clients lose track of network printer
 

In a computer lab configured, run, and used by non-experts we have 8 - 10 standalone FC4 computers all plugged into the Linksys router or its attached Linksys switch. The HP LaserJet 2200 printer has a JetDirect card and is also plugged into the router. Adding the networked JetDirect printer via the desktop menu's System Settings>Printing control panel works just fine and printing proceeds normally from the various applications.

Our most frequent maintenance problem, however, is that eventually (sometimes hours, sometimes weeks) each client fails to have its jobs print. Its print queue will show a backlog of jobs, but they just never print. I have always simply removed the printer, then re-added it from scratch using the Printing control panel, then everything is fine until the next time that client loses track of the printer. This happens to all clients with an obtrusive frequency. What can I do to ensure clients' print queues stay healthy for longer periods?

The way you have set this up is that all the FC4's can access the (networked) printer?

What happens if 2 or more want to print at the same time? Doesn't the printer hardware get all confused? (Maybe it is a very clever printer!).

The way I would set it up, would be to attach the printer to one computer, and install it on that computer, using cups. The computer that is connected to the printer is now the "Print Server". Then tell cups on the Print Server to allow access to that printer from the other computers on your network.

Then tell (via their own cups) the computers on your network to go and find and use the networked printer via the Print Server.

The Print Server will maintain one print queue for all the print jobs that are sent to it. The clients will be happy - They just send the print job to the server, and the server takes care of it.

This is how my network works, and it is very stable and reliable.

Thanks--apparently I've been making a "for dummies" kind of configuration error. I just always assumed that when the printer receives simultaneous requests from different clients, the jobs stay queued in an orderly manner on each client until they complete.

My strategy up to this point has been to have all clients stand alone on an equal footing so if one goes down there can be no side effects. In fact, we've had hardware failures on two computers in the past year, which happily has caused no user distress since they can just sit down at any other computer. You're saying that's not a realistic way to go if I want reliable printing?

I own the Linux reference books (which is why I'm the one in charge of the asylum) and will figure out how to set up a printer server using CUPS on one computer. If the server dies, though, ALL printing goes down and users get upset. Is there some way to guard against printing going down completely, or is the idea, in the event of printer server failure, simply to set up one of the remaining online computers as the print server, because that's easily and quickly done?

I assumed the opposite (pessimist). I may be wrong - you could do some experiments, trying to "break" your network with simultaneous prints, but this may waste a lot of paper before a collision happens.
Correct.
Correct again. Once you have done this once, the next time is easier!
Oh, & welcome to LQ!