Managing printers

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After logging in to the ThinPrint Hub’s web console, select the Printers menu item.
Here you will find the following tabs:

  • Printers: View printer status and make settings
  • Find Printers: Search for printers in the Hub’s local subnet
  • Global SNMP Settings: Setup which protocol is used as default when contacting a printer to get status information via SNMP

Printers tab

The following functions are available in the Printers menu of the ThinPrint Hub’s web console (Illus. below):

Menu Function
Default indicates the current printer for the ThinPrint Client
(print jobs with missing printer ID will be sent here)
ID ID the printer’s identification number
(on the ThinPrint Client); see the ThinPrint Engine on print servers
Printer name the name of this printer
Status shows the actual printer status
no warnings
1 or more warnings
unknown
offline
Driver name the name of the printer driver
(info field for Management Services)
Port printer port / print protocol

TCP/IP: Standard TCP/IP

LPR:       LPR/LPD

USB:      the ThinPrint Hub’s USB port

Printer address the address of the network printer or a print server
TCP port, queue name or USB printer for Port (see above) TCP/IP:     TCP-Port (9100)

LPR:           Queue-Name (of LPD)

USB:           USB printer

Add printer adds a new line
removes the indicated line (and adds the printer to the list of found but hidden printers)
Remove all removes all lines (and adds the printers to the list of found but hidden printers)
Save saves the printer list
Cancel cancels the operation

 Printers menu

By clicking on the status symbol a new window will appear which contains more detailed status information about the specific printer.
Alternatively you can hover over the status symbol to get a short first look about the status of the printer.

Printer status overview about one specific printer

Menu Function
<Printer name>
(here: HP Color LaserJet CP3505dn)
Provides the printer name as well as a hyperlink to the configuration web­site of the printer
Network IP address of the printer
Name Received name from the printer (can be edited at the configuration web­site of the printer)
Status Actual status of the printer:
• Other
• Unknown
• Idle
• Printing
• Warmup
Warnings Zelleninhalt
SNMP settings Shows the used protocol settings for this printer

Note! If you configure the specific SNMP settings then the specific set­tings overwrite the Global SNMP settings for this printer.

If you click on Printer specific you can configure which protocol should be used to contact the printer and ask for status information.

Individual SNMP settings for a specific printer

SNMP version 1 & 2c
It’s the easiest but an unsafe way to get status information about printer’s. To config­ure it you have to setup a community name for the printers which should provide the information. The same community name has to be configured at the ThinPrint Hub’s web interface (illustration Printer Monitoring below).
Printer and Hub will communicate in clear text.

SNMP version 3
This kind of protocol is much safer as SNMP version 1 or 2c. You have to authenti­cate yourself with user name and password. The password will be encrypted as MD5 hash or SHA hash.
Optional you can setup a privacy passphrase which is encrypted via AES or DES to provide such more safety (see the Global SNMP Settings tab).

Find Printers tab

On this tab you can search for printers in the Hub’s local subnet. Supported protocols for discovery are Bonjour and mDNS.

Menu Function
Checkbox Find printers enables the automatic printer search function
Checkbox Automatically add printers to the printer list immediately moves all found printers from the Find Printers list to the Printers list and marks the as 
Use Printer • shows the selected printers in the Printers tab
• Afterwards, these Printers are not displayed until they are deleted in Printers.
Hide/show marks the selected printers as hidden or cancels it
With/out hidden • displays or hides the marked printers
• hidden printers appear gray highlighted (illustration below)
Refresh starts the search function again
filter function to display only specific printers
X cancels the filtering

 hidden printers appear gray highlighted

Global SNMP Settings tab

On this tab you can setup which protocol is used as default when contacting a printer to get status information via SNMP.

You can select:

  • SNMP version 1 & 2c
  • SNMP version 3

 global settings for printer monitoring

Menu Function
SNMP version 1 & 2c
Community name
Default: “public”
Setup the community which should be used for printer monitoring. You have to setup this community name at all printers you want to monitor.
SNMP version 3
User name
user name which will be used for identification at the printer
Authentication type you can choose between 2 encryption algorithms
• MD5 (Use only for test purposes)
• SHA
Authentication passphrase password which will be used for authentication at the printer
Privacy type You can choose between 2 encryption algorithms:
• DES
• AES
(Optional)
Privacy passphrase password which will be used for encrypting your SNMP queries
(Optional)
Save saves your settings
Cancel cancels the operation

Furthermore,  the hub can be configured as an SNMP proxy.

Activating SNMP proxy

This makes it possible to query the Hub via SNMP and in this way obtain the status information about all printers previously set up on it.

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