[WinMac] Re: TCP/IP printing


Peter Mannheim(pm-fosco[at]dircon.co.uk)
Thu, 30 Jul 1998 04:22:02 +0100


>From: kjkhoo@pop.jaring.my
>Been following the posts on TCP/IP printing from NT. How does
>one set this up on a Mac?
The bundled AppleShare Print Server does this - The AppleShare IP File
Server now lets an Appleshare File Server advertise its volumes at a TCP/IP
address so they are reachable from an AppleTalk-enabled client looking for
IP addresses. The Appleshare Print Server can attach a Queue to any printer
it can see, which includes printers that only appear at IP addresses.
>We have Macs and PC's on a ethernet, sharing HP 4MV on its own.
>During some periods of the month, the Macs mysteriously refuse
>to see the printer, or any other Macs for that matter. I was
>told that the problem could be fixed by using TCP/IP rather than
>Appletalk.
The LaserJet 4MV has native support for AppleTalk, but its network
interface card can be controlled by the - tetchy in early versions - HP
JetAdmin (PC) program which controls the 4MV's JetAdmin NICard and how the
4MV appears over IPX/SPX, TCP/IP or both. You could conceivably be using
JetAdmin to advertise an HP Ethernet printer like the 4MV for an AppleShare
Print Server to attach to and control its queue without this printer
appearing in the Chooser. Re. "disappearing printers", I find that
AppleTalk over TCP/IP - theoretically faster and so using more of the
available bandwidth - is less "tolerant" of any weakening of Ethernet
signal strength such as when, for example, you extend one 10Base-T hub by
adding another hub on a crossover port. As more nodes are attached to the
hubs, it is ever more difficult to manage without "smart" switched hubs to
boost your bandwidth and stop the whole network running out of steam.
Typically, between 16 and 24 nodes you must upgrade from "simple" 10baseT
hubs to more expensive solutions. If you think you are at a "transition"
stage, temporarily disconnecting hubs should make the devices on the same
hub appear to each other - and then you know you have to upgrade.
When linking 4 "island Internets" of 12 -24 nodes each into a 100-node
system, ALL the little hubs and hublets had to be replaced by a rack of
3Com switched hubs, though I was able to use an old PowerMac 7100 running
Apple Internet Router 3.0.x to place the Macs in AppleTalk zones which
helped the admin considerably. ( dedicated hardware routers that can do the
same job too).
With ASIP 5.0.2 on the Mac side and JetAdmin on the PC side the servers
and printers should behave.
I'm oversimplifying a lot here as every network has its quirks, but really
sheer persistence always "solves" them in the end. Maybe this rather
general ramble helps - if not I'd need more details to help some more.

Peter Mannheim

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Wed Jul 29 1998 - 20:21:47 PDT