Using CUPs to share a a network printer

jonnytabpni · 11-09-2010, 04:20 PM

Hi Everyone,

Is it possible to use CUPs to share an already networked printer using IPP? The printer itself uses IPP.

I know at first look this may seem like a silly thing to do, however I have a special case to set up a "print proxy server" due to security compliance reasons.

Thanks

stress_junkie · 11-09-2010, 04:58 PM

Yes CUPS can do that. The only question is whether the printer can be configured to only accept jobs from your proxy server. Here is a quote from the CUPS Overview.

Quote:

How Does It Work?
... Most of the time the queue points to a printer connected directly to your computer via a USB or parallel port, however it can also point to a printer on your network, a printer on the Internet, or multiple printers depending on the configuration...

This is available at http://localhost:631 as is the rest of the CUPS configuration management software.

Anyone can see the configuration using that web browser interface. If you try to make changes you will have to authenticate yourself using an account that is either root or that is a member of the lpadmin user group.

If the printer cannot be configured to accept jobs from only one computer then you could put the printer on a physically separate network and have two NICs in the printer server. One printer server NIC would be on the user LAN and the other would be on the printer LAN. That could turn into a medium sized project.