Network scanner nightmare..tech help

Factual Questions
1

Good morning.

I have an insurance office that uses a web based system for all of their work. kinda nifty since everything is backed up on the main company servers so no backup/storage issues at the offices.

Problem is any documentation has to be scanned into a proprietary scanner app that refuses to acknowledge the brand new Dell 1815 across the network. I can drop a file to any folder on the machine from the scanner or scan files into other apps no problem. Tech support from the parent companys stance is, “We do not support network scanning.” The Dell 1815 was specifically purchased based on the reccomendation of parent company tech support as a network printer and scanner for use with their app.

Sad thing is the last machine that they had, a Konica Copier w/network support, it worked flawlessly with this app. So the customer knows this can be done. I have exhausted every avenue I can think of that does not involve massive hardware changes and or running a ton of USB cabling.

This morning I have discovered this device a USB Server

Any TechnoDopers have any experience with these devices and if so do they really create a local connection to the device just like a direct USB plugin?

If so I should be able to hook up the printer just like a local printer and the gates of Nerdvana should open before me in solving this customers problem.

2

Paging drachi… oh, wait, nevermind.

3

I have installed TCP/IP printer/scanners that can scan to network PC’s using the built in functions of the scanner, but have never been able to control a scanner from a PC over a network, such as running scanning software that will see a network scanner. Microsoft says it is not supported under Windows XP.

4

I’ve set up network scanning before on Xerox machines. Very simple. Seems to me that your problem may be the scanning app. Can the scanning app import images?

I’d suggest you speak to both Dell and the supplier of the scanning app.

5

I think that your Microsoft link just means that you can’t “share” a scanner under XP like you can “share” a printer (e.g. if you have two peer-networked PCs, A and B, a printer P can be connected – via USB, say – to A, “shared”, and B will see it. A scanner, however, will not be “shared” in the same way.) There are definitely cases, however, in which one can take a USB scanner and scan over a network using a Multifunction Print Server (I.e. not going through one of the PCs).

I haven’t used the device that you linked to, but I have used the Airlink101 APSMFP210 1-Port USB 2.0 Multi-Functional Printer Server. It’s only $35.09 at Frys.com ; I bought one in the brick-and-mortar Frys in Palo Alto, CA, and friends of mine are using it to share a multifunction printer / scanner / fax using Windows XP. That’s considerably cheaper than the $129.95 one that you linked to, drachillix, so may be worth trying out just as a test. The relevant User Manual, Quick Installation Guide (both pdfs) and the Compatibility List (html) are linked to from this page; as one can see from the manual, it is entirely expected that should scan via USB, the Multifunction Print Server, and the network. I don’t think that the “Compatibility List” is exhaustive; IIRC, my friends are using an MFP that is not on the list.

I think that the major issue, drachillix, is whether the proprietary scanner app that you mention in the OP is going to recognize your specific scanner, and as Quartz says, you’ll have to ask about that. Since the Dell MFP doesn’t appear to work via Ethernet, I wouldn’t hold out too much hope that it’ll work with the same MFP via USB and the Multifunction Print Server. Might still be worth trying, however. The Airlink MFP USB network server is pretty cheap, and I can vouch that it does work as claimed in the manual. YMMV depending on your custom app, of course.

6

It is a network-aware device:

As for scanning, here’s something from the comments:

7

Perhaps a silly question, but …

Have you tried directly connecting the new MFP to a PC running the proprietary app to ensure you don’t have some other issue? I’m imagining a scenario where the Dell machine overlays its drivers but the proprietary app is hard-coded to call into the standard drivers.

Once you know for sure the Dell works as a locally attached scanner with the rest of their hardware & software setup, THEN you can begin efforts to extend it out onto the network.

8

The app is the problem, it is customer made by the parent company and their TS basically says, “we don’t support network scanning, but it may be possible” so tech support from the app writer is a dead cause.

Plugged in direct, it works fine, problem is it would be a whole different nightmare to use a standard USB switch and pull new cable runs from 3 different offices even using the usb over ethernet adapters. With my luck these days I would run into asbestos insulation in the attic crawlspace.

