On Sunday 09 May 2010 19:59:38 Carlos E. R. wrote:

On Sunday, 2010-05-09 at 19:54 -0500, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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I'd love to be able to share a single USB printer between a couple of Linux boxes without having to run a full CUPS printserver.

Well, you always have a full cups printserver in opensuse boxes, only that they are limited to the localhost network. You simply have to allow connections from the local network instead.

Thanks for the replies. I guess that I wasn't clear. I know that I can run a full CUPS server. I'm trying to avoid that because I don't want to have a Linux box running 24/7 just to provide a printserver. I'd love to have an embedded USB printserver providing simple LPR services. I'm wondering if someone out there has experience with a reliable one. -- JAY VOLLMER Il n'y a aucune honte en étant un paria. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Sunday, 2010-05-09 at 20:48 -0500, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

On Sunday 09 May 2010 19:59:38 Carlos E. R. wrote:

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I'd love to be able to share a single USB printer between a couple of Linux boxes without having to run a full CUPS printserver.

Well, you always have a full cups printserver in opensuse boxes, only that they are limited to the localhost network. You simply have to allow connections from the local network instead.

Thanks for the replies.

I guess that I wasn't clear. I know that I can run a full CUPS server.

The thing is, in fact you are running it already :-)

I'm trying to avoid that because I don't want to have a Linux box running 24/7 just to provide a printserver.

Ah, that's different, you don't want to have the computer running fulltime. Then, you can simply configure the printer on both machines, and change the usb cable from one machine to another, as needed. I think there are usb switches. My solution, although accidental, was to get a network printer. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkvnb0sACgkQtTMYHG2NR9XiUgCcD3a36DB3uf0h9FFRKu27oukB RqsAn3h5ac25Pk5RQLJWMKo1UcNwfCaq =6pnK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sunday 09 May 2010 21:48:36 Brian K. White wrote:

On 5/9/2010 9:48 PM, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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On Sunday 09 May 2010 19:59:38 Carlos E. R. wrote:

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On Sunday, 2010-05-09 at 19:54 -0500, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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I'd love to be able to share a single USB printer between a couple of Linux boxes without having to run a full CUPS printserver.

Well, you always have a full cups printserver in opensuse boxes, only that they are limited to the localhost network. You simply have to allow connections from the local network instead.

Thanks for the replies.

I guess that I wasn't clear. I know that I can run a full CUPS server. I'm trying to avoid that because I don't want to have a Linux box running 24/7 just to provide a printserver. I'd love to have an embedded USB printserver providing simple LPR services.

I'm wondering if someone out there has experience with a reliable one

Jetdirect is pretty much it in my experience. I've used many print servers with sco unix, solaris, freebsd, and linux and they were'nt all unreliable, but the the few non-hp's that were solid were built in to big Savin units or the same type of large office units from other companies. A few other external units have been ok but not any of the usb ones except HP. If Intel makes one I'd be willing to take a chance on it, but if you just want it to always work, and do not want to buy 3 or 4 different things to find one that works well enough, HP JetDirect 175X. If you do have problems, you may safely know that they lie in your pc or in the printer. Yes I know they cost as much as a netbook or nettop that you could run linux on. You might even be able to make it almost as problem-free as a print server by using a live-cd version that boots from a usb stick into ram instead of a normal install so no matter what you can always just reboot to fix any problem. Personally, if it was for work and I needed it to always work, I'd get the hp.

Thanks Brian. That's the answer I was looking for. -- JAY VOLLMER Il n'y a aucune honte en étant un paria. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Mon, 2010-05-10 at 09:50 +0100, Bob Williams wrote:

On Monday 10 May 2010 04:34:19 Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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I'm wondering if someone out there has experience with a reliable one

My solution, which has worked well for a number of years, comes with my router. I have a four port Draytek Vigor 2800v router which also has two VoIP ports and a USB printer port.

Each computer connected to the router sets up it's printer as 198.162.0.1:p1

The only disadvantage is lack of feedback about printer ink levels, paper out, etc.

