[sf-lug] OT: how to set up wireless printer on college network

[Samir Faci]

Well.  My experience with a google chromebook has been iffy.  I love
the concept but I do find the hardware to be painfully slow for day to
day use.  I'm glad someone likes them though.

Just an idea, why not buy an adapter card for the printer? Do they not
have access to a hard line? It'd be much easier to figure out and odds
are not as paranoid about authentication.

I think you can use wpa_supplicant with 802.1x to do a user/password
auth.  But again, if you're on chrome you'll have limited choices.

I'd suggest 1. trying a hardline.  If that's not possible, you could
install a full OS on chromebook.  You get Ubuntu with the extended
battery life and could optionally choose to just use google drive,
docs etc. to be cloud friendly



On Sat, Sep 14, 2013 at 3:57 PM, Michael Shiloh
<michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com> wrote:
> This is not Linux specific and hence off-topic, so if I shouldn't be dong
> this please ignore the message. I'll understand silence to mean it's
> inappropriate.
>
> On the other hand, it's Chromebook specific, which is Linux, but the
> question is not Linux related.
>
> Here's the thing:
>
> My daughter is off to college with her Google Chromebook, which she loves.
> As any of you who have used this know, it's a different computer paradigm
> and takes a bit of getting used to.
>
> In particular, you can NOT install drivers, and thus you can't print
> directly to a printer.
>
> You can use a "normal" computer to share an attached printer via the Google
> Cloud.
>
> Or, you can buy a special Google "Cloud Ready" printer. Printing still
> requires the Cloud, so the printer must have access to the internet.
>
> Now the printer has to connect to the Internet. No problem, they provide
> wifi all around the campus. No wired network in the dorms, but no problem,
> we get a wifi enabled printer. Pretty reasonably priced these days.
>
> Now here's the problem: Her college network has open access points, but once
> connected to the network, one has to log in with one's student ID and
> password.
>
> The question is, how do you get the wifi printer to do that?
>
> Wifi printers have ways to set network SSID and WPA or WEP passwords, but
> I've not seen one that allows you to log in to such a network. The printer
> would have to issue an HTTP request and somehow on this random web page find
> where it says "Login" or whatever word they use and "Password" and enter
> your credentials.  There might even be a policy which requires you to read
> and accept their terms.
>
> One solution would be to glue a Raspberry Pi to the back of the printer, and
> write a script (probably using Expect) on the pi to log in to the net and
> then route the internet to the printer via a short piece of CAT-5.
>
> But surely this problem is more generic. I know that many colleges use a
> similar scheme (I'm a teacher after all, I know this first hand), and other
> places like convention centers, hotels, airports, etc. Granted, if you work
> in these places, you could get a wired connection to your printer, but still
> it must show up.
>
> On top of that, cloud computing is really ideal for college students:
> (lightweight machine, great battery life, everything is in the cloud in case
> your laptop breaks, is lost or stolen), so I'd expect someone has figured
> out how to make this to work in that environment.
>
> Thoughts?
>
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-- 
Samir Faci
*insert title*
fortune | cowsay -f /usr/share/cows/tux.cow

Sent from my non-iphone laptop.