topic Re: Printer - when network & when remote in Operating System - HP-UX

Printer - when network & when remote

joe_91 — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:17:32 GMT

Good Day!!!

Recently we had some printers not working in our hp-ux 11.11 environment. those printers were configured as remote printers. the printer was HP 8100. while the same printer was printing from other nodes fine (configured as remote), i could not print from one specific machine (N Class). the admin converted the printer and reconfigured as a network printer and then it started working. My question is

1. when is a printer needs to configured a remote and when a network printer?
2. what are the pros/cons of configuring in such a way

this is the only thing i found for print on the box. no printermgt. will that make a difference?

swlist |grep -i print
J4189-11001C E.10.34 Hewlett-Packard JetDirect Printer Installer for Unix

Thanks in advance

Best Regards

Joe

Re: Printer - when network & when remote

Pete Randall — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:26:22 GMT

Joe,

A remote printer is one attached to and accessed through another server. A network printer has an IP address and a JetDirect card. The advantages of having a network printer are:

1) You are not dependant on the other server being up/down.

2) All the lp -o options are available to you (duplex comes immediately to mind).

Pete

Re: Printer - when network & when remote

Peter Godron — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:35:31 GMT

Joe,
remote printer : connected to network via another server
network printer: connected directly to the network.

Either configurations are valid, it just depends on the hardware.

Pros/Cons:
Network printers are controlled by the calling server i.e. you for your print job

Remote printers can be made local/open to everybody as required. So scarse resource (A0 printer) can not be used for printing program listings.

Re: Printer - when network & when remote

Bill Hassell — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 08:27:55 GMT

Remote printers are the worst possible connections you can have. The lp spooler is based on the SysV standard and relies on some
other computer to properly handle the print request. This means that there can be compatibility issues, patches on either side,
but most important, *NO* -o options will work for the lp command unless the remote print server is another HP-UX box.

Note that HP JetDirect cards can act as a remote print server but should never be used that way. The feature was added primarily
for Linux and other BSD spooling systems. The protocol (RFC 1179) is decades old and was never designed for today's networks.

Always use HPPI (HP Printer Installer) to connect to HP printers. Note that HP printers (or non-HP printers connected with an HP
JetDirect external box). When you use hppi (or better yet, addqueue) you now have access to many, many -o options. To see what is
available:

man net_ljx000

To convert a printer from remote to JetDirect:

lpshut
lpadmin -x myprint
addqueue -q myprint -h 12.34.56.78
lpsched

where -h 12.34.56.78 is the IP address. I don't recommend using hostnames
for IP printers since printers often get moved around.

To see the printing facilities in HP-UX,
use swlist -l product as in:

swlist -l product | grep -i -e spool -e print

"PrinterMgmt" is the lp spooling system. "TechPrintServ" was a short-lived attempt to update the spooler. It isn't very
good, designed for Xwindow workstations and is not running by default.