My printer has a LAN port to connect to a router.

Problem is I don't have any spare port on the router.

My unRAID server does have 2 LAN ports so 1 is unused.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to connect the printer to the spare unRAID server LAN port and share it across the entire network.

 

Anyone knows how to this please?

I'm guessing it means "Enable bridging" = on for the spare eth interface and it should be plug-and-play.

Yet it feels too simple to be true so I suspect I'm missing something.

 

Thanks.

I don't know if this is possible or not, but one other approach which I've used is setup a RaspberryPi using wireless and connect the printer to it using USB and install CUPS. Hey presto wireless print server.

Doesn't need to be a Pi3, could get a cheap RPi1 from eBay and a compatible WiFi dongle.

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1 hour ago, CHBMB said:

Doesn't need to be a Pi3, could get a cheap RPi1 from eBay and a compatible WiFi dongle

An even cheaper option would be a Pi0W (although it would be a bit tricker to initially set up as it only includes a single USB port).

Edited December 18, 20178 yr by itimpi

An even cheaper option would be a Pi0W (although it would be a bit tricker to initially set up as it only includes a single USB port).

I always forget the Pi0....

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1 hour ago, testdasi said:

My printer has a LAN port to connect to a router.

Problem is I don't have any spare port on the router.

My unRAID server does have 2 LAN ports so 1 is unused.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to connect the printer to the spare unRAID server LAN port and share it across the entire network.

 

Anyone knows how to this please?

I'm guessing it means "Enable bridging" = on for the spare eth interface and it should be plug-and-play.

Yet it feels too simple to be true so I suspect I'm missing something.

 

Thanks.

 

Yes, it is very simple. Configure as bridge and include both ethernet ports in the bridge domain. Now the second port (eth1) has become a simple passthrough to which your printer can be connected.

7 hours ago, bonienl said:

 

Yes, it is very simple. Configure as bridge and include both ethernet ports in the bridge domain. Now the second port (eth1) has become a simple passthrough to which your printer can be connected.

 

Well I never knew that.......

9 hours ago, testdasi said:

My printer has a LAN port to connect to a router.

Problem is I don't have any spare port on the router.

My unRAID server does have 2 LAN ports so 1 is unused.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to connect the printer to the spare unRAID server LAN port and share it across the entire network.

 

Anyone knows how to this please?

I'm guessing it means "Enable bridging" = on for the spare eth interface and it should be plug-and-play.

Yet it feels too simple to be true so I suspect I'm missing something.

 

Thanks.

 

Suggest buying an inexpensive Ethernet switch to give you more ports.

29 minutes ago, CHBMB said:

Well I never knew that.......

 

In my view really a last resort solution. My personal preference is to use a switch with sufficient ports, but Tom insisted to have this included. So here we have it

 

 

Edited December 18, 20178 yr by bonienl

1 hour ago, bonienl said:

 

In my view really a last resort solution. My personal preference is to use a switch with sufficient ports, but Tom insisted to have this included. So here we have it

May not be so obvious need for this feature right at this very moment, but when bridging broadcasts will work well while it's still easy to add firewall rules to limit access - consumer switches aren't very good at firewalling besides possibly supporting VLAN.

 

So unRAID with a decent firewall could get rather far when it comes to enterprise-level security. Especially since 6.4 has support for encrypted file systems and Limes mentions they will add web configuration to harden the ssh interface with certificates.

3 hours ago, pwm said:

...while it's still easy to add firewall rules to limit access

The virtual bridge function operates the same as a 'regular' switch. When you put two or more interfaces in the same bridge domain there is no firewalling possible.

6 hours ago, bonienl said:

The virtual bridge function operates the same as a 'regular' switch. When you put two or more interfaces in the same bridge domain there is no firewalling possible.

That's the weak part about iptables. There is iptables/ip6tables/arptables/ebtables net-filter havoc, and a big reason why the nftables is moving in as a better unified solution.

 

http://ebtables.netfilter.org/