mla@enea.se (Mats L|fstr|m) (11/16/89)
For a friend of mine, who hasn't network access, I would like to ask
two questions concerning some problems he's got using TOPS.
First of all, let me give you a short description on the environment:
In an office there's some 10 PC/XT, a few PC/AT, and a couple of
MacIntosh.
They are connected to a Apple laser, using a TOPS network. TOPS
is only used to create a shareable printer, no file transfer or
whatever else TOPS might be able to do is done.
Now for the problem:
Sometimes, when large PostScript files, generated outside the
system, is sent for printing, the printing stops mid-printing.
Without any error messages or other kinds of protests.
To make the situation even more enjoyable, the same file might
fail to print all way thru X times, but make it the (X + 1):th
time. (This indicates that there's no syntactical/semantical
errors in the PostScript file.)
I get the impression of a flow-control problem. That the time
between sending a XOFF (or whatever it is on a TOPS net), until
the transmission actually stops is to long.
Another problem is this:
If you request the printing of more than Y files at the time
(Y > 10?), the request are all accepted, but only some (<= 10?)
are accepted.
To make the situation almost perfect, TOPS is furnished by one party, the
network cables by another. They both blame the other.
Now for the questions:
Problem 1: Is there anyone out there who has experiensed any
problems like these? If so, has anyone been able to do
something about it?
Problem 2: Should it really be like this? Shouldn't you get
some kind of warning when the queue is filled? Is it possible
to get warnings?
Gratefull for all the help I can get, I'll pass it on to my friend.
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Mats Lofstrom Mats L|fstr|m
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