Re: [WinMac] AppleTalk or NetWare for HPLJ5Si?

Bruce Johnson(johnson[at]Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU)
Tue, 14 Sep 1999 19:46:44 -0500

Geoffrey L. Herrera wrote:
>
> I am the lone (and brand new) Mac person in an all Wintel academic
> department. The building/department is ethernet wired for Internet
> access but computer services runs a NetWare server for file servers
> and printing.
>
> I have got onto the Internet via the ethernet network, but cannot
> print on the department's printer. Computer services says the printer
> -- a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5Si -- would have to be configured for
> AppleTalk, which it isn't currently, and the configuration is
> unstable. I wouldn't know. But their response strikes me as odd: two
> floors up from me (in another department) is an HP 4000N that is
> AppleTalked. I can select this (and plenty of other printers around
> the university) from my Chooser, and could print if the other
> Department would let me (why would they?).

Your computer services are the typical FUD-ridden Wintel know-nothing
weenies that say bull**** like that. They're lying, too.

_Netware's_ implementation of Appletalk is a gawdawful nightmare, butr
it's stable, and you don't need that to print.

If the HP is on a JetDirect network interface, all they have to do is
turn AppleTalk on. Period. It's not unstable...we ran Appletalk on about
15 JetDirects for years without problems. (basically because we forgot
to shut it off, and it never bothered us, so we took the lazy sysadmin
way out...'if it ain't broke, don't fix it!')

Another solution is to ask them politely if TCP/IP is turned on, and
what is the IP address of the printer? Then you can configure a desktop
printer using an LPR queue. You'll need to get the instructions (it's on
Apples Techinfo site), and the PostScript Printer Description file for
the HP5si (from HP) and voila' you can print to the 5si.

If they won't do it, you'll have to resort to guerilla tactics...all of
the HP's network settings are available from the keypad...you can turn
on Appletalk right on the printer, but if they're the typical
control-freak b***heads they sound like they are you could getinto
trouble.

Likely that 4000n upstairs was configured by the users, and 'Computer
Services' doesn't have a clue.

Basic idea, complain up the food chain. If your department head is told
that Computer services isn't providing the services your department is
_paying_ them for, heat can get turned up on them pretty fast,
particularly if you can demonstrate that they lied to you.

> So my question is twofold, what has to be done to get me to where I
> can print on this printer, and how do I convince CS to do what has to
> be done?
>
> I'm guessing that there are two options -- AppleTalking the printer
> or NetWaring my Macintosh (it's a bronze PB G3 running OS 8.6) -- but
> I don't know for sure. Is configuring the HP for AppleTalk terribly
> complicated, and/or terribly unstable?
>

-- 
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group


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