Re: tlug: Scanner access

[Totoro <riley@example.com>]

>>>>> "JB" == Jonathan Byrne <- 3Web <jq@example.com>> writes:

    JB> On 13 Nov 1998, Totoro wrote:
    >> I have a scanner (HP IIcx) and wonder if anyone knows a way to
    >> make it visible via something like smb. I prefer to have it 
    >> hooked up to my Linux box, allowing Win/Mac machines to use it.

    JB> This sounds sticky indeed.  The usual way that Win and Mac boxes access a
    JB> scanner is to control it from within an application like Photoshop or
    JB> Paintshop Pro, or use the software that comes with the scanner.  The choices,

Yes, it's a problem, indeed. In looking closer, it seems that the HP scanner
software does not have capability to connect other than via SCSI. :-(

    JB> But this isn't the end of your problems.  Besides that, they are going to have
    JB> to get up and walk over to the scanner (I hope you have a real long SCSI cable
    JB> so you can put it on a desk other than your own), but the item in it, then go
    JB> back to their desk and do the scan, look at it and see it it's what they
    JB> expected, then go and get their stuff from the scanner.  And of course,
    JB> you also have to deal with multiple people wanting to use it at once.  This
    JB> could become a can of worms crawling all over you :-)

God I HATE worms!! One crawled up the leg of my jeans last year and I _still_
have the willies about it. Oops, but I digresss. This is all in my office, and
nobody outside of this room will even know about it.

    JB> We have a SCSI scanner in our office too, but they way we deal with this is to
    JB> have it hooked up to the machine that acts as the LAN print server and general
    JB> purpose file dump.  Since I have to walk to the scanner anyway, I walk over
    JB> there and use software on the machine it's hooked to, then send the file to my
    JB> machine.  This seems to be a more workable solution than trying to remotely
    JB> control the scanner when I have to walk over to it anyway to put material in.

Well, I guess I'll just have to keep the thing hooked to a Win (part-time) box
for now. I can always dump the files into Linux with Samba anyhow. I just thought
it would be more cool to have Linux act as a scan server. 

    JB> BTW, what (if any) open source software is available for controlling scanners
    JB> under Linux? I know some proprietary stuff that comes in binary only and works
    JB> with a lot of scanners, but I don' know any free stuff.  (Our scanner is
    JB> hooked to an NT box.)

SANE has quite an arsenal included in their package, with drivers for quite a few
scanners, and also some digital cameras. You can check it out at:

http://www.mostang.com/sane/

One fun thing I just found is a page about sanecgi, whereby the scanner is accessed 
via the web. Hmmm, could be some fun trying to get this to work next week...

-- 
David Riley

Hachinohe Institute of Technology
88-1, Myo, Ohbiraki  Hachinohe-shi  Aomori  031-8501  JAPAN

http://w3.clat.hi-tech.ac.jp/
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