Networked printer headaches

[TMGB]

I am currently running more than 10 HPs with the HP direct card which
includes the following printers: 5Si, 8000n, 4000tn, and  6mp.  If the
2100s have networking capabilities I will probably network them also
just to keep paper usage stats.  Included in the HP printer set up is
Network configuration for ip, tcp, dcl, appletalk, and lpd.  I have ip,
dcl, appletalk, and lpd disabled and have only enabled tcp.  Windows 95
printer setup software packaged with some of those printers include an
option under custom to add HP printer network port options to your
regular win95 printer setup.  If the printer setup software doesn't
offer the add network printer option you'll have to install it from the
free, to hp owners, HP Admin program ( and use the NEWEST version !!)  

  Because I still login to a Novell server for other reasons, I have
sometimes had a conflict with installing an HP network printer software
or in particular HP Admin on a machine already installed with Novell
client 32, some of the necessary Novell files are over written rendering
the Novell connection silent.  I usually have to go through the registry
then and delete anything that has NW or Novell in it and reinstall the
client.  The newest version of HP Admin includes VER 3.3 or greater.  

  Although now using tcp, there is no print queue. Trying to delete from
the client print queue usually just locks up printing until a reboot if
it is the current job printing.  I am considering setting up a 486 linux
box for a print queue (there are a few win95 lpd programs I am going to
look at) and try using lpd on the printers so that large jobs or
neglected printouts can be purged from the Reference Desk.

Xtra stuff:
  For those interested about the paper stats, on a machine running HP
Admin you can double click on the printer name and click the Diagnostics
tab.  Next click on the + sign beside Device and then the + sign beside
general.  You will then see Engine Page Count: xxxx  where x's are the
number of pages that the printer has printed out since it was first
used.  I don't know how to reset that count but what I have done is
create a spread sheet which a student can get the page count from each
printer and put it in the next cell under that printer's column.  A
daily reading is taken and so each row is one day.  There is a duplicate
table to the right which each cell is a formula getting the actual page
count for that printer.  This is a great tool for graphing usage and
keeping paper usage records.  I start a new file for Summer, Fall, and
Spring.


Thomas

> On Thu, 13 May 1999, Stacy Pober wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> > What I would like is to network this printer without a Novell login.  I
> > assume that since the printer is directly attached to our network via a
> > NIC card, that it has its own IP address.  Is there any way we can simply
> > send print jobs to a particular IP address?  What software would we need to
> > do that?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas McMillan Grant Bennett           Appalachian State University
Computer Consultant II                  University Library
bennettt at am.appstate.edu               
http://www.library.appstate.edu/admin/
Voice:  828 262 6587			FAX:    828 262 3001

Windows 95 is a 32-bit extension to a 16-bit patch for an 8-bit
operating system that was originally coded for a 4-bit microprocessor.
 - Chris Dunphy     Boot Magazine