The problem is the network aspect, the company app wants a local scanner, shared network scanner won’t cut it, so we either need to basically ditch the dell in favor of 3 desktop MFD’s, run cable that will incur similar labor costs, or find a way to fool the app into thinking its talking to a local device. My pondering of the USB server device is mainly that it claims things will install via standard local drivers once the server is in place, if thats the case it should work.

9

Its up and running fine as a network printer and I can trigger a scan and have the file land on a specified machine and folder, just can’t get this one pesky mission critical app to do it.

10

Sorry if my writing wasn’t clear. The Dell 1815 does of course have network capability, but drachillix reported in the OP that it didn’t work with the custom application via Ethernet – hence the desire to try the Dell’s USB capability instead.

One thing I’m not quite clear about from the OP: was the earlier Konica Copier being used with the custom app via the network (in which case the app has some network sentience), or as a local USB device? If the latter, the app’s failure to support the Dell suggests that it’s hard-coded to see a scanner at a USB port (unless I’m misreading the OP).

If the problem arises because the custom app is expecting the scanner on a local USB port, then my gut feeling is that the USB server such as the Keyspan linked to in the OP (or the Airlink from my earlier post) is not going to work, since they seem to be the “wrong way round”. Such devices enable a USB peripheral to be put on an Ethernet network, whereas the OP’s custom app seems to want to “see” a local USB peripheral, and the customer wants to use a networked scanner. I can’t speak for the Keyspan, but the Airlink MFP server definitely makes the host PC’s driver see the MFP as a networked device (with IP address and all).

I wondered if a USB to Ethernet Adaptor attached to each host PC might fool the custom app into seeing an attached network as being a local USB device, but on second thoughts I doubt it. Still, might be worth a try if you can return the parts.

One method that IMHO will almost certainly work, without needing multiple local MFPs or through-wall cabling, is to set up a wireless USB network. It’s a bit clunky and rather expensive, but it should get the job done. [I don’t know how price-sensitive the required solution is; perhaps the desire not to use one MFP per PC is based on desk space or maintenance issues.] Buy one Icron WiRanger (or one Icron USB Rover 1650 (US$110) plus Wireless Access Points) for each PC that runs the custom app (there appear to be three of them as per post #8), then run the peripheral-end receivers through a simple multiport USB manual switch, connected to the Dell 1815 MFP. Each custom-app-running PC should now “see” the MFP as a local device, and whoever is doing the scanning sets the switch to go to the correct PC.

An alternative solution, whose success would depend on exactly how the office web-based document system is configured, might be to dedicate one cheap PC (next to the MFP, connected as a local USB peripheral) to run the custom app, then once each scanned document is up on the network, simply route it to whichever PC needs it. My thinking here is that since each of the (three?) users has to walk over from their PC’s location to the shared MFP anyway to scan the document, why not send it to the servers from there instead of from one of the 3 PCs? In this scenario, only the dedicated “MFP-local” PC would run the custom app. [I might have **totally** misunderstood the dynamics here, in which case apologies in advance!]

11

Konica was a network printer not USB/local. My suspicion from some of the comments made by the TS people is the custom app is looking for local twain drivers or something like that. The konica probably structured its drivers in such a way to allow it, the 1815 not so much.

The manual for the USB server I linked requires the installation of client software on each PC and once configured, it claims to see those devices as local, I was hoping there might be another doper who had used such a device and may be able to confirm this with hands on experience.

Those USB over ethernet adaptors are just a way of stretching the reach, IIRC they are not actually network aware and cannot be relayed by an existing network.

Unfortunately the custom app is basically a giant web based interface to the company main servers so running it on a separate machine would still involve user logging in, locating customer account, going to image import area, loading docs, scanning, saving changes, etc. So if they could just do what they normally do at their desk until they need to load docs, then load the docs, go back to desk, and continue. The app does have the ability to import a file, unfortunately this looks weird compared to the way it was before causing some confusion and difficulty confirming thy have the correct doc and it is complete.

12

Have you checked out Remote Scan?