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Printer The Internet

Print Server Appliances that Spool? 60

Posted by Cliff from the throttling-back dept.
man_ls asks: "I have recently run across the need for a network print server appliance, that can spool the data it is given and send it slower than 10 mbps to the printer. A client of mine has an Intermec label printer, with an internal processor too slow to accept data directly from the network without being buffered. Due to the system the client is running (OpenVMS) it must be connected to the network, it can't be local on one of the servers. Any ideas of a small print server box that can act like a spooler?"
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Print Server Appliances that Spool? More

Print Server Appliances that Spool?

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  • Sounds like he could use a tiny linux/bsd box with enough ram and disk to play printspool.
    (Given that the printer supports postscript or has opensource(ish) drivers)
    • (Given that the printer supports postscript or has opensource(ish) drivers)

      It's an intermec, unless he can hack code he's screwed for that kind of solution.
      • Yes, it is an Intermec, but how much code to hack is this?
        cat
        All he asked for was spooling, not conversion. Set up lpr with a null filter (i.e. 'cat') to just use the inherent queue management.

        I've used an old P75 with Linux for driving similar printers. Keep it simple with just a minimal install and a small hard drive should be big enough.

      • intermec uses IPL, the Intermec programming language. It's 7-bit clean for text and control characters, and images/fonts are nibbleized down to 7bits before sending.

  • Dedicated servers (Score:2, Informative)

    by Zocalo ( 252965 )
    Sheesh, why don't we just rename "AskSlashdot" to "AskGoogle [google.com]" and be done with it? These things are common as muck; single port D-Link's [dlink.com] can be had from as little as #30 in the UK if you shop around, and they even do wireless models. Intel's Netport [intel.com] range is also very good (I even have one at home), they are more expensive than the D-Links, but have much broader protocol support. Since you need to talk to non-Windows systems, you'll need to ensure that your device supports a standard like LPD that you c
    • Just a quick note on the Netports, we've had problems here with a couple of them crashing every now and then, requiring them to be rebooted.

      • Re:Dedicated servers (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Zocalo ( 252965 )
        We had that too. We flashed the EEPROM to the latest firmware on the afflicted ones (four or five out of several dozen) and the couple that didn't stop crashing we RMA'd for replacements which worked fine - problem solved. Since there were similar firmware revisions on the problem kit we put it down to a coding issue in the firmware. We also noticed that not all the potentially susceptible kit was having problems when we went around and updated all the firmware as part of our Y2K effort, so you might wan

    • Re:Dedicated servers (Score:3, Informative)

      by morzel ( 62033 )
      Next time you produce a rant, please be sure to include at least one qualifying answer in your rant.

      Poster was looking for a print spooler (not a print server), that has some kind of configurable output rate throttling; none of which is supported in the devices you listed.

  • pretty much all of the little print appliance boxes do some amount of spooling. It's kind of necessary for the design.

    The question is: how much spooling do you need? If 256k is enough, then any of the little boxes (like this one [linksys.com]) will do just fine. If you need a few megs, you can still find little "print boxes" that do what you need, but they'll be "workgroup spoolers", and they'll cost more. If it's absolutely essential that the job leave the client machine ASAP (i.e. it's an old mainframe and there

  • I think I used to have your job... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zarf ( 5735 ) on Friday October 17, 2003 @07:39AM (#7238288) Journal
    A client of mine has an Intermec label printer, with an internal processor too slow to accept data directly from the network without being buffered.

    I ended up writing a bunch o' custom Intermec Printer Drivers for linux and using one of their prolific Linux boxen to act as a spooling server. Wasn't that bad to work out. The hardest bit was writing the Intermec drivers... I had to reverse engineer those. Fortunately it was a custom app and only printed a half dozen types of documents.

    If you're interested I could share the "reverse engineering" technique... more of a quick hack actually. Heck, the whole thing was a clever hack... I hate clever.
  • I've hooked them up to an AS400 via Coax. If memory serves, it supported ethernet, serial, parallel, and several other interfaces as installable options.

