Chapter 4. Adding a Samba (SMB) Printer

To add a printer which is accessed using the SMB protocol (such as a printer attached to a Microsoft Windows system) click the New button in the main Red Hat Printer Configuration Tool window. The window shown in Figure 2-1 will appear. Click Next to proceed.

You will see the screen shown in Figure 4-1. Enter a unique name for the printer in the Queue Name text field. The printer name cannot contain spaces and must begin with a letter a through z or A through Z. The valid characters are a through z, A through Z, 0 through 9, -, and _.

Select Windows Printer from the Queue Type menu, and click Next. If the printer is attached to a Microsoft Windows system, choose this queue type.

Figure 4-1. Adding a SMB Printer

Text fields for the following options appear as shown in Figure 4-2:

Click the Translate \n => \r\n button to translate the end of line characters to a form that is readable by a Microsoft Windows system.

Click Next to continue.

Figure 4-2. Choosing the Print Server

The next step is to select the type of printer that is connected to the remote SMB system. Skip to Chapter 7 to continue.

NoteNote
 

If you require a username and password for an SMB (LAN Manager) print queue, they are stored unencrypted in the spool directory, which only root or lp may read. Thus, it is possible for others to learn the username and password if they have root access. To avoid this, the username and password to access the printer should be different from the username and password used for the user's account on the local Red Hat Linux system. If they are different, then the only possible security compromise would be unauthorized use of the printer. If there are file shares from the SMB server, it is recommended that they also use a different password than the one for the print queue.