HP laserjet on network *without* jetdirect card?
Ned Danieley
I need to buy a new laser printer; I'd prefer HP, because all my
current printers are HP, but I'm running into a problem. it appears
that the only way to get network connectivity (ie, to have the printer
sit directly on the network) is to buy a jetdirect card. however, one
of the other groups here recently bought a 4000N with the jetdirect
card, and, as far as we can tell, there's no way to avoid having to
have separate print queues for ASCII text and postscript.
in The Old Days (TM), I could buy a plain old ethernet interface card
from HP, set up jetadmin on my printer server, and the text/PS
switching was taken care of automatically. I'd like to continue with
that model, but it's not clear that that's possible.
what I'd like is
a) a vanilla ethernet card that goes inside a HP PS printer, so I
can stick with my tried and true method of printing.
b) a way to get around the two-queue problem so that any machine on
my network can print text or PS without the user having to pick the
right printer queue.
c) some way to get around using the print server feature of the jetdirect
card.
or, of course, option 'd', if there's something really clever that I
haven't thought of.
this is for a network of Suns running Solaris 2.5 (and SGIs running
IRIX 6.2).
--
Ned Danieley (n...@eel-mail.mc.duke.edu)
Experimental Electrophysiology Laboratory
Box 90295, Duke University
Durham, NC 27708 (919) 660-5111
Michael Sweet
Ned Danieley wrote:
> ...
> of the other groups here recently bought a 4000N with the jetdirect
> card, and, as far as we can tell, there's no way to avoid having to
> have separate print queues for ASCII text and postscript.
Shouldn't be a problem as long as you use the "AppSocket" (ala
JetDirect) protocol and not LPD/LPR. HP's JetAdmin software does this,
as does LPRng, as does our ESP Print and CUPS...
I see below you mention IRIX, and unfortunately the JetAdmin software
isn't available for IRIX... SGI's "Impressario" product supports the
JetDirect, tho the drivers for the 4000 will only send PS to the printer
(text will be converted to PS...) Our ESP Print software will send
text straight-through...
> ...
> from HP, set up jetadmin on my printer server, and the text/PS
> switching was taken care of automatically. I'd like to continue with
> that model, but it's not clear that that's possible.
It seems to work with our 4000 and 5000, from any of our Solaris, IRIX,
or HP-UX machines...
--
________________________________________________________________________
Mike Sweet Software for HP, SGI, Easy Software Products
(301) 373-9603 and Sun Workstations 44145 Airport View Drive
mi...@easysw.com http://www.easysw.com Hollywood, Maryland 20636
Neil Rickert
n...@eel-mail.mc.duke.edu (Ned Danieley) writes:
>I need to buy a new laser printer; I'd prefer HP, because all my
>current printers are HP, but I'm running into a problem. it appears
>that the only way to get network connectivity (ie, to have the printer
>sit directly on the network) is to buy a jetdirect card. however, one
>of the other groups here recently bought a 4000N with the jetdirect
>card, and, as far as we can tell, there's no way to avoid having to
>have separate print queues for ASCII text and postscript.
You can buy a jetdirect box instead, and plug the printer parallel cable
into that. I suppose you would have the same problem.
On this solaris system, we have our JetDirect HP printers configured
as PS printers, and we allow solaris to use its filters to convert
ascii text to postscript. This seems to work adequately.
Doug Hughes
On 5 Jun 1998, Ned Danieley wrote:
> I need to buy a new laser printer; I'd prefer HP, because all my
> current printers are HP, but I'm running into a problem. it appears
> that the only way to get network connectivity (ie, to have the printer
> sit directly on the network) is to buy a jetdirect card. however, one
> of the other groups here recently bought a 4000N with the jetdirect
> card, and, as far as we can tell, there's no way to avoid having to
> have separate print queues for ASCII text and postscript.
>
> in The Old Days (TM), I could buy a plain old ethernet interface card
> from HP, set up jetadmin on my printer server, and the text/PS
> switching was taken care of automatically. I'd like to continue with
> that model, but it's not clear that that's possible.
>
> what I'd like is
>
> a) a vanilla ethernet card that goes inside a HP PS printer, so I
> can stick with my tried and true method of printing.
>
> b) a way to get around the two-queue problem so that any machine on
> my network can print text or PS without the user having to pick the
> right printer queue.
>
> c) some way to get around using the print server feature of the jetdirect
> card.
I have not experienced this problem and we have all kinds of HP network
printers here with JetDirect cards? Why do you believe that it can't do
auto-switching? Maybe this is something in newer firmware on larger
printers that we don't have. On the other hand, maybe it's just the way
your print software is configured. Are you using Sun's lp? I just
use an input filter that sends the job directly to port 9100 on the HP.
____________________________________________________________________________
Doug Hughes Engineering Network Services
System/Net Admin Auburn University
do...@eng.auburn.edu
Dave Carrigan
>>>>> "Ned" == Ned Danieley <n...@eel-mail.mc.duke.edu> writes:
Ned> I need to buy a new laser printer; I'd prefer HP, because all my
Ned> current printers are HP, but I'm running into a problem. it
Ned> appears that the only way to get network connectivity (ie, to have
Ned> the printer sit directly on the network) is to buy a jetdirect
Ned> card. however, one of the other groups here recently bought a
Ned> 4000N with the jetdirect card, and, as far as we can tell, there's
Ned> no way to avoid having to have separate print queues for ASCII
Ned> text and postscript.
We use HP printers almost exclusively, with JetDirects on all of
them. We use LPRng and ifhp. Ifhp does all of the autosensing, while
LPRng talks directly to a JetDirect, so there's no need for JetAdmin,
and no need for multiple queues.
--
Dave Carrigan (Dave.C...@iplenergy.com)
Sr. Technical Analyst, Technology Services
Interprovincial Pipe Line Inc.
Doug Hughes
In article <6m6jkr$p...@mercury.wildstar.net>, pl...@mercury.wildstar.net (Peter Laws) writes:
> Doug Hughes <do...@eng.auburn.edu> writes:
>
> >your print software is configured. Are you using Sun's lp? I just
> >use an input filter that sends the job directly to port 9100 on the HP.
>
> find it documented for the life of me.
>
Sorry. I don't use that either. Sun has a very easy and nice method to
directly send jobs to network printers with 2.6, but it assumes that your
job is preformatted and ships it as is. I'm not sure how to do what you
want. I was referring to the fact that I use the BSD/lpd port and use
an input filter to NL->CR/LF jobs for HP printers as needed. Sorry to be
so nebulous.
--