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Old 10-20-2007, 09:27 AM   #1
aescott
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Print via router


Hi

I have a Belkin Router, which also has a print server USB port on it. My laserJet 3200 is connected to that.

I can print to it via Windoze, but how do I print to it via Linux? I'm running Fedore Core 7.

Thanks

Alastair
 
Old 10-20-2007, 09:47 AM   #2
tredegar
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What kind of "Belkin router"? A link to its (PDF) manual perhaps?
Have you tried using cups ( http://localhst:631 ) ?
 
Old 10-20-2007, 11:25 AM   #3
aescott
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Tredegar

The router is a wirelss F5D7231uk-p. There is no help in the manual at all - belkin does not support Linux, according to their help desk.

The printer plugs directly into a USB port on the router, if that helps.
 
Old 10-20-2007, 11:56 AM   #4
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Quote:
belkin does not support Linux,
That doesn't matter, a router is a router: It deals with network packets.

What is the address of your router? Say it's 192.168.1.1
Fire up cups and point it at 192.168.1.1, or even ask it to search for a networked printer
(I think cups should be looking for a networked printer on port 9100) What happens?
 
Old 10-20-2007, 12:17 PM   #5
emeut
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print via router

Hi aescott

I am printing via an smc router, i did search on the web and stumble apon this procedure for my router and i beleive it should also help you.

Appendix P - CUPS, Linux, Print Servers and Laserwriters
The CUPS printing system program for Linux is quite a good program but like almost everything to do with linux, the documentation sucks big time! I've used Linux since 1994 and taught courses on it at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and still find it frustrating to find out how to do the simplest tasks: Printing is one of them.
I thought that I would save some others the grief that I had with printing using the CUPS print serving program. I use Slackware 9.1 and 10.0 (almost identical except for Linux version) and have used pretty much all the other distributions but keep coming back to Slackware. Mainly because when things go wrong, I can always modify a text configuration file to fix it.
First Rule of Linux: You MUST login as the ROOT user (superuser or administrator) when installing or configuring system programs like CUPS in order for them to work properly!

1. CUPS
How do you know if CUPS is running? Open up your web browser and type in the URL:
http://localhost:631
If CUPS is installed and running on your system than the CUPS administration web server will run and ask you for a username and password. Use your ROOT user account (remember the first rule of Linux).
The Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) initialization file is located in /etc/rc.d/rc.cups, it is called by /etc/rc.d/rc.M . If CUPS is not running, check that rc.cups has 755 for rights with root as the owner. How do you check that it has 755 for rights. You can do it either of two ways. Right click on it in a file manager and look at its properties. It should have RWXR-XR-X and user ROOT and Group ROOT. ROOT is lower case (root) by the way, I'm just shouting it to make a point.
The second method is open up a console (terminal window) and do a long listing by typing the following:
ls -l /etc/rc.d/rc.cups
It should show rwx-r-xr-x also. To change the permissions (rights) type the following command:
chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.cups
rc.M is an executible text file that contains instructions when Linux starts up in multiuser mode. It has a section that checks to see if there is an rc.cups file and calls it if there is. Check to see if the CUPS section is not commented out. A commented out line has a # (hash mark) as the first character on the code.
You may not have CUPS installed if you can't find the rc.cups file or see a /etc/cups directory. Then you would have to install it which is way beyond the purpose of this webpage.

2. Configuring your locally attached printer
You configure your locally attached printer using the CUPS localhost:631 web administration tool. It's pretty straight forward for a locally attached printer. Here's the steps:
1.Open up your web browser, enter localhost:631 as the URL
2.Login as root
3.Select PRINTERS menu
4.Add printer
5.Give the printer a name - I suggest one word like HP_Laserjet
6.Indicate the location: Room 222
7.Give a description: HP Laserjet next to Bob's desk, click on Continue
8.Indicate the CUPS backend to use. This is how you are going to connect to the printer. Is it a serial, USB, parallel or some type of network connected printer that uses http, ipp or lpd.
9.Next select which general manufacturer model driver it uses: Canon, HP, etc..
10.Finally select which specific model it is.
And that's all there is to it UNLESS your printer is not listed! Then you have to scour the Internet looking to see if someone else got it working. The best place to start is the CUPS software menu which brings you to the CUPS website.
Note: You can go back to the Printer menu and then select Configure Printer for printer specific items like resolution, paper size, etc.. The Modify Printer menu changes the printer configuration like name, backend, etc..

