That makes total sense and yes, it's not a problem to communicate between a Linux box at the source location to the Linux box at the remote (printer) location. In fact, I already have a routine that runs every ten minutes and transfers an inventory status report (html) between these same two locations.
I LOVE this kind of stuff! Thanks Ted!
The only thing I've never done is set up a CUPS server, but I don't think it will be a problem.
Thanks again!
Mike
Ted Roche wrote:
On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 3:48 PM, Mike Copeland mike@ggisoft.com wrote:
all servers are Linux,
Well, you're saved then. Linux has been printing over the internet since there was one!
Is there any interconnectivity between the two offices now? VPN, stunnel, ssh? Pretty much anything that would allow port forwarding would do.
If not, set up a persistent ssh tunnel. For security sake, you'll want to use a non-standard tunnel and a public key, private key pair, no passwords allowed, to minimize the hacking surface between the two.
Install CUPS on both local and remote servers.Forward port 631 (CUPS) from the remote machine to the local, on a different port, and define a printer on the local CUPS server that prints to that port.
Easy-peasy.