NetWare 4.1/9000 Print Services

B-2

Cabling Printers

Overview

This chapter contains general rules and standard speciﬁcations for parallel

and serial printing. For more speciﬁc information on your printer, see the

printer’s documentation or owner’s manual.

The majority of printers use parallel cabling because both installation and

operation are fast and trouble-free. Serial printers offer greater cabling

distances, but these distances are usually not needed because network

printers can attach to any DOS workstation or NetWare® server.

The following chart illustrates the basic differences between parallel and

serial printers.

NOTE: Hewlett-Packard recommends that you use parallel printing instead of serial

whenever possible. This greatly reduces your risk of having printing problems.

Table B-1 Parallel Versus Serial Printers

Item Parallel Serial

Speed Potentially much faster than serial Slower than parallel

Distance 10 feet standard maximum. Some

cables guarantee 150 feet

25 feet standard maximum. Some cables

guarantee 500 feet or more

Error checking Limited because relatively error-free Parity (reduces speed by about 10 percent)

Software Installer sets interrupt Installer sets interrupt, XON/XOFF,

parity, baud rate, data bits, and stop bits

Hardware Universally compatible Installer may need to check and set pin

settings