OT: USB<->Ethernet printer server for router

[Bob Goodwin]

Dotan Cohen wrote:
> On 01/12/2007, Fred Erickson <frederickson at iname.com> wrote:
>   
>> On Thu, 2007-11-29 at 14:16 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi all, this is not a Fedora question, but I am abusing the list's
>>> collective knowledge :)
>>>
>>> Our home network has two Fedora machines and a Ubuntu machine on a
>>> four-port router. As none of the machines are 'always on' machines,
>>> the poor USB printer is plugged into whichever one needs to print. I
>>> recently saw a device for connecting a serial printer to an ethernet
>>> port on the router, thereby giving the printer a local IP address and
>>> any connected computer could print to it. With NAT, even a remote
>>> computer could print to such a printer (actually a feature that we
>>> would use a lot in our home, as I am often at the university and I
>>> send documents home for the wife to print).
>>>
>>> Does anyone know of a similar product for USB printers? I've scoured
>>> Ebay but found nothing. I'd love to hear of anyone who has experience
>>> with such devices, and who could describe possible drawbacks that I
>>> have not considered.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Dotan Cohen
>>>
>>>       
>> Here is a link to the print server I have been using for a couple of
>> years -- seems to work very well. I have had to re-set it one time I
>> believe. Think it cost $30 or so on sale at CompUSA.
>>     
>
> Thanks. Now that I have the keywords I found several models on Ebay.
> They all come with a driver CD for Windows. Is this necessary? Can
> Linux be configured to work without the disk? Note that my HP
> Officejet 4200 works fine in KDE as KDE comes with the drivers
> installed for it already, but a friend's Lexmark E120 does _not_ work
> in KDE because there are no Linux drivers for it. What is the driver
> situation for these print servers?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dotan Cohen
>
>   
Yesterday I set up a D-link DP-301U "Fast Ethernet Print Server" that my 
daughter brought home from school, brand new in the box, it had been 
sold as surplus!

There's really not much to do, access it with your browser and configure 
it to fit your LAN.  This one is USB printer to Ethernet and I have it 
plugged into an Ethernet switch that feeds into our wireless LAN.  
Configuration probably would have been faster had I used a Windows 
computer and the provided CDROM but I don't do things that way.  Had to 
create a network address to satisfy the device and once I did that I was 
able to access it with Dillo and change the address to the 192.168.1.4 
that I wanted after which Firefox displayed the built in setup menu, etc.

It is presently driving an old Epson C62 printer.  Only thing I noticed 
is that it is shown to be USB1, not sure how much that affects the 
printer?  It doesn't seem as fast as the HP6840 I usually use but that 
may be the printer itself.

Bob Goodwin