems a bit redundant to me to do otherwise ('Yes, I already
know that my OfficeJet 6310 has a network port and can print, scan and
fax.')

Thinking a bit harder about the problem (yes, it *does* hurt, thank you
for asking) - David says he tried to install his printer through
System>Administration>Printing. Can I ask, have you tried using
hp-setup to install the printer? This method seemed to work better for
me - I had some problems with my DeskJet 840 after installing through
Sys>Admin>Print which were cleared up after using hp-setup.

Also, I had a similar problem yesterday in that my PC decided to stop
printing to both my 840 (USB) and my 6310 (Network). In the end, I had
to reinstall HPLIP to get them working again.

I downloaded the HPLIP-2.7.7tar.gz It is on my desk top.
The problem is I am a newbie at this and I do not know how to start the
installation. Could you guide me?

I am sure it is a configuration problem. I don't know how to
troubbleshoot it. Got any ideas?

When I add your printer, the recommended driver chosen is "hpijs". Even
thought the printer is not attached, it indicates it is ready for
printing. The check mark indicates it is the default printer. If you
only have one printer defined, it will be checked.

Select properties (right mouse click) then the driver tab on the print
icon to check the driver name.

If you do not have the HP hpijs print driver installed, install it using
Synaptic.

You can look at the cups setup for the printer via port 631.

http:/localhost:631

Select the printer tab.

You can try printing a test page from here and you might get more info
concerning the problem if it still exists after a driver change if
necessary above.

First let me apologize for getting your name wrong! The HP 5650 has
both USB and parallel connections. I am using the paralled one. I have an
installation disk for the printer but I thought I could only use it with
windows. Is that true? The Ubuntu box is duel boot and when it runs windows it
prints OK. I will go to the source forge site and look. I probably will learn
something.

Do you connect to the printer using the windows guest account ? Is it
enabled on the windows machine ? XP has a default local policy of NOT
enabling the guest account. If you use a local windows account did you
create it in SAMBA ? (first: smbpasswd -a username and second:
smbpasswd -e username ... see man smbpasswd for details).

The windows or linux firewall may block samba network traffic too...
Can you reach any share on the windows machine ?

Also, did you define your printer as a SAMBA printer or a NETWORK
printer ??? Some printer have network card and are hook directly on
the network and some are accessed via a print server wich is the case
with samba ???

If you use the samba protocol to reach a print server (assuming it
already works on the windows side), linux has absolutly no way to know
if it is USB/parrallel/optic fiber/or whatever.

You need to clearly show us what is your setup on both side : the
windows machine and the linux machine ...

the setup is the printer is connected to the Windows machine (server) It is
connected to the Ubuntu machine via a router and an ethernet card. When both are
running Windows it works fine. The Ubuntu machine is a duel boot so it runs
both Windows and Ubuntu. From Ubuntu I can see the C drive on the Windows
machine so I know they are talking to each other. I have tried to install the
printer in Ubuntu it installes OK but nothing happens. Got any ideas?

According to the HPLIP website, the parallel interface is not supported
for your printer in Linux. Try connecting it via USB cable, PCI USB
cards are <$20 and cables <$5 at http://newegg.com

HPLIP driver has supported your printer since version 0.9.5, no need to
install latest "tar" package. Ubuntu has version 1.7.3 which is suitable.

If you want to check to see if by chance the HPLIP driver does see your
printer.

Run:

/usr/lib/cups/backend/hp

This command displays the devices that HPLIP detects.

Reference & further trouble shooting info:
hplip.sourceforge.net/.../parallel.html

Run:

/usr/lib/cups/backend/hp

I Tried this got unknown HP Printer (HPLIP)

This command displays the devices that HPLIP detects.

Reference & further trouble shooting info:
hplip.sourceforge.net/.../parallel.html