    A Windows software package could graphically design the label and create fields (merge codes) then you exported that to an EBCDIC or ANSI datafile. Then you pasted the code into a variable in the code. You output the variable text to the printer and it would load into RAM on the printer. Then you just sent data associated with the label fields. The pr
  • Fiery makes a nice little box that runs a Linux variant. Has a simple LCD screen on the front, 4 or 5 button controlls, very simple to setup and admin. The better ones have a web Gui to manipulate spooling documents, save them to your own PC, store them on the firey HDD, etc.

    Even better, they take standard PC133 RAM, so buy the fiery with the lowest memory config you can get, and stick a few 256 meg DIMM's in there, and you will have an awesome print server. :)

  • Here (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FreeLinux ( 555387 ) on Friday October 17, 2003 @08:43AM (#7238508)
    When it comes to network printers and print servers the authority has always been Hewlett Packard. You'll find what you need (is a 7GB spool enough for labels? ) here [hp.com] but at nearly US$2,000 I would think that you could build a Linux box running CUPS and Samba for a lot less.
  • Use your normal print server without spooling, and get a cheap, old print spooler from ebay. You'll be all set as long as you aren't printing megabytes of data at a time.

    If you are, then you need to use a computer as a print server.

    -Adam

  • Trying to answer your question (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) on Friday October 17, 2003 @10:05AM (#7239304) Homepage Journal
    I think most of the respondents here are missing the point when they recommend a cheap COTS print spooler - they rarely have the rate limiting feature you need.

    Why not just setup a simple print spooler (samba/netatalk) which will deliver files to a queue. Then you can write a little perl script to read the file in at a known data rate (while ... read buffer size ... sleep ... print) out to the printer device. Delete the spooled file when it's done. You'll probably need to set binmode on your filehandles.
    • I think most of the respondents here are missing the point when they recommend a cheap COTS print spooler - they rarely have the rate limiting feature you need.

      No, they actually do have that. If you have a paralell HP Jetdirect for example, it will not be printing at 100 Mbs it will print at 9600 or 19200 but you can change that by teneting into the box and changing it. The interface is simple. All print servers will do that.
      • No, they actually do have that. If you have a paralell HP Jetdirect for example, it will not be printing at 100 Mbs it will print at 9600 or 19200 but you can change that by teneting into the box and changing it. The interface is simple. All print servers will do that.

        Well, sure they will, but that's not typically what you'd call a spooler. At least in my experience, a spooler is a device which takes the print job as fast as the client can send it then feeds it off to the printing device at its speed.
        • Well, sure they will, but that's not typically what you'd call a spooler. At least in my experience, a spooler is a device which takes the print job as fast as the client can send it then feeds it off to the printing device at its speed.

          Name me one print spooler that can feed print to an HP laser printer at 100 Mbps. Read the specs on your printers. You will see the 'spooler' catches the data at network speed, but that is not the speed of transmission to the printer. There aren't any 100MB printers out t
          • >Well, sure they will, but that's not typically what you'd call a spooler.
            >At least in my experience, a spooler is a device which takes the print
            >job as fast as the client can send it then feeds it off
            >to the printing device at its speed.

            Name me one print spooler that can feed print to an HP laser printer at 100 Mbps.

            Are you agreeing with me vehemently or did you miss the anticedent 'printing device' to the pronoun 'its' in "then feeds it off to the printing device at its speed"?
    • My immediately though was a $241 Linux box, [pricewatch.com] with two Ethernet cards: one on the network at 100MB/s, and one attached solely to the printer at 10MB/s.

      Of course, others have suggested bandwidth throttling, which is better because you can fine-tune it, but if it can accept data at 10MB/s then a $3 card [pricewatch.com] would do the trick.

  • This [linksys.com] linksys print server has served me well at two locations. It can be a bit difficult to setup but supports netbios, ipx, and bsd spools for remote clients.
  • Put a 10Mpbs hub between the printer and the network. Free rate-limiting.

    Or would that still be too fast?