Before needing a wireless router, I did the same thing with another make, it was an excellent situation. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 5/9/2010 7:48 PM, Brian K. White wrote:

On 5/9/2010 9:48 PM, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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On Sunday 09 May 2010 19:59:38 Carlos E. R. wrote:

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On Sunday, 2010-05-09 at 19:54 -0500, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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I'd love to be able to share a single USB printer between a couple of Linux boxes without having to run a full CUPS printserver.

Well, you always have a full cups printserver in opensuse boxes, only that they are limited to the localhost network. You simply have to allow connections from the local network instead.

Thanks for the replies.

I guess that I wasn't clear. I know that I can run a full CUPS server. I'm trying to avoid that because I don't want to have a Linux box running 24/7 just to provide a printserver. I'd love to have an embedded USB printserver providing simple LPR services.

I'm wondering if someone out there has experience with a reliable one

Jetdirect is pretty much it in my experience. I've used many print servers with sco unix, solaris, freebsd, and linux and they were'nt all unreliable, but the the few non-hp's that were solid were built in to big Savin units or the same type of large office units from other companies. A few other external units have been ok but not any of the usb ones except HP. If Intel makes one I'd be willing to take a chance on it, but if you just want it to always work, and do not want to buy 3 or 4 different things to find one that works well enough, HP JetDirect 175X. If you do have problems, you may safely know that they lie in your pc or in the printer. Yes I know they cost as much as a netbook or nettop that you could run linux on. You might even be able to make it almost as problem-free as a print server by using a live-cd version that boots from a usb stick into ram instead of a normal install so no matter what you can always just reboot to fix any problem. Personally, if it was for work and I needed it to always work, I'd get the hp.

There are a LOT more solutions than Jet Direct... Look here. http://tinyurl.com/2828vuv -- _____________________________________ At one time I had a Real Sig. Its been downsized. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Dotan Cohen wrote:

On 13 May 2010 04:56, John Andersen wrote:

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There are a LOT more solutions than Jet Direct...

Look here.  http://tinyurl.com/2828vuv

Could you please repost that as a real URL. TinyURL seems to be down at the moment.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=usb+print+server+network -- Per Jessen, Zürich (8.5°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Dotan Cohen wrote:

On 13 May 2010 13:10, Per Jessen wrote:

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Dotan Cohen wrote:

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On 13 May 2010 04:56, John Andersen wrote:

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There are a LOT more solutions than Jet Direct...

Look here.  http://tinyurl.com/2828vuv

Could you please repost that as a real URL. TinyURL seems to be down at the moment.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=usb+print+server+network

Thanks, I know how to google. I asked about the specific link that the GP posted.

That IS the target of the OPs tinyurl. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (9.1°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Wed, 2010-05-12 at 18:56 -0700, John Andersen wrote:

On 5/9/2010 7:48 PM, Brian K. White wrote:

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On Sunday 09 May 2010 19:59:38 Carlos E. R. wrote:

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On Sunday, 2010-05-09 at 19:54 -0500, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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I'd love to be able to share a single USB printer between a couple of Linux boxes without having to run a full CUPS printserver.

On 5/9/2010 9:48 PM, Jay C Vollmer wrote: print server by using a live-cd version that boots from a usb stick into ram instead of a normal install so no matter what you can always just reboot to fix any problem. Personally, if it was for work and I needed it to always work, I'd get the hp. There are a LOT more solutions than Jet Direct... Look here. http://tinyurl.com/2828vuv

Nobody said their where not a LOT more solutions; but the question was for *reliable* solutions. Of which there are few, and a Google search won't help you identify those. The great majority of these type of devices are "flaky" [and that description is kind]. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 5/13/2010 5:01 PM, John Andersen wrote:

On 5/13/2010 3:02 AM, Adam Tauno Williams wrote:

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On Wed, 2010-05-12 at 18:56 -0700, John Andersen wrote:

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On 5/9/2010 7:48 PM, Brian K. White wrote:

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On 5/9/2010 9:48 PM, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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On Sunday 09 May 2010 19:59:38 Carlos E. R. wrote:

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On Sunday, 2010-05-09 at 19:54 -0500, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

> I'd love to be able to share a single USB printer between a couple of > Linux boxes without having to run a full CUPS printserver. > print server by using a live-cd version that boots from a usb stick into ram instead of a normal install so no matter what you can always just reboot to fix any problem. Personally, if it was for work and I needed it to always work, I'd get the hp.

