jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre) (11/04/87)
I would like to be able print from a 4.3BSD Unix system on a printer connected to a TCP/IP terminal server. With the increasing use of terminal servers, some hosts being configured with no serial ports, this seems like a common enough problem that someone might have already done it. Please send me mail if you have tried this. I will summarize responses to the net. Jerry Aguirre Systems Administration Olivetti ATC
ron@TOPAZ.RUTGERS.EDU (Ron Natalie) (11/09/87)
Roy Marantz here at Rutgers is working on this for lpd. The printcap has a terminal server name/ TCP port number entry for these printers. There is currently still some bug that prevents this from working. -Ron
jerry@oliveb.UUCP (12/04/87)
A while back I posted a request for information on printing using a telnet terminal server from a 4.3bsd host. Here is the prommised summary of responses. Several people pointed out that one can run telnet<filename to send a file to a printer connected to a terminal server port. (All of this assumes that the terminal server will allow you to configure a port as a host and assign an IP address to it.) It was also pointed out that it is possible to modify telnet and turn it into a filter program for the lpd spooler. Many responses stated that the Encore Annex terminal servers provide support for the Berkeley lpd protocol as well as providing a centronics parallel port. It does require modification to the lpd software though. Cisco also supplies a "filter" to allow printing on one of its terminal servers. Finally, some people are working on making the changes in lpd to support this. (Roy Marantz at Rutgers.) This seems the correct sollution as it does not lock one into a particular brand of server. Apparently there are problems with implementing this. One mentioned was the terminal server flushing the buffered portion of the data when the connection is closed. The edited responses follow: -- From: eshop%saturn.UCSC.EDU@ucscc.UCSC.EDU (Jim Warner) Bridge Communications application note #12 contains a printer server program that looks like it would do what you want. The program is intended to be run on a 4.2BSD machine. If you send me a US mail address, I will send you a paper copy. This is coming up soon for us, too. I will probably hand it to a secretary to see how well they can type in c-code. jim warner -- From: unisoft!suntea!carl@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Carl Smith) We do this with our cisco ASM terminal servers. It's trivial to take telnet and hack it a bit to act as a filter to a port on a terminal server. Carl -- From: sun!tundra!dave%rosevax.Rosemount.COM (Dave Marquardt) I've been able to print to terminals attached to Bridge TCP/IP terminal servers. I've also managed to integrate this into the 4.3 BSD lpr spooling system, in a primitive sort of way. Dave -- From: Scott Brim <swb@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu> Encore terminal servers come with instructions on how to set this up. -- From: jsalmi@eta.eta.com (John Salmi) a couple of us hacked out a tcp print server to enable us to print from our sun network on a big imagen connected to a very large apollo ring. lemme know if you want the code. it's really quite simple :-) -- From: ames!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!jeff (Jeffrey Jongeward) We do this to 2 LW+'s from VMS & 4.3BSD, talking telnet to a bridge box in listen mode. This gives us connectivity w/o having to rely on any one host which seemed like a good thing at the time tho' if I were doing it again, I'd just make VMS talk to lpd and hardwire the LW+'s to one of the 4.3 systems. Works quite well, s/w is home grown. - jeff jongeward @ boeing aerospace -- From: Milo S. Medin (NASA ARC Code ED) <medin@orion.arpa> Encore Corp's Annex terminal server lets you do just this. In fact, they include a Centronics parallel port too, in case you like parallel printers better. They have tons of other features, and I just can't praise them enough. And people who know me will tell you I rarely give that complement. They understand the UCB lpd protocol as well. All very good stuff. We've tried many terminal servers here, and the Annex is by far the best. -- From: William Westfield <BILLW@MATHOM.CISCO.COM> cisco Systems terminal servers fully support the use of terminal ports in the reverse direction (eg host establishes a connection to a specific terminal port of the server). Various types of connections are supported (eg telnet, telnet binary, and 8 bit stream), along with rotary groups (get the first free port in a group) and miscellaneous other options. In fact, we use such an arangement internally at cisco to allow spooling from our tops20 and unix systems to an apple laserwriter. We will supply source code for a unix filter that sends data over a TCP connection, that can be used to build full-fledged spoolers, or in a simpler configuration for smaller networks. At least one of our competitiors also supports using a terminal server in ths manner, though of course not as well :-) Give us a call at (415)-326-1941 if you would like more information. Bill Westfield cisco Systems. -- From: jas@monk.proteon.com (John A. Shriver) The Encore TIU (which we also sell as the Proteon TIU) has support for this. It requires some changes to the lpd software on the UNIX system. The box even has a Centronics printer port, or you can use an async port. -- From: ron@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Roy Marantz here at Rutgers is working on this for lpd. The printcap has a terminal server name/ TCP port number entry for these printers. There is currently still some bug that prevents this from working. -- From: hplabs!hpda!uunet!unido!iaoobel!woerz (Dieter Woerz) We had several terminal servers for test here. (CS/100 from Bridge Communicatios, Spider Ports from Spider systems, Micom/Interlan Terminalservers and an ANNEX box from Encore). Encore gives you all you want in this direction. Their software is host based and they have included a patch for the line printer spooler (at least for 4.2BSD) to use either the parallel port or one of the seriell ports as a printer port driven from the printer spooler. You have to add two fields in the printcap file, apply the patch, recompile and then it works. Spider systems has a small program in their documentation to print onto a specified port. This doesn't use the Berkeley spooler, but perhaps you could use it as an output-filter out for the line printer daemon. The other servers don't provide such a feature (or I didn't notice it). Hope this helps -- From: ames!harvard!talcott!encore!xenna!loverso (John Robert LoVerso) I'm one of the software engineers who works on development of the Encore Annex Terminal Server. Not only do we currently support both parallel and serial printers, but we've got some new things cooking for the next release that will make it possible to run either a bi-directional serial printer or even a host's getty on an Annex serial port! The Annexes currently available contain 1 parallel printer port and 16 serial ports. Current printer support (for all BSD-compatible hosts) is by means of either small modifications to the Berkeley Printer Spooler, or by a program we distribute called "aprint", both of which are included in source form on our distribution tape. The Annex operational image (the software you boot onto the Annex - its loaded from any BSD host on the network) contains a modified LPD server. The mods to the Berkeley spooler support a small extension to the printcap file that allows an annex & port to be specified as the hardware device. This is used just like an "lp=/dev/xxx" entry had been specified. If you don't have source for lpd, then you can just use our "aprint" program, which talks to the Annex LPD daemon and prints (not spools) a file. An example of how aprint could be used as a printcap "of=" filter is included in the administrators manual. John Robert LoVerso Encore Computer Corp encore!loverso, loverso@multimax.arpa 617-450-0600 x2638 -- From: Andy Linton <asjl@cheviot.ncl.ac.uk> We are currently doing what you want using Encore Annexes attached to an Encore Multimax. Special case you might say but the same thing can be done from a Vax or whatever. Robert Claeson <seismo!enea!pvab!robert> has written some code to do it. He says that Encore will possibly make it available with the next release of the Annex UX software. I include it for your info. The Annex is a nice box and cheap! andy [Contact Andy for the code. JA] -- From: ll-xn!budd@bu-it.bu.edu What kind of terminal server? Encore UMAX lpd can drive printers attatched to Annex printer and terminal ports. They also distribute diffs for you to modify your lpd. Phil Budne Boston University --