  • Low Tech Solution (Score:3, Interesting)

    by orn ( 34773 ) on Friday October 17, 2003 @10:49AM (#7239670)
    Just find a 10bT hub and hook one end to your 10/100 switch and the other to your printer. Let TCP handle all your buffering for you.

    Those hubs are probably sitting on the trash pile of countless IT departments right now. You might be able to pick one up on e-bay...

    Rudy

    • Will that work? Are you sure?

      I've seen machines that you could telnet into for configuration, and they would loose data. TCP ensures delivery, but it doesn't assure that the implimentation on the other end has a buffer big enough to store what is delivered. In this case, the buffer filled up, but the TCP implimentation happily continued accepting packets, and writing them to the buffer. As it was a circular buffer this ment data was lost anyway.

      Worked just fine for humans, but when we tried to automat

      • I've seen that sort of thing before too... (even written one of them once or twice)

        Whether it will work or not is highly dependent on circumstances. But it's definitely worth a try. It'll be a lot cheaper and a lot easier to do than just about any other solution (short of buying a new printer!).
      • Your problem came from bad programming. When the packet is delivered and an ack has been sent, it's up to the upper layers to do something with the packet. When the ack is sent and the packet is still discarded, the programmer clearly has missed something...

        • True, but in the real world, that hardware is out there, and you might have it. Indeed because it is easy to write, and costs are critical I wouldn't be surprized if you have it, and since it works in the average case you don't realize it was broken.

          Though in this particular case IIRC there was some hardware acceleration involved, so it wouldn't surprize me if the hardware was overwritting buffers while the CPU was still interupted by the packet coming in.

  • is intermec printer's with ethernet ports on them allready. However when it comes to an older moddel or any other type of printer besides hp we use
    Axis [axis.com] print servers... they can be flakey at times.. so i would recomend whatever you decide on order 3, just for backup purposes
    • Actually, the intermec printers I've worked with (we use the 3400 series) use slightly modified Axis print servers.

      I don't know which printer the submitter is using, but our 3400's work just fine with jetdirect units. Both our AS/400 and PC's can print just fine, at any speed they want.

      Jetdirects have the advantage of being 20 dollars on ebay, compared to several hundred for the Intermec/Axis units as well.
    • Axis is way to flakey. If you need three boxes to reliably do a one box job, it is NOT a solution. Hp, Fiery and Linux - hell there are even a couple of good lpd servers for XP but not Axis. I found that they were not even worth the return shipping for a refund. No lie, I threw them away.
      • Fiery is extremely slow, i dont care what type and or size file you spool. Hp new comes with a hefty price tag. Axis is flakey out of the box or rock solid. thus the reason for three. Not to mention if he runs any decent sized company before he puts the Axis into use it would need to be approved by an analyst. Yet another reason for three, 1 for the analyst, 1 to be put into a test lab, and the last one to serve as a backup.

        I have never had an issue with an Axis box that couldnt be fixed without factory r

        • Not to mention if he runs any decent sized company before he puts the Axis into use it would need to be approved by an analyst.

          As analysts we all know that if he runs ANY size company, he should get the item approved. However, if he truly runs it he doesn't NEED anybodys approval. Just thought I would mention that as it is a common bite to have owners throw junk technology into your network.

          I have never had an issue with an Axis box that couldnt be fixed without factory resetting it. I am guessing you
          • Explain to me what happens when you have 15 print servers come back from the field, lets say removed because in this case they upgraded to intermec's with built in print servers. You have 15 print servers all sent back to your config center with no documentation on them. How would you propose getting them ready to re-deploy without factory re-setting them?
            • Explain to me what happens when you have 15 print servers come back from the field, lets say removed because in this case they upgraded to intermec's with built in print servers.

