Draconis Software Blog

Recently, I had to setup a Zonet ZPS1000 Pocket-Sized Print Server for an aging ink jet printer (specifically, a Canon i550) which I got from NewEgg (notice the watermark?). If you’ve had the “pleasure” of using one of these things in the past, you’ll appreciate how difficult the setup process can be. Don’t get me wrong: the device works quite well (so far) once setup. The problem stems from very poor documentation, obviously written by someone whose first language isn’t English. In this article, I thought I’d take you through the steps in setting one of these devices up on either a Mac or a Windows machine. I had such difficulty doing it myself that I figured others out there might benefit from this as well.

Basic Setup
First, throw away the included instruction manual. It’s pretty much useless. Also, you can throw away the CD that came with it. I never had to put it in the drive, and I managed to get everything working just fine (in fact, I’m not even sure why you would need it).

Second, let’s do some basic setup. The first step is to get the hardware in place. Make sure the printer is off, then, using the supplied USB cable, plug it into the Zonet and into the printer. Next, plug an Ethernet cable (which didn’t come with the device – go figure) into your switch/hub and into the Zonet, as well as the power cable. Once the Zonet has turned itself on and the status LED is solid, turn the printer on. The Zonet should find the printer without any problems and configure itself.

Next, we need to configure the Zonet a bit. This is probably the most frustrating part – by default, the device configures itself with a static IP of 10.0.5.1. So, in order to use its web interface to configure it, you’ll need to do some quick network tweaking. On a computer, set it to use static IP (in the Mac, you just go to the Network panel in System Preferences and select Manual under the TCP/IP tab) of, say, 10.0.5.2.

Once you have configured your network settings, you’ll now need to open a web browser and connect to the Zonet device (http://10.0.5.1). The main thing you’ll want to change here is to go to the Setup tab, and then select TCP/IP, and give it some settings more appropriate for your network (or use DHCP and configure the MAC address on your DHCP server to always serve the same IP). You’ll probably want to make this static, however, unless your clients are all using AppleTalk or NetWare. Be sure to keep track of the IP later, though, so you can connect back to it with the browser again. Before you leave, double check under the Status tab (and the Printer sub-tab) that your printer was recognized – if not, try restarting the Zonet and/or printer. Also, be sure to double check that your printer is on the supported printers list. And finally, you’ll probably want to set an administrator password (though I’m annoyed by the max length of 8 characters – but whatever).

Now that the Zonet is configured, the next step is to get the clients talking to it (and thus printing). This was the trickiest part – especially on the Mac. After some trial and error, I found that there are two steps: first, finding the Zonet itself (as there are multiple ways to connect to it), and second: selecting the right printer driver for the attached printer (which is sometimes non-obvious).

In the Mac, you can use either AppleTalk to discover it on the network without needing to know it’s IP address (useful if youre using DHCP and it’s dynamic), or you can directly connect to it via IPP (Internet Printing Protocol). To connect directly (which is a similar process under Windows), go to System Preferences, then Print & Fax, which should bring up a window similar to the one on the right. Click the Plus icon to add a new printer.

AppleTalk
After clicking the Plus button to add a new printer, you should see a window similar to the one at the right (where Default Browser is selected). After a moment or so, you should see an oddly named entry: for me, it was ATALK_PS-28530E-1, which is the Zonet Print Server. Selecting this will allow you to connect to the Zonet via AppleTalk (which is perfectly fine, if you like). Select it. Now, we need to select a printer driver.

The printer driver part was probably the most confusing: you need to select a driver that’s compatible with the printer you’re using. But be careful – in a lot of cases, the driver you use doesn’t necessarily correspond with the model of the printer. For me, the Canon BJC-8200 Gimp-Print 5.0.0-beta2 driver supports my Canon i550. I found this out after doing a quick Google search. Remember: printing under MacOS is supported on the UNIX level by CUPS – the Common Unix Printing Service – which is a widely supported and easy-to-use printing system common in Linux and elsewhere. So if you need a new printer driver, you may want to check out what’s available for CUPS on the Mac.

Internet Printing Protocol
Instead of connecting via AppleTalk, you can also connect to the printer directly using the Internet Printing Protocol – IPP settings in the Printer Browser window (you have to select the IP Printer tab at the top). Using this route, enter the IP address you gave the Zonet (and just the IP address, not a URL like in Windows). Also, enter “lp1″ without the quotes for the Queue (I haven’t tried leaving it blank, but let me know if that also works). From what I understand, other Zonet devices that allow multiple printer connections have different queues for each printer, starting at lp1.

Next, name the printer and possibly give it a location (i.e. “Next to Bob’s Desk”). Then, select a printer driver, just like you would have to do if you were using AppleTalk (described above). Be careful to get the right driver for your printer, otherwise you may not get anything out of it.

Once you’ve selected your method for connecting to the printer, and you’ve chosen the appropriate printer driver, click the Add button. You should now see your new printer in the Print & Fax window. Try printing some test document out to it, and – hopefully – you’ll have a nice clean printout.

Troubleshooting
Unfortunately, I don’t think the Zonet has any built-in logging functionality to try and troubleshoot problems. It does have a means for connecting via SNMP, as well has receiving emails. You can try giving those a shot, if you must. I haven’t had a need for them, as printing seems to work fine thus far.

Also, if things aren’t working correctly, double check you have the right printer driver. I had selected the wrong one, and nothing would come out of the printer (it would spool to the printer, and checking the Printer status page, I would see it say the printer was printing, but nothing would actually come out). There is a possibility that you don’t have the appropriate printer driver for your printer, in which case you should check for a printer driver for CUPS that works under MacOS (or for Windows, go to the manufacturer’s site and check for driver downloads).

Well, I hope you found this useful. A device like this is very good, as it’s cheap and seems to work well once setup. I just wish their documentation were a little more complete. Good luck, and be sure to let me know if you found this useful.