There are a LOT more solutions than Jet Direct... Look here. http://tinyurl.com/2828vuv

Nobody said their where not a LOT more solutions; but the question was for *reliable* solutions. Of which there are few, and a Google search won't help you identify those. The great majority of these type of devices are "flaky" [and that description is kind].

You've tested the majority of them then?

I use three different brands of these sort of things with no problem. Netgear, Linksys and Trendnet.

CUPS is happy to use them as a backend as long as it can see them, and because most of them emulate JetDirect, as well as Windows shared printer, you can always find a way to make them work

I have tested many, over the course of many years, and as I said, no all suck. It more or less impossible to predict what will be a good one, or in what specific way a bad one will be bad, and usually it takes a long time to discover that a bad one is bad the hard way. A site might operate for a year without a problem because just by luck: They were fine until they happened to send a job larger than N bytes. Or they were fine until they swapped out the original printer with some other printer, where the printer is fine plugged into a pc but for whatever reason is no good on that print server. Or they were fine as long as there was only one host (the unix box) sending jobs but as soon as some desktop started also sending jobs directly it locks up or fails in some other way. Or they were fine until the lan was very busy an laggy one day and the device turns out to choke on misordered or dropped or fragmented packets. Or they were fine until I got an hour away from them down the road after installing. Or they were fine until the unit got hot. Or they were fine when some windows box was sending jobs via SMB, but it fails to do LPD reliably. Or it ONLY does lpd reliably and fails to do raw tcp (jetdirect) reliably. Or they are fine until a windows desktop sends some printer control code to the printer putting it into some funky state such that it no longer works from the print sever. Or they are fine until the first time the multifunction tries to do anything other than print. Or they are fine exceept the print server is very sensitive to static or other power imperfections. Or they are fine except there is no good way to configure the device other than using the proprietary util that came with the unit on a cd that only works on windows (you can set up a jetdirect completely from scratch, completely remotely from the *ix server, just by having the on-site user plug it in to the wall and read you the MAC address from the sticker over the phone. No one on-site has to have the slightest clue about setting it up the normal way. No special windows util, not even web browser. You the admin can do it all from the server by arp, ping, & telnet. no dhcp or anything needed, the user doesn't even have to print the setup sheet and read you an ip address from it.) Or they are fine but the print server is not an external usb model the OP asked for but is built-in to a large office machine or an industrial dot-matrix. Or they are fine but the print server is parallel not usb. Or they are fine but sloooooow. ....ad nauseum. The question that was asked, and answered was, can I skip all that "probably ok" stuff and is there something that is known solid? The box claims it will work, someone printed 10 sheets ok once, someone else has one in their home office and print 3 sheets a day for the last year with no problem... none of that qualifies as tested and known solid. -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sunday 09 May 2010 21:18:11 Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:

On 05/09/2010 09:06 PM, Adam Tauno Williams pecked at the keyboard and

wrote:

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On Sun, 2010-05-09 at 19:54 -0500, Jay C Vollmer wrote:

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Hi everybody. I'm hoping that someone on this list can tell me of some success with using a USB printserver with openSUSE 11.2. I've had some limited success with the IOGear models, but they seem to lose track of their settings and require reconfiguring. I'd love to be able to share a single USB printer between a couple of Linux boxes without having to run a full CUPS printserver.

Just run CUPS; you already are anyway. Don't waste your time fighting with consumer-grade junk.

Or run the printer on a network device, whether builtin or using something like a HP JetDirect.

USB/lpd or CUPS you still need a pc running 24/7.

No. With the device I've described nothing more than the network, the printer, and the USB printserver need be powered on. -- JAY VOLLMER Il n'y a aucune honte en étant un paria. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org