[edit: Coshy has kindly shared Windows 7 information on this; please see the comments for this post below.]
We have a Buffalo Linkstation Live NAS, model HS-DH500GL hanging off our home network serving personal files. The unit includes a print server. You hook up a USB printer, and it works. And for most of the first year, it was flawless.
Then, at some point in 2008, it stopped printing. Or, rather, it stopped printing from Windows. In the case of this particular printer, it’s shared on one local network here consisting predominately of Windows and Linux computers; the odd thing is that we could still print from any random Linux box we’d attach to the LAN. No PC running Windows would work any longer.
And after probably two months of printing from Windows not working, it suddenly spit out some old stuck docs (roughly two months old or so–I know, right?) and started working again. And it worked again normally for many, many months.
Until a few months ago, when it stopped again. And this time, it’s shown no signs of coming back to life.
And once again, we can still happily print via Linux all day long, like there’s no problem at all. File server functionality (across all OSes that access it) is still totally fine as well.
Digging around, it seems it’s a pretty common problem. These devices (and not just our 500G model, it seems) apparently don’t handle Windows printing very well and, over time, eventually fall over, seemingly dead (from a Windows printing point of view). Documents seem to stick in a print queue somewhere. In our case, on any Windows machine we looked at, the Windows print queue always seemed to show as pending the last print job from whatever Linux box–a print job that we know has printed and been held in our hands.
So those stuck documents…are they really stuck? Attempts to empty spooler folders, restart print services on Windows, monkey with bidirectional-communications settings, etc… nothing worked. XP, Vista, made no difference. We have not tested this with Windows 7, but we assume the problem exists there as well, as it appears it’s a Buffalo/Linkstation problem, and not an issue with Windows itself.
The only apparent solution is to completely wipe everything from the Linkstation device (not just configuration info, but all of your data), monkey with setting the NAS software into a debug mode, and force-updating/overwriting the firmware to “reset” it completely. This resets everything. User data, user configurations, everything. We weren’t about to blow away the data or deal with moving it around if we didn’t have to. If that solution works for you, go for it. Sadly, even this extreme solution does not work for everyone.
We went a different route. Our workaround? Installing Print Services for Unix, under Windows. It’s dead-easy, assuming you have access privileges on your Windows machine, and here’s a Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article that tells you how:
Print Services for UNIX: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324078
You’ll need to install this on each Windows machine that won’t print (likely all of them once this bug rears its head); it can be automated in the normal ways if you have a larger installed base of affected computers.
The normal way Windows users are told to connect to their Linkstation’s print server is via Network Neighborhood. You navigate to your Linkstation device, see the print server, right-click, and choose “Connect…”. That sets up a printer connection. You choose the driver or provide one, and you’re off to the races. If you don’t go that route, you can always add a printer via the Printers control panel and end up with the same result. Only, once it stops printing, good luck printing consistently that way ever again.
Follow the KB article instructions to get Print Services for Unix installed, then configure an LPR port as described, giving either LAN IP or name for your Linkstation, pointing drivers at it, and start printing again.
It doesn’t solve the problem of Windows printing directly, but it does pretty easily solve the more general–and ultimately more useful–”I just wanna print from Windows, but can’t” problem. Hopefully it works for you, too. We wanted to let this run for a few weeks or so without issue before writing it up; so far, so good.
And Buffalo, we shouldn’t have to say it…. but you might want to finally fix this long-standing bug in a way that doesn’t require people to pay for twice the archive/backup hardware they really need (buying another backup/archive solution as temporary or replacement storage altogether).
It worked for me. Thank you.
Wow. How timely. Thanks for saving my sanity.
@Teej, @Joemama: Thanks for the feedback; glad it worked for you, too.
Excellent, thanks very much.
Here’s how I did it with a HP LaserJet 1020 and Windows 7
A) Connect printer to USB port on Buffalo L/S and turn on L/S & printer.
B) Go to Control Panel/Programs and Features/ Turn Windows Features on or off, under Print & Document Services turn on LPR Port Monitor, LPD Print Service, and for good luck, Internet Printing client.
1) Update drivers on any Windows 7 machines if you got those
2) Log on to LinkStation as Admin
3 ) Set a static IP address (on Linkstation ) Network/Automatic disable)
4) Enable Printer server on Linkstation
5) Delete any old print queue
Then Follow Alex’s instructions. Windows 7 kept coming up with ‘print-spooler service not running’ until I updated the print drivers on the Win 7 machines for the HP Laser Jet 1020. Do that first. Then set the LOCAL lpr port using the Microsoft instructions. Brilliant!
@Coshy: Thank you very much for your reply and instructions! Interestingly, I haven’t had a need to print from a Win7 machine yet, but it’s very good to know this works there too if/when the time comes.
Perfect. You saved my day as well. Thanks for an excellent post! Worked both on XP and 7. Make sure you choose LPR and not Standard TCP/IP port, which I was tricked into somehow twice before I realized that this was the problem.
@Mikael: Glad you found us and got it working!
wow , and I thought I was alone with this problem, one of the reason bought a Linkstation was the price and that it included a print server, but after 4 months or so it stopped working for no apparent reason.
OK, I understood everything up to #5 MS link that you posted, the print address, is that the servers IP for example on mine 192.168.2.2 ?
@Dazza: Thanks for visiting.
The server name/address is the Windows name or internal IP address of your Linkstation box. In my case, I’m using the Windows name I assigned to mine (“argos”). The queue name is “lp” (L, not 1), and do not include the quotes on either when you enter them. The local LAN IP address should also work just fine if you prefer that (and it’s a static address). Good luck!
Great! Worked for me as well. I was really frustrated because of the long delay in printing and the “freezing” of my computer.
Thanks for that tip!
@floerio: You’re quite welcome, and we’re glad it worked for you!
Has anyone solved this on different models like LS-CHL Linkstation Live? Didn’t work for me on Windows 7 using HP Laserjet 1020.
Thank you very much for this posting! I just purchased the Linkstation Duo and was at a loss for how to configure. I first tried to setup a TCP/IP printer port in Windows with IP Address of the LinkStation using Port 9100 as that is what I do to setup my two Wireless Printers. But, I didn’t think about the good old LPR Port. So my config was the HOSTNAME of the Linkstation (LS-WXLDF9) and lp for the queue name. Works great. I’d recommend using the HOSTNAME rather than the IP Address just in case in changes if you are using DHCP.
@Barry: You’re welcome; glad it worked out for you.
@mierski: Sorry about the late reply. I only have the one model, but if they include a print server running lpd, I can’ t imagine some variation of these instructions not working; the steps and functionality are both fairly standard stuff.
Has anyone tried this on Vista? I can’t get it to work. It just keeps breaking my print spooler service and saying “spooler sub-system application error”.
Ahhhhhhhhh!!! Help!