How to configure USB Ethernet Print Server

[eudemus]

Hi,
I recently bought one of these small stand-alone print servers, to connect a Samsung ML-1450 printer to my home network.
http://bit.ly/PtyIew
http://bit.ly/PtyYu8

I can't seem to get it to work. I can print off various bits of gobbledygook, but nothing intelligible.

I can use my browser to see a web config interface for the server, but there isn't much there to configure (only turning dchp on and off, and adding extra password layers).

When I use system-config-printer, it does detect a printer there (this was confirmed by the fact that it failed to detect anything when I turned the printer's - but not the server's - power off and performed the 'detect network printers' thing), when I put in the ip address of the server, and offers me various printer queues: usually PASSTHRU, ps, lp and sometimes PORT1. But although I can set up a printer notionally with each of these, I've had no success in even getting a test page printed. In some cases it doesn't succeed in connecting with the printer at all, in other cases, it prints gobbledygook, and keeps trying over and over again.

One thing that would save me some time would be if someone could help me understand the difference between these various print queues I'm offered by this server.

But perhaps none of these is correct, and I need to do something else manually?

I'd hoped that this little box would be a fairly simple affair, and would be minimal to configure. That may yet be true, but I'm struggling ....

All help appreciated. Thanks in anticipation!

[eudemus]

It's bizarre - I am definitely getting a connection between computer and machine using the lpr protocol (and using the ip address as the host name - and any of the several ports that the server says it uses, or indeed with none, omitting any port name).

But I can only ever print out the first line of any document - and I've now tried a few, and they are reproduced reasonably successfully, with correct fonts / layout / everything.

After the first line, however, the rest of the page is left blank, and then there will periodically come endless pages usually with a little square of gobbledygook towards the top somewhere.

I'm so close to a solution ... it's bizarre. What could be stopping the computer sending the rest of the document correctly ....

I also have severe problems cancelling documents, so when a document prints out in the way described above, I usually end up having to switch the printer power off in order to dislodge the "document" from printing endless wasted sheets with squares of gobbledygook. Cancelling the document at the computer end does no good, even though the computer seems aware that the document hasn't printed properly.

Humph. Any help, ANYBODY???!!!

[marko]

I finally found the manufacturer page for that:
http://www.win-star.com/eshop/goods.php?id=58

and you can see the user manual at
http://www.win-star.com/download/Dri...l_V1.22_EN.pdf
(found in page http://www.win-star.com/eshop/article.php?id=41 by looking for "WS-NU62P11", it's in the
section labelled "Networking USB HUB (USB Server)"

possible explanations:

1) it doesn't support the Samsung ML-1450 (it's not in the tested list)
2) you didn't to set your cups on Fedora to use an "lpr:" url , from what I'm seeing, since that
server doesn't support cups/ipp then you'd have to use lpr

I'd think you'd have better luck with a print server that supports cups directly. What I did at home for my usb printer (HP LaserJet 1200) was to make a small server out of a mini-itx motherboard and case and installed Scientific Linux 6.3 on it and set it up as a cups server and my HP1200 is plugged into it. It's kind of overkill because I'm powering the mini-itx board with an oversized 350Watt Zalman PSU but it works. I'm going to update to a smaller mini-itx server next with a much smaller power supply (a picopsu 80watt like this: http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-80) run off one of those small external power bricks but with the same idea behind it (stable Red Hat server OS like Scientific Linux or Centos to do the cups service).

Next time I get a printer I'll just get a network capable printer.... much easier to deal with

[eudemus]

Hi.
Well, thanks for engaging with this. I don't think the issue can be any of these, but I'm still mystified as to what it is.

1. For sure the Samsung ML-1450 isn't in the supported list, but some other similar Samsung laser printers are, and the printer can work off a Generic PCL 5e driver .... though even trying that (I've not tried every single one of the generic PCL 5e drivers - perhaps I should?). All of which suggests that it doesn't have - or need not have - specially unusual requirements for the server. The other thing is that it seems to identify itself successfully to the print server (so, if I go to the web interface for the print server box, it tells me that there is a Samsung ML-1450 connected to it, and announces its status - Ready / Busy / etc.). So, I'd really take a bit more persuading that it simply isn't compatible (also: why, if so, would it successfully print out 1 line of various documents?)

