Making a Print Server

[roadgeek9]

I have some old Pentium III 550 MHz desktop, and I found my old HP Deskjet 3520 printer (from 2004, but still works perfectly fine) and hooked them together about a week ago to make a print server. I needed to run Linux, as the 2 Vista laptops in my house only will print through HTTP or an XP/Vista box. But no Windows 2000, which was the latest version of Windows that this box could run (smoothly). So I decided to go online, and I tried out CentOS 5.2, which I'd never heard of, but it was almost exactly like Fedora, which was the first Linux distro I ever used (back in 2004), so I stuck with it. Anyway, I'm sure your sick of me rambling, so here is the guide to setting up a Linux print server (BTW - only works with Windows 2000/XP/Vista (haven't gotten it to work with my Mac yet)) through CUPS (the Linux printing system) IPP (Internet Printing Protocol)...

PREREQUISITES

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Printer (obviously)

Linux computer with window manager (e.g.: GNOME)

Windows 2000/XP/Vista Computer

TASKS

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1. Plug in the printer to the server
   
2. Make sure that Linux understands the printer (simply go into a simple text editor and print out some random text for testing)
   
3. Go into your printing utility and find the name of your printer queue (e.g. (in my case): deskjet_3500)
   
4. Make sure Sharing is enabled for that printer queue
   
5. Go into the main Networking control panel and set a static IP address for the server
   NOW IN WINDOWS
   
6. Go to the Add Printer Wizard
   
7. When it asks you where the printer is located, select "Network Printer"
   
8. In Windows Vista, tell it to stop searching for printers
   
9. In Windows 2000/XP, tell it that you want an internet printer
   
10. In the URL field, type in "http://<ip address of server>:631/printers/queue name/
    
11. Windows will come back saying that it can't find a driver, tell it that you want to manually find the driver.
    
12. Select a driver and keep clicking NEXT
    
13. Print a test page and everything should be working.
    

If you have any problems, don't hesitate to reply.

Edited August 31, 2008 by roadgeek9

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

You'll want to use a generic PostScript printer driver on the PC side (My machine is using the "HP Color LaserJet 4550 PS" driver), CUPS handles transforming the PostScript to whatever is needed.

It should work fine on the Mac, it uses CUPS too (Apple own CUPS :p)

[roadgeek9]

It should work fine on the Mac, it uses CUPS too (Apple own CUPS :p)

I can't seem to get it to work with my Mac. I am running Panther.