I'm looking for a SIMPLE solution for printer sharing. I have an HP printer attached to my Linux host (prints fine from there). I want my XP box to be able to use this printer as well. I can ping my XP box from my Linux box (and vice versa), and the XP box has the HP print driver installed.

When I go into my XP box and try to add a printer, I click "A network printer or a printer attached to another computer", then "Connetc to a printer on the Internet or on a home office network" and enter my printer as follows:

http://192.168.2.16:631/printers/myprintername

Note: I'm using the printer name as show in CUPS.

I also tried it without port 631. Either way, I get an error message saying "Windows cannot connect to the printer. Either the printer name was typed incorrectly or the specified printer has lost its connection to the server.

Thanks,

Andy

What you have there looks good to me. I have several windoze systems using my Brother printer on my linux systems. This is how I set them up.

Two things I can think of, firewalls on either linux or windoze?

Hosts.allow hosts.deny files can also block network communications. They are usually in your /etc directory.

I would firewall port 631 closed to outside. Turn off the linux firewall if there is one and try printing again. Best thing is buy an ethernet to USB print server.

Brian

Brian, can you explain a little more about what you meant by "I would firewall port 631 closed to outside." Not sure I follow you there. I know port 631 is for IPP, but wasn't clear on what you're suggesting.

I will disable the FW tonight and post the results here.

Thanks,

Andy

Well, the FW was definitely part of the issue. I flushed it out (sudo iptables -F), then rebuilt it only allowing TCP, UDP and my local network out. After doing that, I was able to add the printer. I then reverted to my old iptables and rearranged one line (in the OUTPUT section below, I swapped the two OUTPUT statements, so that first it would allow all NEW traffic from the 192.168.2.0/24 network, then all RELATED,ESTABLISHED. After doing that, I could still add my printer. HOWEVER, now every time I try to print something from Notepad (as a test), the application hangs and an error message pops up saying "Notepad has encountered a problem and needs to close....". I tried this on both my virtual XP box (running in Virtual Box), as well as standalone desktop running just XP. Any thoughts as to why it's generating this message when trying to print?

Thanks,

Andy

Glad to see you have it working Andy.

Brian