by alec on December 9, 2005
Martin Geddes is having printer troubles. Specifically, how do you attach a bluetooth enabled laptop running Windows XP to a USB printer via a Linux server? He uses that as a jumping off point to talk about the stupid network, commenting that "I thought I “got” this stupid network stuff. But I still casually accepted these stovepiped connectivity solutions sprouting in front of me!"
What you need, Martin, is Universal Plug and Play. It’s networked, built on TCP/IP, and is automatically discoverable on your LAN. Profiles for many devices, including printers exist. And, your PC already supports discovery of UPnP devices. If you don’t want to dump your shiny new Canon printer, you can get one of these to add UPnP to your printer.
by alec on November 14, 2005
There’s an excellent article on Smarthome Australia’s website about using UPnP to connect digital entertainment devices to your home network. Windows Media Connect, Twonkyvision, TVersity, and Allegro are all mentioned as media servers. As I’ve blogged previously, here at the Saunders home we use Twonkyvision, with Netgear MP101′s for distributed music. Twonkyvision is a little quirky, but it’s rock solid. I recently upgraded to Twonky’s latest build, and spent the princely sum of 15 euro’s to get their full featured packaged. Well worth the money.
UPnP is on the right curve. When we launched it in 1999, we thought it would take eight years (as USB had) to gain widespread adoption. So, here we are in year six, and UPnP is becoming more and more ubiquitous everyday.
