Share USB over ethernet from LINUX

[Cr0n_J0b]

Thought I would share a cool new utility that i just picked up. Here was my issue...

I keep my printer in my closet along with my Linux server and switches to keep them out of the way. My printer is a Canon MP530 multi-function with printing, fax and scanning. I've tried over time to hook it up to the linux server to share the print resources, but it was never really satisfactory. I couldn't use any of the Windows tools (obviously) from my desktop to manage it and so I couldn't really do anything but print to it using cups. It just wasn't great. I even tried a netgear printserver, but that wasn't a whole lot better, mostly the same issues. What i wanted to do was to just plug the printer into the usb-port on the linux server and then transfer it or redirect it to the windows server over ethernet.

Well, I found a utility that does just that. Basically it takes any USB input from the Linux server and shares it to any Windows or Linux system over ethernet. From the PC side, you start a driver that looks for the client on the network, it then "mounts" the usb device just like it's directly connected.

I was really amazed at how well it worked. I clicked the connect button, and it just popped up, asked for the printer drivers, then the scanner drivers, then the fax drivers and it was done. Now I can use all of my favorite windows software to manage it, pickup scans from it, and do faxing from the desktop. It even shows all the maintenance information like ink levels and such.

I haven't tried, but it supports cameras, phones, anything usb.

The next thing I'm going to try to see if I can get it to work with an NSLU hacked server. That would be nice. USB over wireless anywhere.

Anyway, just thought I'd share the find with anyone interested.

Here is the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.usb-server.org

[Cr0n_J0b]

Yeah, that is the one I'm using. It works great. There is a small bug in it however, that I'm trying to get tracked down.

The issue has to do with sleep mode on the XP client. When I try to put the system to sleep I get an error saying that the USB device is preventing sleep...then it actually does go to sleep, but once that happens the Linux host system will lock up completely. I'm hopeful the next version will fix the issue.

Other than that, it's a great program. Works really, really well.