Shared printer vs Sophos

[barkeraj]

I have seen others mention how they have tried to setup printers without network ports to be shared by multiple computers. I am trying to accomplish this so I can print things from my laptop from the bishop's office instead of having to go in and log on to the clerk computer.

I have tried sharing the printer through the clerk computer, but that only works occasionally. I think sometimes the clerk computer and my laptop get on different subnets and so can't see eachother... or something.

I picked up a USB Print Server to see if that would help. It instantly worked for my laptop (a mac) but I spent hours working on the clerk computer trying to figure out why it wasn't working, including installing bonjour so it could see things as easily as the mac. No luck.

In the end I found that sophos was blocking the ports needed (a search on here lead me to look in that direction, thanks!) and so that's why it couldn't be seen. So now I can have it connected to the clerk computer for local printing, OR connected to the print server for remote printing. But not both.

If CHQ is reading this, consider this a request for some way to unblock that port to make my calling a little more efficient. (yes, it's all about me )

Anyone have other suggestions?

[thczv]

We have a similar issue. Our bishopric uses Google Drive to coordinate and share documents. It is very handy for tracking callings and other assignments. We recently purchased a Chromebook so that the clerk can update assignments during bishopric meeting. It works great and is highly recommended. The problem is that we can't get it to print. We have a network printer in the clerk's office that we managed to share by creating a separate private wifi hotspot that only shares the printer. We can print to this shared network printer from our ipads. But the Chromebook requires Google Cloud Print. Our HP printer supports Google Cloud Print directly. But printing to it this way fails, due to Sophos I suspect. We could alternatively share the printer through the Clerk's office PC. But installing Google Cloud Print support through the PC requires Google Chrome, which is also blocked by Sophos. So we have this great tool (the Chromebook and Google Drive) that really helps us a lot in our callings. But it isn't quite what it could be because we can't figure out how to print. Still looking for solutions.

Dave

[russellhltn]

Our HP printer supports Google Cloud Print directly. But printing to it this way fails, due to Sophos I suspect.

If the printer supports it directly, then how would Sophos, which only runs on the clerk's PC, be able to block it?

[Mikerowaved]

I don't think Sophos is the problem. Even though a printer might be sitting right in front of you, Google Cloud Print (GCP) sends every print job up to their Google servers, then back to the printer. To do this, it uses XMPP, which requires port 5222 to be opened in the church-managed firewall and this isn't going to happen. Failing an XMPP connection, GCP is supposed to fall back on polling the Google servers periodically for pending print jobs, but people depending on this have had have limited success. (Some claim GCP polling has been disabled by Google, but I can't confirm that.)

It's probably fine at home, but setting up any cloud-based service in a corporate environment without the support of the IT dept is going to be hit-and-miss at best.

[thczv]

Right, I think the firewall is preventing the built-in support for Google Cloud Print from working. Sophos is preventing me from installing the legacy Google Cloud Print driver on the Clerk's office PC. Installing the legacy driver requires the use of Chrome, which is blocked. Any solution to making this work?

[russellhltn]

Any solution to making this work?

Probably not.

Not unless you can connect the printer to a print server that can work in the church environment.