Printer Sharing in Ubuntu

Share a printer in ubuntu environment can be done in easy way although the clients using different operating system such as windows.

The first thing to do is configure the ubuntu pc itself first which using Gnome. Click System | Administration | Printing and then right click the printer you want to share and select Properties. In the properties window click the Policies tab and make sure the following are are checked :

• Enable
• Accepting Job
• Shared

Click OK after all are checked. The next step is to configure the CUPS server settings by go back to the main printing window and click Server | Settings. In this new section make sure the following items are checked :

• Publish shared printers connected to this system
• Allow printing from the network

After you click OK the printer should be ready to use by remote machines.

Now we have to configure the client which want to use the printer. The configuration is depend on what os is used. For windows xp client you can follow this step :

• From control panel click on printers and faxes and then add printer.
• Click next and then thick on a network printer and click next.
• After that thick on connect to a printer on the internet and in the url address box type the full url of your shared printer. Url is the ip address of the pc which shared printer connected.
• To make sure the url, you can check it by typing the ip address of printer server in browser. For example if your printer server ip address is 192.168.1.1, type in the browser 192.168.1.1:631 | click printers tab | choose the printer named which already shared.
• Copy the full url in your browser and paste it on the url address box in windows xp printer setup before (eg. http://192.168.1.1:631/printers/Deskjet-Ink-Advant-K209a-z).
• Click next and maybe you have to install the driver first.

After that you are ready to print..Happy Printing.