Two USB printers anyone?

[monnier]

I'm looking at getting a new printer (or multifunction device as you might have noticed
my "sharing a scanner" post) and was wondering if anybody has already gotten
his wl500g setup to share two USB printers over the network. Most likely
over the "raw" (aka JetDirect) protocol.

Does it all just work transparently ?

Also, I'm a bit annoyed at the unidirectionality of the printer sharing protocols.
I'm considering otherwise getting a printer with integrated ethernet port so I can check inklevels and stuff, but USB printers are much cheaper, so I was wondering if anybody has figured a way to get job-status and inklevel kind of info out of a networked printer (maybe using yet-another-protocol) ?

[timchazkent]

Hi Monnier

Not that it helps you but I would be happy to just get one USB printer working!

I have an Epson Stylus Photo R200 (USB) I am using the correct port, correct firmware but it doesn't work. I was hoping someone could offer a step by step debugging guide. You sound quite advanced.... Can you help me?

Cheers,
Tim


I'm looking at getting a new printer (or multifunction device as you might have noticed
my "sharing a scanner" post) and was wondering if anybody has already gotten
his wl500g setup to share two USB printers over the network. Most likely
over the "raw" (aka JetDirect) protocol.

Does it all just work transparently ?

Also, I'm a bit annoyed at the unidirectionality of the printer sharing protocols.
I'm considering otherwise getting a printer with integrated ethernet port so I can check inklevels and stuff, but USB printers are much cheaper, so I was wondering if anybody has figured a way to get job-status and inklevel kind of info out of a networked printer (maybe using yet-another-protocol) ?

[Antiloop]

I'm looking at getting a new printer (or multifunction device as you might have noticed
my "sharing a scanner" post) and was wondering if anybody has already gotten
his wl500g setup to share two USB printers over the network. Most likely
over the "raw" (aka JetDirect) protocol.

Does it all just work transparently ?

Also, I'm a bit annoyed at the unidirectionality of the printer sharing protocols.
I'm considering otherwise getting a printer with integrated ethernet port so I can check inklevels and stuff, but USB printers are much cheaper, so I was wondering if anybody has figured a way to get job-status and inklevel kind of info out of a networked printer (maybe using yet-another-protocol) ?

i've found something on the net which may be interresting

http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/hpoj-0.8/doc/info-protocols.html

[Nenik]

I'm looking at getting a new printer (or multifunction device as you might have noticed
my "sharing a scanner" post) and was wondering if anybody has already gotten
his wl500g setup to share two USB printers over the network. Most likely
over the "raw" (aka JetDirect) protocol.

Does it all just work transparently ?


Haven't tried myself, but I can probably help.

It is possible, but not transparently. All you need is to start another daemon for the second printer.
If you telnet to the box, command "/usr/sbin/p9101d -f /dev/usb/lp1 2" should start another daemon on port 9102, working with printer attached to /dev/usb/lp1 (kernel automatically creates the device once you attach second printer).

You can add the command to the post-startup script.