Another USB to network printer conversion

Mar 17, '03 09:12:00AM

Contributed by: chemdude

This is a follow-on to a previous hint. Hawking Technologies now sells a "single USB" version of the print server (Model H-PS1U) mentioned in that hint. Adding it to my network was relatively simple.

My network is cable moden connected to an Snow Airport basestation (acting as a DHCP server). The basestation is hardwired to a five-port hub. A Cube is also hooked to the hub. My wife and I each have an iBook with an Airport card. All computers are running Jaguar 10.2.4. An Epson 777 was connected to the Cube via USB. Of course, the Cube and printer are in the basement, so if we wanted to print from an iBook we had to go downstairs and plug the 777 into the iBook.

I was psyched when the PS1U came out. To add it to the network I had to:

  1. Plug the 777 into the PS1U. Plug the PS1U into the ethernet hub. Plug in the power for to the PS1U.
  2. To assign an IP address to the PS1U start Terminal.
  3. Enter sudo arp -s 10.0.1.222 aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff (see man arp). NOTE - A static IP number on an AirPort network should be anything between 10.0.1.201 and 10.0.1.254 (see Airport documentation). I picked 222 because it's easy to remember. Replace 'aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff' with the 12 digit MAC number on the white sticker of the PS1U.
  4. Fire up a browser and go to http://10.0.1.222:631.
  5. Click on "Setup" in the lefthand column.
  6. Click on "TCP/IP" under Setup.
  7. In the TCP/IP section, enter 255.255.255.0 for the Mask. Enter 10.0.1.1 for the Gateway. Click on "Submit" at the bottom of the page.
The above only has to be done once. For each computer on the network that has to print to the newly networked printer:
  1. Download Ghostscript and Gimp-Print from the gimp-print website.
  2. Install Ghostscript.
  3. Install Gimp-Print.
  4. Follow the Gimp-Print documentation to add the printer to Print Center.
  5. Print.
  6. Send a kid downstairs to pick up the printout.

Life is sweet.

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030313222049979