Topic: List of printers?? For SME Server

[sysadmincmha]

Can someone please help. I am looking for a list of printers that can connect directly with the sme server on a USB port. Or will any USB printer work??

[David Harper]

Any printer should work, but bidirectional communication (affecting things such as ink level monitors) probably won't.

[sysadmincmha]

Thanks do a lot of people hook printers up to these servers?

[janet]

sysadmincmha

sme server passes printer information as "raw" data, meaning it does nothing to it.
The printer driver in your workstation does the work.
Many people connect printers to sme and then create a share for the network in server manager.
You can use local parallel port or USB port, or have a networked printer (one that has an IP number on the network). With a network (IP address) printer you usually setup a hostname in server manager as well as adding the printer using the Printers panel.

You can only use printers that are "standalone", ie do not use processing power of Windows etc (so called "Win Printers").

[David Harper]

Generally speaking, if the printer is for business use, I recommend a standalone printer or MFP, such as a low-end HP ("n" models) or Brother. Thus printing can not only be independent of the server (e.g. if it goes down), but workstations can also communicate directly with the device.

[Bud]

hope you guys can help

i have a networked printer on a lan. i need to give 50 windowz xp workstations access to it. my problem is that i need to have a report that will show what each user/workstation has printed as the client needs to bill the user(s) for each printed paper.

how do i control the users access to the printer and show how much paper was used by each user.

any help greatly appreciated 

[David Harper]

SME Server doesn't have this capability, but you can add it in by using Papercut, which is sold and supported by Dungog Networks.

[sysadmincmha]

I tried installing a dell 810 usb printer. I plugged the printer into the server before bootup, then added the printer in the SME control panel added the printer as a local printer then picked First USB device. Went to the XP computer added the printer as a network printer that is attached to SME server, shared the printer, all seemed fine with all of this but when i tried to print it came up with a communication error. Any suggestions

Maybe i should try a network printer that would have a IP address????

[janet]

sysadmincmha

Went to the XP computer added the printer as a network printer that is attached to SME server, shared the printer, all seemed fine with all of this but when i tried to print it came up with a communication error.

You would not normally share the printer on the Windows XP workstation. The share already exists on the sme server.

When you set the printer up in XP, did you install the printer drivers ?
sme server does not provide/offer any printer drivers during the setup, you need to manually configure those in Win XP.

As a trial to prove your printer works OK, and that you have setup the printer drivers correctly in Win XP, I suggest you connect the printer directly to a USB port on your Win XP machine, and see if printing locally works OK. Reconfigure the existing printer driver port setup if necessary, or perhaps better still, delete the existing printer in Win XP to avoid confusion.

If it does not print, then you have a driver issue (might need updating), or Win XP setup issue, or the cabling or printer is broken.

If it does print OK, then you need to review how you setup the sme server etc. Perhaps the printer is a Win Printer, and therefore cannot be used on a network.

[Stefano]

sysadmincmha:

in my experience usb printers don't work fine if shared..

I suggest you to buy a print server usb and share your printer as network one.. works flawlessy for me

HTH
Ciao
Stefano

[hairybiker]

in my experience usb printers don't work fine if shared..

Well I have my Canon iP4000 connected via usb and it prints fine to my 3 Ubuntu desktops and to XP (in a VM), all I had to do was install the correct driver and it works fine.

[sysadmincmha]

Mary thanks for the info.....did try all of that. It installs fine and when you double click on the printer (Dell 810)in the control panel/printers is appears to be connected fine, no error comes up, but when you go file print to print something it come up with a communication error??? Maybe this is a Win Printer? I also have an HP 1005 usb printer to see if that's any different.

[hairybiker]

When you look at the properties of the printer is is shown as on a LPR device?
 If not you need to install the LPR driver on windows for it to work on a printer connected to this server.
(Add/remove/windows programs/Unix/LPR driver)

[sysadmincmha]

thanks will give it a try today..........

[cirkit]

Look out for printers which have linux compatibility mentioned on the box itself,they all work. The entry level HP lasers do not work while all entry level samsung lasers work very well. If you see on the box of HP printer nowhere is linux support mentioned but on samsung printers Linux support is clearly mentioned.