3. Configuring a typical firewall/print server, SMC 7004ABR, for Windows, Linux and Macintosh
I have a SMC 7004ABR firewall/router that has a print server built in. There is good documentation on how to use the print server with Windows (the hard way) but one pitiful paragraph on how to use it with Linux. With CUPS, after a couple of hours of attempting to make it work, I found out that it is very easy. The first thing was to find out what type of print server it was. The SMC 7004ABR is a lpd based print server. The next thing was to find out what the printer queue is called. It was called lpt1. The last thing is to find out the IP address of the firewall which by default was 192.168.1.1 (your print server's IP address may differ).
Making Linux work with an SMC 7004ABR
Again, you configure your printer using the localhost:631 web administration tool:
1.Open up your web browser, enter localhost:631 as the URL
2.Login as root
3.Select PRINTERS menu
4.Add printer
5.Give the printer a name (no spaces)
6.Indicate the location
7.Give a description, click on Continue
8.Indicate the CUPS backend to use: lpd.
9.Next indicate the device URL: lpd://192.168.1.1/lpt1
10.Next select which general manufacturer model driver it uses: Canon, HP, etc..
11.Finally select which specific model it is.

hope this will be of use to you
emeut
 
Old 10-20-2007, 12:43 PM   #6
tredegar
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I have tried to find a manual for your router / print server on the web. The closest I can get is a Belkin F5D7231-4p, which seems to be newer than yours (is yours really old?).
The manual is not encouraging: The USB interface on the router / print server is not bi-directional, so cups may not be able to search for your printer, or find it. That said, you may still be able to get it working.

- How old is your router / print server?
- Do you have a web link to its manual?
- Do you have a pdf of its manual (on the CD that came with it)? Can you post it somewhere where I can grab it?

Meanwhile, try looking at this link: http://www.usr.co.nz/links/usr5461-u...tall-linux.pdf
 
Old 10-21-2007, 04:01 AM   #7
aescott
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Belkin Manual

Tredegar

I've checked the router box and I gave you the wrong model number. You quoted the correct one. Sorry about that.

I've attached the link for the router manual. Thanks for looking at this.

http://www.belkin.com/support/articl...=5389&scid=221

In the meantime, I'll look at the link you sent me.

Alastair
 
Old 10-22-2007, 04:29 PM   #8
aescott
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Printing

Finally....I have achieved success, by trying every combination possible for my printer.

Linux should be easier than this...but what a feeling of elation when it works!

Thanks for all the assistance.
 
Old 10-23-2007, 03:14 AM   #9
tredegar
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Congratulations
For the benefit of others having the same problem, perhaps you could post the exact steps you took that did eventually work.
 
Old 10-24-2007, 02:30 PM   #10
aescott
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Thumbs up printer Installation Solution

To anyone else who's affected by this or a similar issue:

I used the System > Administration > Printing option from the GNOME taskbar. I added a new printer and gave it a name . The connection method was with the HPAppSocket / jetDirect option. I used my router's IP address and the port (9100) was added automatically. I had downloaded the required PPD file for my printer and used this.

I should state that I had used the CUPS interface to try to do this without success. As far as I can see, the GNOME interface is just a friendlier version of CUPS.

I reckon the simplest solution all round is to have the printer connected directly to your PC or have a dedicated network printer, not a single-user printer shared over a wireless router with a print server built in....but it's so satisfying when it works!

Hope this is of use to someone. Thanks again to all those who answered my post with suggestions on how to resolve the problem.

Al
 
  


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