              We live in extremely different worlds. I have nothing 'coming back from the field'. I would not know why something would come back with no documentation as I allow nothing to go out without documentation and the documentation is stored centrally on one of them new fangled file servers. If I had something come back with no documen
              • You have nothing coming back? or you have nothing coming back without documentation? make up your mind and let me know when you pick one story and we shall go from there.
                • I have nothing leaving my central office without documentation and thus nothing comes back without it. See you assign an asset number to an asset and then you use the remarkably complex "database" to store both the asset number and unique information. Then when the item comes back you can use the "database" to find all your documentation, all that without even paying 699$ to SCO. I also maintain current service contracts on everything so it is EXTREMELY rare that anything should come back to me at all. Serv
  • the 3400A printer, is too slow to take data from an Ethernet print server that Intermet makes, because of it's processor. It's a serial or parallel interface, data rate for the serial is max 128 kbit/sec.

    Thanks for the help everyone.
    • The question is why doesn't the printer do flow control? My first printer, a Star Gemini 10X from around 20 years ago, knew how to tell the computer to stop sending data when it couldn't take anymore. Why can't a modern $1000+ printer do the same thing? Maybe you should just get a Zebra [zebra.com] label printer instead or something... save you the time and expense of trying to make the Intermec work.
    • I don't have any A's, I have B's, D's, and E's. I've never had any problem with them keeping up with the datastream. We do have some 4000s that are older than yours. We have them connected to Extendnet boxes. Originally they were connected directly to a DECserver, but we wanted to get LAT off of our network. And other than the fact that parts aren't available anymore, they work just fine. And we print a lot.

      First I'd recommend that you check your flow control, it sounds like you have it turned off.
    • I've used 3400A's with a print server before, have you tried a jetdirect EX plus?

      cheap on ebay, worth a try.
    • Stick an Linux box between that the printer and the network, throttle the output of the card running to the ethernet port on the printer to 128kbit/sec.

      You'll tie up stuff on the client end, however, your local OS could/should be doing spooling so it's not tying up the entire machine at that point.

      I know how to do that at the IP level (traffic shaping and/or rate limiting) that is production ready. I believe there are projects to do that at the ethernet level (to control the speed of the ethernet frame

  • Offtopic question related to printing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RGRistroph ( 86936 ) <rgristroph@gmail.com> on Friday October 17, 2003 @06:54PM (#7245046) Homepage
    I would like to be able to use linux to emulate a printer. That is, I would like to be able to take another computer, hook it to my parallel port, and then have that computer think for all practicle purposes that it had a printer on the other end. My computer could simply log what was being printed, or forward it to a different printer, or whatever.

    Has anyone here ever done this ?

    The purpose is to make a linux box that can emulate an older printer to a legacy computer, take the files to be printed and possibly modify them and send them to a modern printer (such as a network or USB interface).
    • yes...

      1 - PC emulating serial printer from an IBM DisplayWrite (current-loop). Recover documents and convert to standard format.

      1a - direct media i/o from PC to legacy system
      (8" floppy controller and driver software for PC, including target filesystem - CP/M, Wang OIS, Philips P2000, IBM DisplayWrite, AM Comp/Edit and Comp/Set). Custom PC controller card.

      2 - Parallel interface to mini. Emulate Lino 202N Photocomposer. Recover documents and print onto laserprinter.

      3 - Same as (2), but CG8600, and APS u5.
  • I'm not entirely sure if this is what you're looking for, but here goes:

    Check out some Netgear Print Servers [netgear.com] that are priced for the home user market. Basically you connect your parallel port printer into the little box and that box connects to the network via WiFi or standard cabling. It runs a standard LPD service (i.e. unix printer daemon) and you can easily print to it from linux, OS X, windows and probably a bunch of others as well. No SMB sharing required.

    As to whether or not these will handle

  • DIGI ONE SP ~~ $140.00 @ CDW, PCCONNECTION etc... http://www.digi.com/products/externaldeviceservers /digionesp.jsp GEESH...WHY CAN'T SOMEONE JUST ANSWER THE GUYS QUESTION...
  • Maybe I'm missing something, but if you're willing to spend the money for a print spooler, whatever that is (linux box, network appliance, etc.), for the same money you could also buy a label printer. They're not that expensive. Is your label printer extra special nice or something?

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