Background
I have a HP PSC 1315 (all in one) Printer which is rather old (6+ years) and not network based (only connects to a single PC via a USB cable). Naturally I want to network this printer so I use my Sheevaplug Network Server to act as a Printer Server as well (I use Samba and CUPS for this).
Details
This article is not about making a Printer Server but rather connecting other PC/laptops on my network to this Print Server. It is an easy task but there are a few key items to know/watch out for.
The tasks are as follows (all on the client):
- Install cups
- Go to the CUPS web based admin UI: http://localhost:631/
- Navigate to Administration>Add Printer
- Under “Other Network Printers”, select “Internet Printing Protocol (ipp)” and click Continue
- For Connection, use the following: “ipp://YOUR-PRINTER-SERVER:631/printers/HP_psc_1310_series” and click Continue
- note: this is a key component as you often wont know the URL/IP or following path. To get this info, log on to your Printer Server’s CUPS Admin UI and go to the Printers tab. You should see your network printer listed and if you put your mouse over the link on the name of the printer you should see a URL such as “https://YOUR-PRINTER-SERVER:631/printers/hp_psc_1310_series”. Simply use this URL, replacing http:// or https:// with ipp://
- Give it a Name, Description, and Location of your taste and click Continue
- Specify the Driver
- note: this is another key (and frustrating) component as drivers are finicky. I happen to know for the HP PSC 1315 you can use the HP PSC 1310 Series printer driver; however, there are two HP PSC 1310 Series drivers. I’ve tried both and the hpcups version did not work while the hpijs version did.
You should now be finished, click the Add Printer button! The remaining steps (if any) are dependent upon your printer, you can specify options as you please.
