You have spare oldie machine at your office or in home? And a usb printer too? Your wireless print server is too expensive for you? How about to connect your spare computer with you printer so anyone in your office/home can use it even wirelessly? Here is how:

1. First install the newest Ubuntu version, you can download from here.
2. Connect your printer to your computer and Ubuntu will recognize and install the drivers for it. If you have newest printer release, search for available drivers on the official manufacturer site.
3. Next, Ubuntu uses the Common UNIX Printing System (“CUPS”) – Developed by Apple Inc. to handle printing. CUPS uses various protocols and if you are interested about that you can read more here. After CUPS configuration you can access to the printer and jobs via your web browser: http://localhost:631 Cool ha? So the next thing will be configuring the CUPS. From the main menu choose System -> Administration -> Printing
4. Select server in the menu bar and then settings. This will open the Basic Server Settings window.
   • If computer will be used only as a Print Server select the second box.
     - Publish shared printers connected to this server
   • If you like to use the computer as a Print Server and a client (it does need access to a printer connected to another computer), select the first two boxes:
     - Show printers shared by other systems
     - Publish shared printers connected to this system
5. Click OK.
6. Next, Right click on the printer you want to share and select properties
7. Click on Policies.
8. Check the Shared box then click Apply and OK.
9. Click the Refresh icon at the top to find the new printer or if nothing is found, open up a terminal and run:
   

   sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

That’s it, easy as always. But don’t print too much to keep the environment healthy and green.

Tags | Linux, Print, printers, Server, Ubuntu