It is not necessary to create an entry for the Canon Printer in the/etc/hosts file, however, most Network Administrators will request that this be done. Log in as root, and using a text editor such as vi, add an entry to the hosts file that looks something like this (Assuming the IP Address for the Canon is 192.168.0.45, and you want to give it a host name of gp215):

196.168.0.45 gp215

Once you have created the host entry it?s now time to set up the print queue. From the prompt, run smit print. This will load the AIX printer menu interface. From the list of options choose Add a Print Queue. Select Remote Printer from the following menu, and then the Standard Processing option.

This will take you to the final screen where you will define your print queue. In the Name of Print Queue, enter a name for you print queue. E.g. canongp. In the Hostname field you can either type in the name of the entry you created in /etc/hosts (gp215), or just the IP Address (192.168.0.45). The next field will be theName of Queue on Remote Server, generally this is just print, this obviously depends on what printer model you?re setting up. For a list of queue names for various Canon Printers, click here. Finally Leave the Spooler Type as AIX 3.x 4.x and you may optionally enter a Queue Description. Press <Enter> and you queue will then be created. To exit smit print, keep on pressing <Esc>and<3>, until you?re back at the prompt.

At the prompt, type enable canongp. Check the status of your queue by typing lpstat -vcanongp. Finally test the queue and send a print to it. You can do this by entering lpr -Pcanongp /etc/hosts, which will print the hosts file to the printer.

Once you become familiar with smit (AIX Administration Tool), you?ll find that you can create different queues (PCL, PostScript etc) with ease.