Here is the basic idea, using the printer in the Control Room.
It assumes you have access to both the RSSH and STAR SSH gateways.

The ITD SSH gateways might also work in place of rssh (I haven't
tried them yet).  If they can talk directly to our printers,
then it would eliminate step C below.

A.  From your laptop:

ssh -A -L 9100:127.0.0.1:9100 <username>@rssh.rhic.bnl.gov

(Note 1:  -A is only useful if you are running an ssh-agent with a
loaded key, which I highly recommend)

(Note 2:   Unfortunately, the rssh gateways cannot talk directly to our
printers, so we have to create another tunnel to a node that can...  If the
ITD SSH gateways can communicate directly with the printers, then the
next hop would be unnecessary...)

B.  From the rssh session:

ssh -L 9100:130.199.162.165:9100 <username>@stargw1.starp.bnl.gov

(Note 1: 130.199.162.165 is the IP address of onlprinter1.star.bnl.gov -
it could be replaced with any printer's IP address on the wired network.)
(Note 2:  port 9100 is the HP JetDirect default port - non-HP printers
might not use this, and there are other ways of communicating with HP
network printers, so ymmv - but the general idea will work with most TCP 
communications, if you know the port number in use. 

C.  On your laptop, set up a local print queue as if you were going to
print directly to the printer over the network (with no intermediate
server), but instead of supplying the printer's IP address, use
127.0.0.1 instead.

D. Start printing...


If you close either of the ssh sessions above, you will have to
re-establish them before you can print again. 

The two ssh commands can be combined into one and you can create an alias to
save typing the whole thing each time.  (Or use PuTTY or some other GUI SSH client
wrapper to save these details for reuse.)

You could set up multiple printers this way, but to use them
simultaneously, you would need to use unique port numbers for each one
(though the port number at the end of the printer IP would stay 9100).

Direct connection, internal network

You can use direct connections to access them over the network.

• Direct:  These printers accept direct TCP/IP connections, without any intermediate server. 
• JetDirect (AppSocket) and lpd usually work under Linux. 
• For Windows NT/2K/XP, a Standard TCP/IP port is usually the way to go. 

How to configure this varies with OS and your installed printing software.

From the Wireless

A restricted amount of printers are accessible via the BNL wireless and served via a CUPS server. The access and printing could be delayed (there are multiple CUPS servers involved to pass the printing from outside to inside).

Follow the methods below depending on your OS. If you have information on how to set on other OS, please let us know and we will add the instructions here.

The CUPS server URL is CUPSURL=http://cups:631/ and its IP CUPSIP==130.199.154.13 (the alias cups should be defined on the Wireless). Only printers displayed in green on Printers are valid.

On Windows system

• go to Start -> Settings -> Printers and Faxes
• An explorer window will open with possibly the printers you have already set
• Click Add Printer - the Wizard will open
• Click Next
• In the Local or Network Printer menu, select A network printer or a printer attached to another computer - click next
• In the Specify a Printer menu, select  Connect to a printer on the internet and fill the URL box accordingly
  • You need to specify a printer available from the CUPS server - go the CUPS server Web site to see available printers

MAC Users

Instructions 1:

• Use a browser and go to:  localhost:631/printers
• Go to the bottom of the page and click:  add printer 
• Select the name of the printer and characteristics
  • For example HP_Color_LasetJet_4700_2
    
  • Use printer location:  the IP address of the CUPS server (see above  for the value of CUPSIP)
  • Device:   Internet Printing Protocol (http) 
  • Use the CUPS server URI to the selected printer for the device URI
  • Select Model/Driver HP 
  • Model:   scroll to get the proper model, for example "HP LaserJet Series" or "HP Color LaserJet 4700"  (this depends on what is loaded on user's Mac)
    

Instructions 2:

• Click on the apple in the upper left, System Preferences->Print and Fax
• Authenticate by clicking on the key (need to authenticate as a user with administrator privileges)
• Click on the + to add a new printer
• Click on Protocol to get "Internet Printing Protocol - IPP"
  • Address: use the CUPS server address (see above for the value of CUPSIP)
    
  • Queue: printers/HP_Color_LaserJet_4700_2
  • Name: give it something useful like "LJ4700_wireless"
  • Print using "HP"
  • Select HP Color Laserjet 4700
• Click Add then click continue
• Double check that it's right by bringing up the CUPS web interface.
  Should have the "Device URI" of the form ${CUPSURI}/printers/HP_Color_LaserJet_4700_2 as per our example.
  
  

Tips

What follows are miscellaneous tips and suggestions that will be irregularly maintained.

• The 2-sided printers are configured to print 2-sided by default, but the default for many printer drivers will override this and specify 1-sided.  If you are printing from Windows, you can usually choose your preferences for this in the printer preferences or configuration GUI.  You may need to look in the Advanced Settings and/or Printing Defaults to enable 2-sided printing in Windows.

• Depending on the print method and drivers used, from the Linux command line you may be able to specify various options for things like duplex printing.  To see available options for a given print queue, try the "lpoptions" command.  For instance, on rcf2 you could do "lpoptions -d xerox7300 -l".  In the output, you will find a line like this:  "Duplex/2-Sided Printing: DuplexNoTumble *DuplexTumble None"  (DuplexNoTumble is the same as flip on long edge, while DuplexTumble is the same as flip on short edge, and the * indicates the default setting.)  So to turn off duplex printing, you could do "lp -d xerox7300 -o Duplex=None <filename>".  Keep in mind that not all options listed by lpoptions may actually be supported by the printer, and the defaults (especially in the rcf queues) may not be what you'd like.  There are so many print systems, options and drivers in Linux/Unix that there's no way to quickly describe all the possible scenarios.

• There is a handy utility called a2ps that is available on most Linux distributions. It is an "Any to PostScript" filter that started as a Text to PostScript converter, with pretty printing features and all the expected features from this kind of program. But it is also able to deal with other file types (PostScript, Texinfo, compressed, whatever...) provided you have the necessary tools installed.

• psresize is another useful utility in Linux for dealing with undesired page sizes. If you are given a PostScript file that specifies A4 paper, but want to print it on US Letter-sized paper, then you can do:
  psresize -PA4 -pletter in.ps out.ps
  See the man page for more information.

• Some of the newer printers have installation wizards for Windows that can be accessed through their web interfaces. I've had mixed success with the HP IPP installation wizards. The Xerox wizard (linked above) has worked well, though it pops up some unnecessary windows and is a bit on the slow side.

• Windows 9x/Me users will likely have to install software on their machines in order to print directly to these printers. HP and Xerox have such software available for download from their respective support websites, but who uses these OSes anymore?

• For linux users setting up new machines, CUPS at least for recent distros is the default printing system (unless upgrading from an older distribution, in which case LPRng may still be in use).  Given an appropriate PPD file, CUPS is capable of utilizing various print options, such as tray selection and duplexing, or at least you can create different queues with different options to a single printer.

• There are other potentially useful printers around that are not catalogued here. Some are STAR printers out of the mainstream (like in 1006D), and some belong to other groups in the physics department.