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[breezy]

Hi,

Is it possible to add a feature or document a process where unsupported printers (such as Brother, etc) can have their drivers added manually?

Thanks

[fordem]

This is not an easy one to explain - but let me see what I can do.

The DNS-323 (& D-Link) have nothing to do with the printer drivers - those are determined entirely by the printer & the OS.

There is a trick that I have used successfully in the past which is essentially to connect the printer directly to the PC and install the drivers and then modify the port so that it points to the DNS-323.

Once you have the printer working with a direct connection try this (I'm assuming Windows by the way) ...

1 - Select the printer you wish to share, open properties and select the port tab.
2 - Click Add port, select local port and click new port
3 - Enter \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\lp as the port name - but - use the ip address of the DNS-323 instead of xxx.xxx - oh - it helps if you're using a static ip or reserved DHCP address for the DNS-323.
4 - Click Ok, close, etc. and then test print.

[gunrunnerjohn]

I just store all the drivers for various O/S versions on the NAS, when I want to add a new printer, I navigate to the NAS from that computer and install the correct drivers.

[breezy]

Thanks for the feedback.

To clarify, I have my printer (a Brother DCP115C) connected to the NAS. I have set the printer up and I can print to it from my home network. So printing works (to a certain extent) at the moment.

The concern I have is that the NAS does not recognize the Brother printers (not on supported list) in the status page.

My suspicion is that whilst basic print functions are working, some advanced functions such as spooling, etc are not working because the NAS does not the printer.

My suggestion was more around being able to add printer drivers to the NAS unit, rather then the windows box.

Sorry if I didn't make myself clear.

Cheers

[fordem]

Printer drivers are what tell your computer how to talk to the printer, since the NAS does not create the print job it does not need printer drivers - all it does is take the print job that is sent to it by the PC and pass it on to the printer.

Whatever features that are not working most likely require bi-directional communication between the PC and the printer which is not supported by the DNS-323 - all communications are unidirectional, ie. from the PC to the printer.  As far as spooling goes, you can be sure that spooling does occur - print spooling is the process through which the print job is accepted from the PC, temporarily stored in the print queue on the disk, and then sent to the printer.

Try this - switch the printer off, send a print job, switch the PC off and then switch the printer on - if I'm right the print job will print even though the PC is off, thus proving that the print job was stored (or spooled) on the disks in the NAS.

Perhaps I should point out here that I am specifically referring to the print server functionality, because the situation as decribed could possibly change - there is a "shareport" application being developed for the DNS-323 which could possibly allow the USB port to be shared - since this would allow you to use it as a shared USB port rather than a print server, it would theoretically allow bi-directional communications, and might allow you to use the functionality not available through the print server.