separate printer network

[Bob Slater]

I've been advised that I need to separate the printers on my network to their own network to reduce the packet storming issues I have. I have a windows based print server and I installed a second NIC with a different address and subnet mask. I just not sure where to go and how to get HPUX to recognize the new network path for printers and reain the old path for data. Please answer as specifically as possible - - I'm a newbie to the Unix world.

[Bill Hassell]

Are you saying that the HP-UX box now has two NICs? Normally, all of this would be handled by your routers so a second NIC is unnecessary. However, if you truly have a a second network, you would enable the LAN card, give it network address, subnet mask and optional router. Once the card is enabled, you can ping anything on the new network. Of course, this assumes that everything on the new network is also correctly configured.

As far as the remote printers, HP-UX contacts the print server by name or IP address depending on how you added the printers. If you used the IP address of the server, you have to delete the printer and re-add it with the new IP adress. If it was added by name, then either your DNS server must be changed, or you can use /etc/hosts and change /etc/nsswitch.conf to use hosts before tryong DNS.

[Bob Slater]

Bill,
Th HPUX only has one NIC. The print server which is a windows box is the server that has the two NIC's. I just don't know how to set up the Unix box to recognize the second network since it has to connect to the data network (ie 192.192.12.2) for everything other than printing which is on a separate network (10.10.1.1).

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

Since 10.10.1.1 is a completely separate network, your router will handle the task. Now if this is a simple network such as a home network, the 10 network cannot function at all if it is connected to the 192 network. Although you may have a modem+router between your 192 network and the your ISP, you need a different router to connect these three networks. This isn't a Windows versus Unix issue, it is basic networking.

In a simple home network, your 192 network is connected to the rest of the Internet through your modem+router. This router knows that 192 is local and everything else is on the open Internet (including your 10.10.1.1 address). So you'll need a more sophisticated router to handle your additional subnet. If this is a business, your network administrators can take care of all this.