Sharing windows printers with Fedora

[jerryau]

Hi!

I am completely new to Fedora and Linux generaly. I have a M$ Windows 2k3 server which I use to share my printers on a small network. So far only windows machines were connecting to this server, but now I've decided to try out Fedora. Does anyone know what do I need to be able to use these "windows printers" with Fedora? I have found some info on Google, but it was very limited and my skills with Fedora are not very good . Any help is greatly appriciated.

Thanks,
Jerry

[gablaxian]

To help clarify, are you trying to access the printer using linux through your windows server, or do you want to use the fedora box as the printer server?

[blammo]

Go to LinuxPrinting.org and check for a driver and compatability for the printer(s). Here you will find info and howto's on setting up the printer. Very good site.

[Jman]

Originally Posted by jerryau

I have a M$ Windows 2k3 server which I use to share my printers on a small network.

Seems clear to me.

Try Main Menu > System Settings > Printing. Click the new button. The type of queue will be networked windows (smb).

Chances are there will be a driver. What printers do you have?

[kosmosik]

run system-config-printer (intorduced in FC2, previous was redhat-config...) and simply add printer as SMB printer. adress specification is a bit werid (this printer GUI really sucks - it has no documentation so you have to dig in CUPS docs). it will be something like "smb://User:Passwd@DOMAIN/MACHINE/printer/" - DOMAIN can be also a Windows workgroup... if it is classical printer User should be Guest and no password: f.e.: smb://Guest@BIURO/SEKRETARIAT/hpmulti1/"... oh and for non postscript printers you need a PPD (something like driver but not binary in fact it is printers script description) for given printer...

if you don't want to use GUI (dont use it - it sucks) check this out:
http://www.cups.org/sam.html#8_8

[kosmosik]

in fact you don't need any spooler to print via SMB. printing to SMB server is just like sending file to given directory (but the file must be proper printout). server takes the file and prints it. you can print with simple smbclient wrapper script I use LPRng instead of (cow) CUPS and printing via samba looks like one liner (calling proper script on print job/file) in /etc/printcap...

[jerryau]

Thanks guys. I'll try your suggestions tonight and see how I go .
BTW, Gablaxian I'm trying to access a windows server that hosts my printers .

Thanks,
Jerry