If you happen to have the cheap Lexmark (Optra) E120 printer around and also a Synology NAS station capable of running DSM 3.1 firmware, you’re in luck. You can enable network printing so you won’t need to have a PC/Mac turned on all the time to be able to print from different devices.
Although the E120 is not listed as officially supported on Synology nor by iOS, it turns out it works with both Windows and iOS client printing.
The steps for enabling network printing are:
For Windows:
- install the latest driver (http://www.lexmark.com/) or the one that came on the CD as if the printer is locally connected through USB – you can actually connect it if it doesn’t work otherwise.
- plug the printer to the Synology DiskStation
- from Windows go to file://synologyname/ and double click usbprinter1. A popup will tell you there’s no suitable driver on the server – dismiss it. Click Have Disk and navigate to %systemdrive%Lexmark… and choose the .INF driver information file.
- Let it install and then you’re ready to print (I had to restart but I leave that to the updates I had just installed).
For iOS 4.2 and later:
- plug the USB printer cable in one USB port on the Synology.
- on Synology DiskStation admin page go to Control Panel -> External Devices
- you should see the Network Printer icon in the list. Select it, then click USB Printer Manager -> Set Up Printer
- Check Enable AirPrint and choose Lexmark Optra E as the driver (E120 is not present).
- You should be able to choose the printer when issuing the print command from the iDevice (Safari, Mail, Photos). Ofcourse, you should be connected to the same LAN as the Synology through WiFi.