[lubuntu-users] Scanning thru network not working?

[E James]

On 04/09/16 23:09, Narcis Garcia wrote:
> I can make network scan with these Brother Wifi devices, but only
> through a Windows virtual machine running inside GNU/Linux.
> Brother seems to provide network scanning software only for Windows,
> because it uses a closed~privative protocol.
> 
> Decent network scanners are FTP capable, and then all it's easier and
> decent.
> 
> 
> El 04/09/16 a les 14:25, Liam Proven ha escrit:
>> On 2 September 2016 at 21:13, Barry Titterton <titterton.barry at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I think that it depends upon the driver software that is bundled with
>>> the device.
>>
>> No, as indicated by your own very next sentence:
>>
>>> I have a Brother MFD that claims to be able to scan over
>>> wifi.
>>
>> So it has Wifi. It is network-capable. This is not the same as a
>> USB-only device.
>>
> 

I would like to add some details in the hope of clarifying the situation 
for the benefit of anyone reading this in the future. The first thing I 
should say is that I am no Linux expert.

Apparently there are ways to set up a Linux wireless scanner server with both 
Linux and Windows clients
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SaneDaemonTutorial
I haven't tried it and I haven't seen any hint of a Windows based scanner
server for Linux clients.

What I have done is set up my new Brother MFC-J480DW to print and scan with Linux 
without ever connecting a cable (apart from the power cable).

I downloaded the software from Brother
http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=mfcj480dw_us_eu_as&os=128
and installed it using GDebi. The printer installed using "add printer" but 
the scanner didn't work. "No scanners detected".

I followed the instructions at this site
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/15
and the scanner didn't work. "No scanners detected".

Finally I retried the Brother installation script with manual specification
of the device URI and the scanner and the printer now work.

I have now done it twice - once with a netbook running Lubuntu 13.10 (32bit) and 
once with a laptop running Zorin 9 (32bit).

The printer URI can look like this "dnssd://Brother%20MFC-J480DW._pdl-datastream._tcp.local/"
and I was asked to specify the scanner IP address. The scanner worked but the printer
seemed unreliable ("Printer not connected").
If I specified the printer URI as the IP address, the installer used the same value for
the scanner and both seem to work reliably.

I always knew that the scanner would work wirelessly because there's a Brother app 
for Android which works very well. Just in case you're wondering - in my house it's
easier to take the computer to the scanner than it is to take the scanner to the computer. 
Wireless is very useful.