multiple usb printers, same device uri

[Alex Chejlyk]

> Alex Chejlyk wrote:
> > ...
> > What about firewire? I tried with debian etch/cups 1.2.7, no joy.
> > I've just upgraded to debian lenny/cups 1.3.2 any chance here or am I
> > sol?
>
> Epson's non-pro Firewire implementation is non-standard.  We had a
> contract with Epson years ago to implement it on Linux but were not
> able to get sufficient functionality from the 1394 kernel drivers at
> the time...  For the Stylus Pro printers, you can use the scsi
> backend to talk to the printer (although you'll need to change a
> jumper on the Firewire card in the printer for this to work...)
>
> > BTW, we did have a usb print server but it died. USB print servers
> > are crap, I have yet to find a high quality unit. LPT print servers
> > are reliable, but their usb counterparts are finicky, lock ups, slow
> > speeds,  necessary weekly reboots, just trash.
>
> Yeah, I'm not sure what to recommend for USB print servers...
>
> --
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
> Internet Printing and Publishing Software        http://www.easysw.com


Michael, thanks again for all the info.
I have found a non-traditional solution that will work for this situation, nothing really cups specific, but I'll post it here in case anyone ever encounters this problem.

Our situation:
We only have one ethernet port in this location, adding more network drops is cost prohibitive in this situation. The multi port usb print servers are not up to the task of handling high traffic in my experiences.

My solution:
I'm adding two additional network adapters to the CUPS server machine. I will connect two usb print servers to these ports. I'm looking for the ability to throttle/regulate the traffic going to the usb print servers, in order to mitigate the lockups problems seen with high traffic. CUPS will connect to these ethernet print servers via socket or lpd. The third printer will use the USB port.
Total equipment cost approximately $150USD. The benefits are better control of Ethernet traffic to the print servers and when one unit locks  up, the other units will still be functional. This is in addition to addressing the problem I originally posted about.

Thanks to all, especially Michael Sweet and the CUPS team.

Cheers,

Alex C.