Printers

[ov10fac]

Ok,

Here's my issue. I am running CentOS 5 Host with Windows XP as the Guest system. Everything works great so far. Now I need to figure out how to share a printer.

I have a printer connected to the Host that doesn't have a Linux driver but does have a Windows XP driver. I want to share this printer using the XP host.

I have seen how to share folders but csan't seem to find anything about how to share a printer.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Perryg]

Use network printing and share the printer on the guest.
Then setup an LPR network printer and use something like HP II for the printer drivers.

[ov10fac]

Perry,

Thank you. I just need a little clarification

<Use network printing and share the printer on the guest.>

When you say network printing, do you mean on the external windows clients. My network is composed of my Centos Server (running the Windows Guest VM) and about 15 other XP computers. We have another printer attached to the network that is shared by everyone in the office. Is that what you mean, is so is there anything special I need to do on the Windows Guest.

<Then setup an LPR network printer and use something like HP II for the printer drivers.>

Not familiar with the concept of an LPR network printer or HP II. The printer is actually a XEROX large format printer which has no drivers except for Windows XP drivers.

Again, many thanks for your response

[Perryg]

We have another printer attached to the network that is shared by everyone in the office. Is that what you mean, is so is there anything special I need to do on the Windows Guest.

Is this the printer that you want to print to?
Is it a network printer or connected to someones PC?

Network printing is fairly easy in the Windows OS. Just make sure that you are using Bridged mode on the guest Windows and see if you can see the printer in the setup new printer section of Windows. If it is a network printer you may need to set it up as a local printer and tell Windows to use IP to connect in the printer setup and map that to an LPT port.

Let me know if you don't know how to do this and I will see if I can find you a link that explains it better.

[ov10fac]

Ok,

I don't want to print from within the Windows Guest. I want to print from a Windows host on the network using a printer connected to the Windows Guest.

Windows Guest IP 192.168.0.253
This has the Windows printer attached to it. I can print to this printer from the Guest no problems.

Windows XP on the network IP 192.168.0.36 -
This is the computer I want to print to the Guest printer. In other words I want to install the printer attached to 192.168.0.253 on 192.168.0.36. When I start the windows printer install wizard on my .0.36 machine and I provide an IP of 192.168.0.253 the computer cannot find that IP.

I think the reason is that the actual IP address of the Host is 192.168.0.250. The Guest IP as assigned from within Windows is 192.168.0.253. But when I try to connect, the 253 address in not being forwarded by the 0.250 NIC even though I have it bridged within VirtualBox.

At least that's what I think is happening.

Thanks.

Thanks.

[sandratycova]

Well I suggest that you must go for Lan cables on any sharable device between your printer and all the hosts.
Currently I am using Epson printer which shared with two hosts.One is server and one is client.
Anyways if you have any further query you can ask to me.
Thank you for question.

[Perryg]

@ov10fac,
What mode do you have the guest set to? NAT, Bridged, Host-only? It must be set to bridged to be able to use this resource on the network.

[ov10fac]

The guest is configured as bridged. Started with NAT, then went to bridged. I can see other computers on the network, but none of them can see the XP guest hence the printer.

[Perryg]

Check and double check for firewall issues.
Also if you do not have file/printer sharing setup in XP they will not see it.