kairozamorro's hangout

Ok, so you've setup your print server on your own (or you cheated using my tutorial) after some fun hours downloading this and installing that. You've got everything working on the computers on your network but you notice that you have company sometimes that may want to have access to your printer. Do you go through the boatload of trouble you went through before? Somewhat, but this ways nicer cause you don't haft to install the print server utility on their computer. There's also some other advantages I can think of:

• Forget the Linksys Windows only software. Using this method you should be able to use your print server in other OSes other than Windows. In addition its one less thing you haft to worry about starting up when you start Windows, which may speed up startup time.
• I discovered while doing a test print that this did not "occupy" or give exclusive connection of the print server to your computer, which means other people may be able to scan per say while you print/use other exclusive features of the printer or vice versa, so you can do some multitasking too.
• This should prevent the default printer troubles you were having if you want to use this on a computer that has a local printer you want as the default. However, there is some cons you should be aware of. You well only be able to print using this method, not fax, scan, or read memory cards. Make sure that the local printer can provide these functions if you need them.

Now on to the good stuff. First you need to install the correct drivers as instructed for your printer in my tutorial. You should also know the IP address of your print server. You don't need to setup a psudo printer since you're not installing print server utility. You well use the OS way of adding new printers to setup a new printer that does "RAW" printing to the print server. This is why its OS independant (great for us Linux and Mac users that were left out - thanks Linksys).

For this tutorial I'll be talking about setting up the printer in Windows (in Vista since that's what I got up at the moment), but it should be possible to do the same thing in other OSes.

1. First, open the Printers folder (you can find this in your start menu or in control panel...you can also type printers into the search box of the start menu).
2. Right-click or double-click the "Add Printer" object.
3. In the first page you want to select the option to setup a network printer. If it starts looking for network printers hit "Stop" (the print server doesnt advertise its services) and than click "The printer that I wanted wasn't listed".
4. Select "Add a printer using the TCP/IP address or hostname" and than click next.
5. In the hostname or IP address field key in the IP address for your print server and click next.
6. If you get an error, than sorry, this trick probably won't work for you. If you don't, and the correct port wasn't detected for RAW printing automatically, you may get a "Additional Port Information Required" page. In this screen do not attempt to guess the correct device type. Select the custom option and check settings to make sure the "RAW" option is selected under the "Protocol" group box. Don't add any additional settings. Simply verify RAW is selected. Click next to continue.
7. In Windows at this point it'll try to automatically find the correct print driver. Even with it installed it probably won't auto-detect it. In this case you get a "Install the printer driver" screen, where like when creating the psduo printer before you need to manually locate the correct driver from the list of manufacturers and their models.
8. If you get the "Which version of the driver do you want to use?" screen the first option should be fine. On some computers though I got errors. If you get an error try again and select the replace option and than next.
9. Now you should be at a page where it asks you for the name you want to give the printer and you can make it the default printer too if desired. Click next.
10. Now it'll actually install the printer. This may take a few seconds, maybe longer.
11. On the final screen you can click print a test page if you want. When you're done click Finish.

Here's a quick walkthrough of steps in the add printer wizard:

Now your friend or yourself can print to the print server freely without print server utility and on any OS hopefully. While this is all well and good I'd still recommend having at least one computer on your network installed with the print server utility as mentioned in the previous tutorial, so you can access other features of your printer if you need to such as checking ink levels, scanning, reading a memory card, or using the printer diagnostic utilities.