printing

We setup a SUSE ldap Samba server. Users on winXP workstations can login to
the Samaba domain, access their home drive, etc. Now we want to setup some
network printers. I've read what little I can find about setting up CUPS,
but can't get it right. I can print to our Gestetner 6002 from the linux
server no problem. From a winXP workstation, I can browse the network and
see the printer, but I get a "server does not have the right driver..."
message and It wants to install a driver from somewhere else. I thought the
idea behind CUPS was to keep the drivers on the server? Can somebody ponit
me to a basic "how to" tutorial on CUPS printing? It's alot different than
the NW print queues we've been using for the last 10 years.
thanks,
Carl Hage

Carl R Hage wrote:
> We setup a SUSE ldap Samba server. Users on winXP workstations can login to
> the Samaba domain, access their home drive, etc. Now we want to setup some
> network printers. I've read what little I can find about setting up CUPS,
> but can't get it right. I can print to our Gestetner 6002 from the linux
> server no problem. From a winXP workstation, I can browse the network and
> see the printer, but I get a "server does not have the right driver..."
> message and It wants to install a driver from somewhere else. I thought the
> idea behind CUPS was to keep the drivers on the server? Can somebody ponit
> me to a basic "how to" tutorial on CUPS printing? It's alot different than
> the NW print queues we've been using for the last 10 years.
> thanks,
> Carl Hage
>
>

Carl,
Your windows clients still need a driver even if CUPS will be
re-rendering the job. If you want the server to render the job, you'll
need postscript drivers on your windows clients since CUPS renders from
postscript to whatever the printer uses. This would probably work, but
for most printers, you get a better print experience using the native
drivers for the printer, then have CUPS just send the jobs through
without touching the data (i.e. raw mode).

You can set up Samba to have the drivers available to download and
install for the windows clients.. the feature is called "Point and
print" and is present in newer samba versions.

In my opinion, this solution is often acceptable with few printers and
windows client. In a larger organization with lots of clients, I
suggest using iPrint (part of Novell's OES) which runs on SLES. It
makes driver management much nicer.
Hope that helps,
Joel

Thanks that helps. We are considering a complete new install at school.
Presently running three NW411 servers, and one NW60 w/BM3.7. We were trying
to decide if we should just go linux or OES. So far I like NW edir much
better than the ldap that came with the SUSE linux. I will probably like
iPrint much better than CUPS. It's that "free" part about linux that the
business manager likes so much.

"Joel J. Smith" <nospam@iprint.novell.com> wrote in message
news:02i1f.3712$GG4.2069@prv-forum2.provo.novell.com...
> Carl R Hage wrote:
>> We setup a SUSE ldap Samba server. Users on winXP workstations can login
>> to the Samaba domain, access their home drive, etc. Now we want to setup
>> some network printers. I've read what little I can find about setting up
>> CUPS, but can't get it right. I can print to our Gestetner 6002 from the
>> linux server no problem. From a winXP workstation, I can browse the
>> network and see the printer, but I get a "server does not have the right
>> driver..." message and It wants to install a driver from somewhere else.
>> I thought the idea behind CUPS was to keep the drivers on the server?
>> Can somebody ponit me to a basic "how to" tutorial on CUPS printing?
>> It's alot different than the NW print queues we've been using for the
>> last 10 years.
>> thanks,
>> Carl Hage
>
> Carl,
> Your windows clients still need a driver even if CUPS will be re-rendering
> the job. If you want the server to render the job, you'll need postscript
> drivers on your windows clients since CUPS renders from postscript to
> whatever the printer uses. This would probably work, but for most
> printers, you get a better print experience using the native drivers for
> the printer, then have CUPS just send the jobs through without touching
> the data (i.e. raw mode).
>
> You can set up Samba to have the drivers available to download and install
> for the windows clients.. the feature is called "Point and print" and is
> present in newer samba versions.
>
> In my opinion, this solution is often acceptable with few printers and
> windows client. In a larger organization with lots of clients, I suggest
> using iPrint (part of Novell's OES) which runs on SLES. It makes driver
> management much nicer.
> Hope that helps,
> Joel