User`s guide

Appendix C:Accessing Network Printers
48 - PShop User’s Guide
Background
In addition to printing to local printers on the parallel port or SCSI bus, PShop
can also be used for network printing. The network printers supported can be any
of the normally supported printers made accessible over the network via
JetDirect with HP's JetAdmin software or via TCP/IP (implicitly with RFC 1179
capability). The idea of network printing put simply is that the bytes of data for
the printer are transported over the network instead of through the parallel port.
This document describes the background of network printing and the architecture
of PShop that facilitates it. Starting in version 3.40, PShop’s ps_install has
automated the installation of a print queue for a networked printer. Please refer
to “Configuring Your Printer” on page xvii for information about performing the
installation.
JetDirect Printers:
Hewlett Packard manufactures some of its printers with network interfaces built
in. Some of their other printers have a slot reserved for a JetDirect interface card
to be added. In addition, HP manufactures external interface units called “print
servers” that provide one or more parallel port interfaces providing printers with
network access via Ethernet. Most of the older models of these interfaces support
only a proprietary JetDirect protocol defined by Hewlett Packard Many newer
devices claim TCP/IP support but are variously reported to not operate robustly
in intense-use environments. For these uses, JetDirect was found to be fully
robust. For UNIX users, HP provides a software package called JetAdmin to
support printers with these interfaces. See:
http://www.hp.com/jet_admin/dsunix.html
Vividata provides a port of HP’s JetAdmin for Solaris x86 (Intel). Please see the
rest of this chapter and the support area of Vividata’s website for further
information.
TCP/IP Printers:
Any printer with a TCP/IP capability as per RFC-1179 and a PShop driver are
currently supported. Such printers emulate Berkeley-style print queues on
remote hosts to take advantage of UNIX’s built in network printing features. The
Lexmark Optra models are a good example of printers that implement this
protocol. (When printing to a Lexmark Optra with PShop, the protocol is still
PCL - via a LaserJet class driver.). For RFC-1179 standards see: