Network Printing Book

Paperless office, paperless schmoffice: If you can't get your document to look right on paper, you might as well not waste time creating it at all. For administrators, printing across a local area network (LAN) was hard enough when everyone was running the same operating system. Now, with at least three widespread versions of Windows, several Mac OS flavours, and Linux servers making inroads all the time, printing can be hairier than ever. Network Printing aims to clarify the mechanisms by which various operating systems--particularly Unix variants--speak to one another about printing matters. It also seeks to explain the procedures that administrators need to follow to get Macs and Windows machines printing on Unix and Linux boxes via Samba. Though it would be nice to see a section on getting Macs to print to Windows printers and vice-versa, this book meets its goal. In the section on Unix printing, the book explains all the popular print daemons, including lp, lpr, lpd, and LPRng, relying heavily (and helpfully) on command-line listings. The Samba section on how to install Samba 2.0.6 under Unix and Linux and exercise its important commands is more procedural. Later you learn how to hook up Macs, Windows machines, and NetWare servers to Samba-enabled print servers. Topics covered: Printing over a network, with emphasis on Unix, Linux, Samba, and the means by which they connect to computers running Windows, Mac OS, and NetWare. Popular Unix print utilities are documented, plus how to install Samba and open its services to a heterogeneous network. --David WallRead More