Subject: Re: Samba and alternatives for Linux network printing

From: Don Gaffney <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 08:53:58 -0400 (EDT)

On Wed, 31 Jul 1996, Rick Macdonald wrote:

> But, since the Win95 system is a notebook that comes and goes, is there
> some device that could make the printer a network print server not
> attached to either
> PC? That way, I could print from Linux even when the notebook was
> detached.

Sounds like you can either (1) attach the printer to the linux server
or (2) purchase an external lpd print server for the HPLJII (the internal
card sold by HP would also work but requires more setup on the UNIX box and
may cost more). HP sells JetDirect EX units which act as lpd servers and 
there are others out there as well (e.g. milan).

If the 2 machines are close, you could also just use a parallel switch -
I know they're not very sexy anymore, but they do work.
_____________________________________________________________________
Don Gaffney (http://www.emba.uvm.edu/~gaffney)
Engineering, Mathematics & Business Administration Computer Facility
University of Vermont - 237 Votey Building - Burlington, VT  05405
(802) 656-8490 - Fax: (802) 656-8802

---

From: Don Gaffney <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 09:29:49 -0400 (EDT)

On Wed, 31 Jul 1996, Rick Macdonald wrote:

> I could run a 50-foot (15-metre) parallel cable from the Linux box to
> the room where the notebook is located. Then, the printer would be on
> the
> Linux box running Samba. I don't know what the limit is for parallel
> cable lengths though.

I think it is 15 feet (~5 meters) for parallel. To go the distance you
would need a parallel repeater or you could go serial with a drop in
throughput. The HPLJII does not resovle device contention on its ports
however, so you have to configure it for one port or the other (you can't
have some jobs comming in on serial and others on parallel and have the
printer switch automatically). To stick with parallel on the printer
end you could use a serial-to-parallel converter (cost ~$60 (US)). This
plus an auto parallel switch (cost ~$60 (US)) should do the trick and 
serial cable is cheap. The throughput would be limited to 19200 bits/second
however. To get parallel throughput (230000 BYTES/second) you would
have to buy more expensive cable and a line extender (a.k.a. repeater)(cost 
~$90 (US)).

The external ethernet lpd servers start at around $250 (US). The 
throughput is 10 million bits/second to the server (shared across all
devices on the segment), but from the server to the printer it is a regular
parallel connection. Ethernet is probably the most flexible in terms or
wiring the system as well.