2. I didn't forget to use LPR. That's exactly the protocol I've been using, for precisely the reason you mention.

There is another possibility:

3. I have a faulty print server box.


I'm reluctant to use one of my machines as a (permanently on) print server. And we don't have the money for a new printer - and network enabled printers are much more expensive, sadly. I'd contemplate investing in a raspberry pi to use as a print server, but that's a longer-term thought.

In the meantime, any other ideas I could try about how to see if I could get something really simple through from the computer to the printer .... ?

Ultimately, surely, these things are essentially very simple connectors between the more complex bits of kit (the computer and the printer), so it surely must be possible to get the data through .....

Cheers in advance.

And thanks again, Marko, for your engagement with this. I do appreciate it.

[marko]

I'd lean toward using something like this if you want to go the usb print device route

http://www.tp-link.com/lk/products/d...TL-PS110U#spec

It's about the same price (amazon had it for $39USD, your ebay one was $22USD after I converted from GB Pounds).
Ok yours was cheaper but this one supports IPP, is new, and says it supports UNIX/Linux . I'd think using one that natively supports IPP/cups would be a good idea for linux use.

[eudemus]

Yep. It does look like it might be a good option. I'll keep scratching my head about this one, though .... I'm still a bit puzzled that it seems to function so successfully in some respects but not in others .....

If anyone else has any other ideas I might try to get a result out of my existing printer, I'd be very grateful.

[bbfuller]

Hello eudemus

Does the printer work OK connected directly to the computer and with what driver.

I had a Netgear USB print server at one time with a couple of HP USB printer on it.

I seem to remember specifying an LPD/LPR network connection and then the port number that the box was offering P1 and P2 I seem to remember. Had to get the correct one for the correct printer or the output was very odd.

After that it was a matter of specifying the driver I used when the printer was connected directly to the machine.

If your printer works directly to the machine, I'll see if I can find the configuration I used.

[eudemus]

Hi, bbfuller,
Thanks for this. Yes, I have a driver that works perfectly when connected directly to the computer.
Are you basically saying that I should stick with this driver, and vary the port details until I get a result?

I was wondering about trying to use TCP/IP printing .... is it the option in system-config-printer that is labelled "Internet Printing Protocol (https)"? The manufacturer's webpage seems to imply it supports tcp/ip printing ... though it may just be that it supports tcp/ip as a way of communicating with the LAN ....

I haven't tried ports P1 and P2 yet. I'll give them a whirl.
Thanks very much for engaging with this. Much appreciated.

Btw, I'm getting the printer showing up as a network printer on system-config-printer as "Samsung ML-1450 (Samsung-ML-1450-82ff0c, 192.168.0.5)" with the description "LPD network printer via DNS-SD" - the ip address there is of course correct. I have no idea what DNS-SD is.
I've tried this previously, with the same problem - top line of the page is fine, the rest is blank or gobbledygook.

OK. I've tried P0, P1 and P2 .... no joy. Any other suggestions? I'd be delighted if it was simply a matter of getting the queue right!

This is the console output when I try putting the ip address in the "host" box and clicking "find" on system-config-printer's utility for "Find Network Printer".

Can any of you make sense of it?

==============
(system-config-printer.py:3309): libnotify-WARNING **: Failed to connect to proxy
PASSTHRU
'\x00'
ps
'\x00'
lp
'\x00'
PORT1
'\x00'
Caught non-fatal exception. Traceback:
File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/probe_printer.py", line 253, in _do_find
fn ()
File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/probe_printer.py", line 365, in _probe_hplip
stderr=null)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
errread, errwrite)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1249, in _execute_child
raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Continuing anyway..
Caught non-fatal exception. Traceback:
File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/probe_printer.py", line 410, in _probe_smb
smbc_auth.failed (e)
File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/pysmb.py", line 182, in failed
raise exc
TimedOutError: (110, 'Connection timed out')
Continuing anyway..


