SharePort support?

[JMVS]

Hello Everyone,

I'm planning on moving from stock firmware to Alt-F but we rely heavily on SharePort on our office to share the printer. Does anyone knows if this is supported by Alt-F?

Thank you very much.

[Joao Cardoso]

Being an add-on to the D-Link firmware I doubt that it will work with Alt-F. (For a start you have to find a way to install it in the box, as Alt-F don't support D-Link add-on installation).

But why do you need SharePort? I saw a dlink youtube video showing how to use and install it, and see no advantage, as you have to install the printers drivers in the computers where you intend to use the printer...

On my home network, the printer that is USB attached  to the DNS appears as a a printer under the DNS computer that appears when you use the Windows (Vista) Network explorer. Then you install the printer as usual and start printing to it...

I tried this with an old HP Laserjet 5L and a more recent HP Photosmart C6200 without any issues, using the basic Alt-F firmware.

For more complex setups you can install cups and hplip (or foomatic, depends on the printer) packages in Alt-F and start using it.

More users experiences on this?

[Joao Cardoso]

On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 8:50:25 PM UTC+1, Joao Cardoso wrote:

On Monday, May 7, 2012 1:22:01 AM UTC+1, JMVS wrote:

Hello Everyone,

I'm planning on moving from stock firmware to Alt-F but we rely heavily on SharePort on our office to share the printer. Does anyone knows if this is supported by Alt-F?

Thank you very much.

Being an add-on to the D-Link firmware I doubt that it will work with Alt-F. (For a start you have to find a way to install it in the box, as Alt-F don't support D-Link add-on installation).

But why do you need SharePort? I saw a dlink youtube video showing how to use and install it, and see no advantage, as you have to install the printers drivers in the computers where you intend to use the printer...

On my home network, the printer that is USB attached  to the DNS appears as a a printer under the DNS computer that appears when you use the Windows (Vista) Network explorer. Then you install the printer as usual and start printing to it...

I was not clear: the printer appears, and is usable, as a shared printer on another windows computer

[JMVS]

Thank you very much for your response Joao. We use SharePort because we also share the scanner (it's a multifuntion printer - EPSON TX410). Actually, only just one computer usually scans but its an inconvenience to unplug the printer from the NAS, plug it in the PC, scan and then put the USB cable back to the NAS.
I've been reading about cups...is there any Installation guide fro newbies that you can recommend? Anyones tried it on this MFP?

Thank you very much again for you time (and for Alt-F!)
Jose.

[Joao Cardoso]

On Wednesday, May 16, 2012 3:32:27 PM UTC+1, JMVS wrote:

Thank you very much for your response Joao. We use SharePort because we also share the scanner (it's a multifuntion printer - EPSON TX410). Actually, only just one computer usually scans but its an inconvenience to unplug the printer from the NAS, plug it in the PC, scan and then put the USB cable back to the NAS.
I've been reading about cups...is there any Installation guide fro newbies that you can recommend?

Cups has a web interface to use, it's relatively simple. But consider using it only if the built-in samba printer (auto-detected) does not fit your needs.

You need to attach the printer to the windows computers from where you intend to print latter, and install the printer driver. You need to do this in all computers (as I think you also need to do when using SharePort). After connecting the printer to the DNS, it appears as a shared printer... I have already told this, haven't I?

But for the scanner what you need is "sane", also available as an Alt-F package. I used it with my HP-C6280 with success, but using the command line.

I have been thinking in providing a web page for scanning, but it is a very low priority for me, as my HP is a network printer and everybody can scan from it.

Anyway, to use the Alt-F sane daemon, besides (manual) configuration you need a TWAIN driver in windows, this one seems to be the recommended one: http://sanetwain.ozuzo.net/ (I have not used it)

[joe....@gmail.com]

An updated query on the original question.

Scenario: I have multiple computers using SharePort to access multiple printers off a USB hub connected to a Dlink DNS-323.

So... Does Alt-F support the D-Link Shareport Utility or will Alt-F allow connection to multiple printers running off the USB hub connected to the NAS?

[João Cardoso]

On Friday, June 27, 2014 6:34:46 PM UTC+1, joe....@gmail.com wrote:

An updated query on the original question.

Scenario: I have multiple computers using SharePort to access multiple printers off a USB hub connected to a Dlink DNS-323.

So... Does Alt-F support the D-Link Shareport Utility

I don't think so. Is it open source and free? If it is I might be able to compile it, just point me to the source code.

 

or will Alt-F allow connection to multiple printers running off the USB hub connected to the NAS?

Each printer attached to the box through a USB hub will appear as an independent printer, named lp0, lp1,... There is a wiki about this

 

[joe....@gmail.com]

Thanks João,

Having the printers show up separately removes the need for Shareport, that works for me.
Knowing what to search up on the Wiki helps as it can be hard to think of what to look up to solve the problem.