Special Edition Using Linux®, Sixth Edition

Sharing Printers Across the Network

Printing within Linux tends to be one of the most difficult things for novice users to set up—and it is extremely difficult to understand. This text assumes that you can set up and print files from your Linux host. If printing from Linux cannot be accomplished, Samba does not help because it adds yet another layer of complexity. However, when you can print from Linux, printing from Samba is simple.

To begin, printers can be connected in one of three ways for use on the network. They can be connected directly to a port on the Linux host, in which case they use the Linux print daemon and print spool. They can be connected directly to a Microsoft host, and that host can share the printer on the network, in which ...