Comet Labs NFPS2, User Manual

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Chapter9 Remote Connect Center
9.1 Introduction
The goal of Comet Labs NFPS2 / WFPS2 USB MFP server is to provide the
print/scan/file server in a single product. For printers and scanners, there is no
industrial standard. In order to support many different models of printers and
scanners from various vendors, you must put so many printer/scanner drivers into a
single product. Obviously this is very hard and not practical. We have developed a new
technology, called “USB device server”, to solve this problem. With USB device server
technology, it is not necessary to implement printer/scanner drivers in Comet Labs
NFPS2 / WFPS2. Actually, NFPS2 / WFPS2 relies on printer/scanner drivers that are
installed on PCs. By the way, in the field of traditional network print server, the
common protocols used are, for example, SMB/CIFS, LPR, raw TCP, and IPP. However,
in order to reduce cost, many printer vendors produce so-called GDI or host-based
printers. For technical reasons, these kinds of printers can not work with the
traditional network printer protocols. The USB device server technology can also deal
with the problem. The “Remote Connect Center” is a Windows application that exploits
the USB device server technology to provide the functionality of print/scan/file server.
The basic concept of USB device server and the usage of the “Remote Connect Center”
will be introduced in the following chapters.
In summary, NFPS2/WFPS2 has a totally different technology, USB device server, to
deal with printers and scanners (MFPs).
A.
For printers, some special kinds of printers, such as GDI printers or host-based
printers, can not work well with traditional print server technology as described in
the previous chapters. Users should use the Remote Connect Center to deal with
these kinds of printers.
B. For MFPs or scanners, the operations described in chapter 7 are only workable for
HP’s MFPs. Users should use the Remote Connect Center to deal with non-HP
MFPs.
9.2 Link & Unlink
“Remote Connect Center” allows you to use USB printers or USB MFPs as if they were
connected directly to your PC although they are actually connected to the NFPS2 /
WFPS2 USB MFP server. The “link” operation is a software operation that simulates an
actual USB device plug-in. That is to say, when you do a “link” operation from “Remote
Connect Center”, PC can then detect a USB device’s plug-in, although actually you do
not plug in any USB device. Similarly, the “unlink” operation is a software operation
that simulates the disconnection of the USB device.
9.3 How to Use
Here we will describe how to use “Remote Connect Center” to do network printer
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