Information Technology — Configuring Software @ Rhodes

Installing a residence printer (Linux & other OSes)

Rhodes' iPrint service is essentially a centralised IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) print server that services a large number of printers across campus. This means you should be able to print from any IPP capable software, such as CUPS.

The first thing you need to do is work out the IPP address of the printer you're interested in printing to. To do this, go to http://iprint.ru.ac.za/ipp and look for the printer you're interested in from the list. The click on the (i) information button on the right hand side. Look for the Printer URI line, which will have an ipp:// URL that looks something like this: ipp://iprint.ru.ac.za/ipp/Residence%20-%20Livingstone.

This ipp:// URL is what you'll need to configure your printer software to use. How exactly you do this will depend on the software and your exact version of Linux -- see its documentation for adding an IPP printer.

Note that you'll need to use your Rhodes username and password to authenticate to the print server. If your software doesn't have specific fields to enter these, you can embed them in the URL itself like this: ipp://g10A1234:password@iprint.ru.ac.za/ipp/Residence%20-%20Livingstone. This isn't ideal, but it usually works.

You'll need to work out what print driver to use for the specific printer you've got in residence. Without the iPrint client, you won't get the driver automatically.