acarlson@math.umass.edu (Adam Carlson) (08/09/90)
I am looking at printer sharing devices for a mixed PC/Workstation environment. After looking at some of the literature, I am most impressed with a unit from Buffalo Products in Oregon. We have two PC's (parallel ports) and two Sun's (serial or parallel) which need to share a Laser printer (serial or parallel), a draft printer (parallel), a plotter (serial) and possibly a modem (serial). The Buffalo SL has 4 parallel and 6 serial ports, each configurable as input or output. It also has two modes of device selection, for MS-DOS it has a pop-up menu, and for Unix, a command string can be sent from an input port to connect to a chosen output port (Works well with output filters from lpr). All of this is available in the $500 range. The only problem I'm having is finding people who use this product so I can get some firsthand reactions to the company, the service record, the unit's reliability etc. If anyone is familiar with this product and/or company, please send me your opinions, I will post a summary if asked to. Thanks Adam Carlson acarlson@laurel.math.umass.edu