Printers, Samba, Windows and Stuff!

[mrkeef]

I've just got samba running on my computer to let me see the network that my machine is on. (This was remarkably easy after a few false starts!). This a home network and has a server which runs under linux and the other computers run under the Dark Side (Win 95).

As my office is in a building separate from the house, and I do most of the paper generating, the printer (HP 830C) is connected to my computer... fair enough I don't want to walk over to the house every time I print something. My children also want to use the printer for educational things like homework, printing Pokemon cards etc.

Does anyone know how I can set things up so that those pesky Windows machines can print from my printer when I'm running linux? I assume that there is some feature in samba or something similar.

On a related subject, we have a print server (HP JetDirect 150X) which allows us to make the printer accessible to the network without going through my computer. We have not been able to track down any linux drivers to make it work... we've tried HP's site but without success. It uses IPX but just won't go under the linux IPX. (That's my translation of my son's explanation of the problem- he's the houseohld network guy and anything network is a mystery to me!) Do you know if there is any way to make these things work under linux?

Thanks!

Keith

PS I hope this comes out not too garbled- it's been doing weird things while I've been typing it up!

[jman_77]

Welp, I think you should be able to connect to an HP print server using IPX without any real problem. You'll just need to have CUPS and the IPX tools installed on your linux machine.
I've got a similar setup here at home, but the printers are on a win98 box and I'm the one accessing 'em from linux... The meat and potatoes here is in /etc/cups/printers.conf:

<DefaultPrinter hplj2>
DeviceURI smb://workgroup/frank/hplj2
</Printer>

soooooo, I'm fairly certain that what you'd need to do to connect to the print server is set that to
smb://<your printer name here>
if you're not sure of the printers name try using 'findsmb'

If you'd like to take the opposite approach and share the printer attached directly to your computer, you'll need to install the Samba server and set it as an exported service... unfortunately, I'm still foggy on how that one's done. Anyone else?

[paradox]

I'm trying to look it up as I don't have the luxury to have two computers to try and network, well I do but the otherone is about as much of a computer as my watch! <wonders if he can link his watch with Linux to sync times together> ;D

Aragorn

[paradox]

I might have found something, but not sure, would you give me the error that you are getting, if you haven't even got as far as to get an error, would you give us a copy of your samba configuration?

Aragorn

[JimH]

Keith, everything I see on the JetDirect 150X says it is not supported. This site says it is an HP supported project. On the supported devices page, it mentions the 150X as not supported.

http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/index.shtml

Setting up a Linux print server for windows clients via samba is easy. At least for Win9x clients. Samba 2.2x is supposed to have better support for Win2000. Need to see a copy of your smb.conf to see if you are missing anything.

[paradox]

Keith, everything I see on the JetDirect 150X says it is not supported. This site says it is an HP supported project. On the supported devices page, it mentions the 150X as not supported.

http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/index.shtml

Setting up a Linux print server for windows clients via samba is easy. At least for Win9x clients. Samba 2.2x is supposed to have better support for Win2000. Need to see a copy of your smb.conf to see if you are missing anything.

I have heard that setting it up in 2k or Me is damn near impossible!

Aragorn

[b4ckup]

samba is running on our mandrake distribution (8.1) but we still have a few things to do
a public directory is easy to share -> guest = ok in the /etc/samba/smb.conf
but how can i share directories with users -> but then dynamicly
and with a pass... that's a prob
and how can i get access via graphic interface

thomas a.k.a. b4ckup

[JimH]

but how can i share directories with users -> but then dynamicly
and with a pass... that's a prob

I am not sure what you are trying to do here. Can you explain what you are trying to do a little more?

You can browse Samba shares in Nautilus or konqueror. There are some stand alone browsers for Samba shares available. Just search on Samba on http://freshmeat.net

Jim H

[b4ckup]

well, i have to do this for school, an integrated task spreaded over the whole year, i need to make for every student of my class an account on my smb server, each with their own pass and username, and i need one public share (exists already) where everybody has NO restrictions

[b4ckup]

can anyone helpppppp?? plz