==============

---------- Post added at 09:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:37 PM ----------

I should add that I've tried all the queues that might seem to be mentioned here:
PASSTHRU, ps, lp, PORT1, and indeed leaving the queue unspecified.

I don't really know what that "\x00" means after each of them.

I'm intrigued by a couple of things - is there some reference to trying to use port 3309? Could that be significant?
And: what is that about failing to connect to proxy .... ?????

---------- Post added at 09:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 PM ----------

Just tried amending the firewall to allow the use of port 3309, and I get a similar message now mentioning port 3739. To be honest, I don't think it can be anything to do with the firewall that is the basic problem with the printer, as I've tried all this with the firewall completely disabled, and it was just the same set of problems.

Cheers, Eudemus.

[bbfuller]

Hello eudemus

Actually, looking at your output, I never got any sense out of clicking "find" in "system-config-printer" either. It doesn't seem to like these simple USB print servers.

I've just found my Netgear one and hooked it up again.

This is what I did to get my printer going.

system-config-printer > Add > Network Printer > LPD/LPR host or printer > Next > Host (ipaddress of the printserver) > Queue (see later) > Message "Could not find any printer driver in configured sources etc" > Cancel > Eventually you get a list of printers, choose the one that works with a direct connection > Forward > Print test page.

The queue is the interesting part and has to be right. I couldn't remember what I had used previously so I tried P2, which failed. The web interface of this printserver listed the interface the printer was connected to as LPT2, that failed as well. What did work was L2 for some unknown reason.

I think you'll have to look carefully at the documentation for the printserver. I once configured a single port D-Link that only answered when the port was set to something like P19654-L2 but don't quote me on that. The ports seem very choosy about what they are called.


As to the firewall, using LPD/LPR doesn't seem to need any exotic ports opening. I see that in system-config-firewall I've got "Network-Printing-Client" and "Network-Printing-Server" open. That's probably all that affects printing.

[eudemus]

Interesting stuff, bbfuller.
Much appreciated.

Well, I'll have a bit of a play around. Unfortunately the web interface doesn't say what port/queue the printer is connected to. I'll try sleuthing about a bit ..... and will try L2! (and L0, L1!)

In the meantime, I had a brainwave.
The reason for all this shenanigans with a new printer server is the failure of previous equipment. Certainly the previous wired-only cable modem failed, and possibly the Belkin wireless-router-and-USB-print-server had failed or partially failed. But the functionality that had seemed to fail was all to do with routing and internet connections.
The ISP sent a new shiny modem-router-wireless-all-in-one box. BUT it's not a printer server.

My brainwave was to see if I could configure the old belkin box to act SOLELY as a printer server. And - in the end - I have, and happily it works! I configured it to act as a wireless access point, specified a static IP in the range dished out by the ISP's router, then turned the wireless functionality off, and plugged the USB printer in. And it works! I can print via tcp/ip, and probably also via LPR. Happy days.

When I have time (much less urgent now, though), I'll go back and try and get this wee chinese box working as it should ..... I wouldn't be surprised if it was somehow the matter of getting the right queue.

Can I just confirm that your experience with these things was that if you got the wrong port/queue, it would still print *something*, just something garbled?
Because if your experience was that if the port/queue was wrong, it completely failed to communicate with the server, that suggests that we are not facing the same issue. Because I can certainly get the printer to do something, just nothing much that is intelligible!

Again, thanks for taking the time to help here. Much appreciated.

[bbfuller]

Hello eudemus

No, that's not the case. When the port was wrong, the job just sat in the print queue. So it may well still be a different problem.

[eudemus]

OK. Thanks. That's helpful. I've tried emailing the manufacturers ... ! Let's see if they manage to come back with anything sensible!

[stevea]

The $35 Linux solution ....
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/vi...14632&p=151021
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/vi...13606&p=142914