Comments on USB-Equipped Ethernet Print Servers? 21
An Anonymous Coward asks: "I'm looking to purchase an external Ethernet print server with an USB printer interface. I've only found two such beasts HP JetDirect 175x and Sercomm PS5800). Do I have any other hardware options? Do USB print servers work with any USB printer, or are there driver issues?" Comments, anyone? Information about running such a box under free operating systems would also be nice.
HP Jet Direct (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Nice one (Score:1)
JetDirect (Score:3, Informative)
Re:JetDirect (Score:4, Informative)
On the plus side, the new ones are more internet happy. They offer web based configuration and support IPP (Internet Printing Protocol). However, unlike their predecessors, these units are not flash upgradeable and thus they can't be patched for new features/bugfixes. We have some minor issues with our 1st generation 170X and DHCP, but can't fix it without replacing the box.
Anyhow, to answer the original poster's question. HP has a list of supported printers (all HP branded) at their site. Unclear if any other USB printer would work. Link below. http://www.hp.com/cposupport/networking/support_do c/bpj06867.html [hp.com]
Macs and LPR (Score:3)
Modern versions of "Classic" Mac OS (7.1 Pro to 9.2.2) have an app (sometimes in the Apple Extras folder, sometimes on the system CD) called "Desktop Printer Utility" that'll let you tell the machine to print to an LPR printer/printserver.
Mac OS X does not support AppleTalk, but does come with both native BSD flavored LPR as well as Samba. This is easily configured from the Preferences/ControlPanel. Power users can do a quick Google search for more info. Samba ships with Mac OS X 10.1.0 and newer. For fun, pull up a terminal on Mac OS X and print from the CLI... "lpr -P printserver.yourcompany.com mydoc.ps"
Any cheap old hardware. (Score:2)
Re:Any cheap old hardware. (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, if you're leaving a computer-illiterate office with a print server, they're going to know one way to fix a problem - unplug and plug it back in. Your average linux box won't handle this too well. (I know it's linux so it'll never crash)
Re:Any cheap old hardware. (Score:1)
Re:Any cheap old hardware. (Score:3, Informative)
Avoid the JetDirects (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Avoid the JetDirects (Score:3, Interesting)
If your server is close enough to your printer, you can do without the JetDirect box and plug the printer straight into the server, but our print server is a long way from our printer, so the printer is connected to a JetDirect box in the user lab, and the server is tucked away in the machine room.
Yes, I know its another single-point-of-failure, but ours hasn't failed for years....
Re:Avoid the JetDirects (Score:2, Informative)
The Tetronix Phaser 850 we have, will take a shit under multiple print jobs however.
Re:Avoid the JetDirects (Score:1)
Although some manufacturers of these cables say they will only work for certain printers, this is only true if you're on a brain-dead OS using their device drivers.
So far I've used an HP Laserjet 4 (yes, that old!) and a brand new Epson LQ570e forms printer on the same box. Works a treat!
Costs? Cdn$189 for the off-lease Compaq DP-4000, Cdn$49 ea. for the cables. Compare that to the cost of one of those appliances. It takes a very long time to burn Cdn$250 worth of electricity with that Compaq!
And, I get to run both cups and smb to share the printers, and administer them remotely.