jwk@SCRIPPS.EDU ("Two Sheds" Kupec) (09/28/89)
Howdy, Who can give me the lowdown on the AppleTalk PC card & software? I have a user that wants to print to LaserWriters. Does it work as advertised? TIA John W. Kupec (jwk@scripps.edu)
Wolfgang_Naegeli.TSRS_ED@TSRSQM.ED.ORNL.GOV (Wolfgang Naegeli) (09/29/89)
Reply to: AppleTalk PC John W. Kupec (jwk@scripps.edu) writes: > Who can give me the lowdown on the AppleTalk PC card & software? > I have a user that wants to print to LaserWriters. Does it work as > advertised? The LocalTalk PC card comes bundled with a program called "lw." Don't touch it, it's lousy and a pain in the neck for most anything other than printing straight ASCII files from the DOS prompt. You need to purchase AppleShare PC, even if you don't have an AppleShare server, because this package includes APRINT, a network printing utility that works very well. Of course, it is best if your programs can be configured to print to a PostScript printer, but if not, Aprint can be set to automatically intercept and translate output formatted for an Epson LQ 2500. You could also get TOPS NetPrint, but in my experience it is not as solid as Apple's product. It basically does the same thing, except that it also can translate output formatted for an IBM ProPrinter. In addition, it performs print spooling, which Aprint does not (probably Apple thinks you should use the services of their LaserShare product if you want that capability, but that of course requires a Mac as a server). However, we find that NetPrint has problems with such programs as WordPerfect, which does its own print spooling (a feature that cannot be disabled). Since you also cannot turn off NetPrint's print spooling, you get the same stuff spooled twice, which really slows down printing very much. I prefer the Apple card over the TOPS FlashTalk card, because Apple's supports both programs whereas the TOPS card doesn't support AppleShare etc. Also, the Apple card seems to perform slightly better. The FlashTalk card supports TOPS's proprietary 768 kbit/s data transmission, but it does not seem to work very well in our environment and we have turned this feature off. There are also LocalTalk cards from Daystar Digital and Dayna. I have not seen them in operation. Dayna's specs look particularly interesting, but it too does not support Apple's software and is quite expensive. One caveat: both network printing programs and the AppleTalk drivers that they need take up a hefty amount of DOS memory. NetPrint with FlashTalk drivers about 90k, Aprint with LocalTalk drivers about 80k. Many of the latest versions of the leading MS-DOS applications don't leave that much RAM available. For example, to print from FreeLance 3.0, you need to redirect printer output into a disk file, then leave the program and load the network software to print the file from disk. Then you need to unload the network stuff before being able to go back into FreeLance. The only remedy is to get a high-memory remapping card, which uses any free address space in the 640 k to 1 MB range to extend real DOS memory. Theoretically, if you have a simple monochrome PC that may give you as much as 288 k of extra DOS memory, but practically it is more likely to be between 96 and 160 k -- depending on how loaded your system is with enhanded peripherals. We have tried X-Bandit from Teletek and Hicard2 from Rybs. I like the Hicard much better. Rybs is at 2590 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301; 303-444-6073. Wolfgang N. Naegeli Oak Ridge National Laboratory Internet: wnn@ornl.gov Bitnet: wnn@ornlstc Phone: 615-574-6143 Fax: 615-574-3895