- http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/product/973702
- http://usb-server-m4-808793-99/get_basic39.htm – its page “Device Status” – does it show the device you want to use over the LAN? it shows all devices attached (maybe through a “USB Hub“)
The one I own shares its “item#” with the article shown above. My devices is also a “USB Switch” and especially a “USB Print Server”, it is not a “USB Hub” though – but you may attach a “USB Hub“, should that make sense to you.
- This thing has one USB A-Type port (there you attach the device to be used over the LAN),
- and multiple USB B-Type ports (there you attach the computers and/or the network router, that want to make use of the device at the USB A-Type port),
- and you can switch manually to the “active” USB B-Type port.
Actually my printer
- is not a network printer my itself,
- but only through this “USB Server“,
- and also actually the printer is in fact an MFP,
- because it’s also a scanner (with a feeder)
- and a fax machine.
If you want to set it up on a Mac running OS X,
- you simply “+” a new device at “Printers & Scanners“,
- at “Default” all printers found through Bonjour get listed – Bonjour gets shown in the Kind column;
- the remaining procedure is trivial.
My printer did not get shown today, and that was simply, because I had accidentally disconnected the printer from the “USB Server“, when I was busy with the cabling this morning. The “USB Server” has a built-in web-server, and that one has a page “Device Status“, and it did not list the printer. In a professional environment that should obviously get checked SNMP-wise and regularly. Next time I will look at the “Device Status” at little earlier, that’s why I listed it in the beginning of the article.
I usually print to my MFP through (my router and) this “USB Server”. So the USB Switch is set to the router then – which is connected to one of the USB A-Type ports.
But sometimes I also scan from the MFP, and therefore it is connected to a Mac mini, which is attached to another USB A-Type port.
My MFP is a Samsung SCX-4623 resp. SCX-4623F – no, it’s not an SCX-4623FW – then the “USB Server” would not be necessary.
I wrote this article,
- because I wanted to print to my network printer,
- and I couldn’t (as it was (accidentally) not attached to the USB Server),
- and I also could not set the printer up again,
- and I could not get hold on the necessary manuals immediately,
- and I actually this article with all its details helps more than the manuals involved.
Update 2014-07-15:
The vanilla Mac OS X on my 2014 Mac mini did not have the drivers for my Samsung printers available, even not after the 1st OS updates. After attaching one of them via USBn though (apparently) all the Samsung printer drivers got installed (supposedly via the network). Then installing them one way or the other as network printers worked.