SCOUG-HELP Mailing List Archives

<< Previous Message << >> Next Message >>

Date:	Sat, 6 Oct 2001 22:51:51 PDT
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Print Servers (SMC)

Content Type: text/plain

=====================================================
If you are responding to someone asking for help who
may not be a member of this list, be sure to use the
REPLY TO ALL feature of your email program.
=====================================================

J. R. Fox wrote:
>
> How many print servers might one need ?

In my case, I'm trying to get my printers _off_ of my workstations.
They use up an interrupt if you specify /IRQ on the BASEDEV=PRINT01.SYS
/IRQ config.sys line, and they run your cpu up to 100% if you don't
specify /IRQ. I need the IRQs for other things.

The SMC 7004* router/firewall box includes a print server for one
printer (there's one printer cable connector on the box). The H-P
JetDirect print server is a small networked hardware box for three
printers (there are three printer cable connectors on the JetDirect
box).

You might want a print server for every printer if your workstations
aren't always on at the same time. If every printer is attached to a
dedicated print server (such as the SMC or HP) then you don't have to
have a specific workstation turned on before you can print because the
dedicated print server is doing the networking and printer port work.
If the printers are shared via workstations and a workstation is off,
you can't use its printer.

> Whenever I do set up the SMC I bought for others, I know
> they will have one b&w laser printer, and one color inkjet,
> to be shared -- at will -- by two separate workstations.

The SMC 7004* router/firewall has one printer connector. If you want to
connect two printers to that one connection you'll need a printer
switchbox (and you'll have to make sure you switch before you print,
otherwise you'll be sending Printer X command codes to Printer Y).

If the printers are in the same room, you can buy a printer selector box
for one of the printers so you can switch it between two (or more)
workstations. The printer connected to the selector box won't be on the
network but will still be available from either machine. I bought a new
4-way printer selector box at ACP earlier this year for $16, and the
extra printer cables were something like $5 each (the switch box
connects to each computer plus the printer).

> Please explain this at primer level, since I have only the
> vaguest notion of what a print server is, and how it functions.

In man-on-the-street terms, a print server is a computer with a printer
card and a network card. It's connected to the network, and computers
from anywhere else on the network can send it print jobs (which are
binary print streams containing control codes and print data).

Your desktop computer can be a print server (which is different from
sharing a printer connected to your desktop computer although the
functionality is similar).

The SMC 7004* router/firewall is a print server as well as a switch and
firewall (it's a computer that does only these three specific tasks).

The Hewlett Packard JetDirect is a print server that connects to the
network and has three printer connectors so you can hook up three
printers to it.

> What sort of cabling is involved -- just more ethernet cable ?

Yes. And you have to tell your workstations what the network address is
of each printer. Currently you print to, say, LPT1. For network
printing you'll have to print to, for example, 192.168.0.253 (you can
use your HOSTS file to give the address an understandable name). In
OS/2, this info is configured into the driver and you don't see it when
you print. I think there's a way for OS/2 to use a single master file
on one machine containing the network address(es) of the printer(s) but
I'm not sure how to set that up -- sort of a "remote HOSTS" file.

> Can there be some sort of dual connection, such
> that a workstation can _also_ directly drive a printer,
> as an alternative to using the network printing ?

Use a printer selector box (see above). Or just unplug the printer
cable from the print server and plug it into the workstation. You can't
use a Y-cable to bring two different printer ports into the printer,
though . . . the electronics won't like that very much. I've seen
electronic printer switch boxes which automatically switch to the
computer that's currently sending a print job, but they're expensive.

- Peter

=====================================================

To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-help".

For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".

=====================================================

Return to [ 06 | October | 2001 ]

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.