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Configure printer discovery with a known host

This page applies to:

Configure Mobility Print for end-user clients

Configure Mobility Print for end-user clients to discover printers directly from a known host.

This option is great for complex networks where the DNS server cannot be configured, or where there is no BIND or Windows Internal DNS server. For more information, take a look at Printer discovery—which method is best for you?

  1. In the Mobility Print Admin interface, click Discovery options. The Configure printer discovery popup is displayed

  2. Click Use a known host. The popup closes and another one is displayed for you to configure the IP address or hostname of the Mobility Print server.

    Mobility Print provides some suggestions according to what it already knows about your environment. The IP address/hostname you use:

    • must be accessible by the Mobility Print clients via TCP ports 9163 and 9164
    • must be a string
    • must not include the scheme or port number
    • if you use an IP address, must be in IPv4 format. IPv6 is not supported.

  3. Either click one of the suggestions, or type the IP address or hostname; then click OK. The Mobility Print Admin interface is displayed.

  4. If you’re setting up Chromebooks in a managed environment, before you can test printing you need to set up Google Workspace. Jump down to the Managed Chromebook deployment steps below.

  5. Next up is to test that you can print from each type of client (for example, Chromebook or iPhone) that your users use.

    Go to the setup and testing details in Step 3: Set up and test client printing .

Managed Chromebook deployment

For Chromebooks in a managed environment—Deploy the Mobility Print extension to your Chromebooks using Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a great tool to manage Chromebooks at scale, enabling you to deploy Mobility Print to all your managed Chromebooks—be that 10 or 10,000—in minutes.

The steps include how to pre-configure the Mobility Print server addresses in the client, which is essential when you are not using DNS for printer discovery. The Mobility Print client needs to know the server address so it can discover printers, authenticate, and print.

  1. From the Google Admin console, click Devices then expand the menu and select Chrome, then Apps & extensions. The Apps & extensions page displays.

  2. Select the Users & browsers tab. The Users and browsers page displays.

  3. In the left menu, select the organizational unit where you want to deploy Mobility Print Extension. To apply the setting to ALL users and enrolled devices, leave the top organizational unit selected. Otherwise, select the relevant child organizational unit.

  4. On the bottom right of the page, click the yellow + icon, then click Add from Chrome Web store. The Add app from Chrome Web Store pop-up is displayed.

  5. Select View app by ID and copy paste the following app ID in the search box: ndakideadaglgpbblmppfonobpdgggin

  6. Mobility Print will appear, click Select. The app is displayed in the Apps & extensions page.

  7. In the Installation policy column, change Allow install to Force install.

  8. In the right panel, complete the Policy for extensions field by copying and pasting one of the sample texts below, then editing to include the IP address(s) of your Mobility Print server(s).

    For a single Mobility Print server that you configured for known host in step 2 above:

    { “MobilityPrintServerHosts”: { “Value”: [“MobServerIP”] } }

    For multiple Mobility Print servers that you have used to configure known host in step 2 above:

    { “MobilityPrintServerHosts”: { “Value”: [“MobServer1”, “MobServer2”, “MobServer3”] } }

  9. At the top right of the screen, click SAVE.

  10. The last step is to test that you can print from Chromebooks. Go to the setup and testing details in Step 3: Set up and test client printing .

iOS Profile Deployment (Optional)

Normally after enabling known host, the administrator shares the setup link with BYOD users, but there is an additional way to share Mobility Print queues with iPhones and iPads that are enrolled in an MDM. Mobility Print queues can be automatically installed on these devices using an iOS profile.

These steps explain how to get the iOS profile to deploy on managed iPhones and iPads.

  1. Log into the web interface of the Mobility Print server as an administrator.
  2. Make a note of which discovery option is currently active (mDNS discovery, DNS, or known host), as you may want to revert this setting after obtaining the iOS profile.
  3. Choose Discovery Options.
  4. Click Configure known host.
  5. Enter the IP address or hostname of the Mobility Print server, then click OK.
  6. Under Apple iOS, click Client Setup.
  7. Click Download to get the iOS profile.
  8. Lastly, follow the steps for your mobile device management (MDM) platform to push the iOS profile to iPads and iPhones.

    Have a look at this article to see how this can be achieved on one example MDM: How to use Jamf Pro to deploy printers on managed iOS devices (iPhones and iPads) .

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