support for networked printers

[mmoxnes]

think this has been asked many times before.

but since today most printers have network built in and its not always practical to have the printer next to the NAS.

it would be Nice to be able to set up the qnap as a printserver just as easily as when you have a usb printer. maybe as a separate package, I thnk if the rigth person sits Down and find out how to build a QPKG that contains the settings in it, or maybe a "Howto" for how to make it work, but there should be a easy way to empty the print que if something goes wrong.

[pwilson]

think this has been asked many times before.

but since today most printers have network built in and its not always practical to have the printer next to the NAS.

it would be Nice to be able to set up the qnap as a printserver just as easily as when you have a usb printer. maybe as a separate package, I thnk if the rigth person sits Down and find out how to build a QPKG that contains the settings in it, or maybe a "Howto" for how to make it work, but there should be a easy way to empty the print que if something goes wrong.

We've been asking QNAP to address this for the last 10 years. They don't even acknowledge the request. I even went so far to e-mail a PM directly about this. I gave up trying to convince them. CUPS is installed on the NAS, but it is outdated, incomplete, and doesn't have Samba support, so you can't create a $PRINT share to pass Printer Drivers to Windows clients.

QNAP's so-called Network Printing support is a pathetic joke, even though no one is laughing. Move on. They aren't listening.

Don't hold your breath waiting.....

[mmoxnes]

thanks for trying,

maybe we shall hope/pray that somone manages to make a working QPKG that gives us a kindof working printer solution.

[schumaku]

I still don't understand this request. Decent network printers can be used for printing from any computer, print from iOS by AirPrint, print from Android using Google Cloud Print, print e-mails with attachments sent to it, print from almost anywhere, ... What is the added value of bringing he NAS into the data path for printing beside of adding endless complexity?

[mmoxnes]

its easier to set up the printer once, and then let all Clients Connect to it and everything is configured, instead of having to set up every Client .

I can fix this With seting up a Windows or a Linux server to be a print server, but if i can have everything inside 1 qnap, then I can have 1 less machine/vm to maintain... and since my qnap is always on, I can also print With vpn to my printer when out traveling.

so I Guess what I actually ask for is a fully working CUPS server, With a Interface to delete hung print jobs.

[schumaku]

Can we deploy OS X and Windows printer environment and configuration from a CUPS server without any configuration of the clients?

[mmoxnes]

cant answer for the OS X part, since I dont have any apple Products, but for cups With samba correctly configured, it is possible, its easier With a good howto or a good GUI, not all options can be configured for Windows printers, but basic setup for point and print is possible (which is enough for my wife to make the printer work). and when you have the qnap as a DC you can also have the printer setup With policies, when they log on the network.

also since OS X can use CUPS (since it has much in common With BSD) it should be posssible to do the same

[pwilson]

cant answer for the OS X part, since I dont have any apple Products, but for cups With samba correctly configured, it is possible, its easier With a good howto or a good GUI, not all options can be configured for Windows printers, but basic setup for point and print is possible (which is enough for my wife to make the printer work). and when you have the qnap as a DC you can also have the printer setup With policies, when they log on the network.

also since OS X can use CUPS (since it has much in common With BSD) it should be posssible to do the same

1. CUPS is Apple Software, so I would hope it is compatible with OS X.
2. Linux wouldn't be able to print at all without Apple's contribution of CUPS to the UNIX/Linux world.
3. CUPS has it's own Web interface, so it is easy to manage if implemented properly.

Unfortunately the Firmware needs more than CUPS to be useful. CUPS would need to be compiled with Samba Support in order to handle the $PRINT share, in order to provide Printer Drivers to Windows clients. QNAP would also need to add Gutenprint etc, if the Firmware itself wants to be able to use the "network printer" too.

It might take an hour of development time from a single QNAP Software Engineer to get all the pieces working together. To be honest it would take QNAP more time to document it, than to implement it properly.

My Linux machines here have software from both Apple (CUPS), and Microsoft (Skype). I can't comment on OS X much either, as I too do not own any Apple hardware.