DI001@CALPOLY.BITNET (06/04/91)
Greetings! We have a HP IIISi with postscript that we would like to hang off our TCP/IP network. The problem is that: A: We have very little money (what else is new). B: The HP Ethernet card for the IIISi does not support TCP/IP. The only option I can think of is to set up a DOS or UNIX machine with LPD so other systems can use LPR to print to it. I have heard that there are also some third party black boxes that could also do the job. If anyone has any information that they would be willing to share... THANKS in advance! ********************************************************************* George L. Westlund | BITNET: DI001@CALPOLY Academic Computing Services| Internet: gwestlu@polyslo.calpoly.edu Cal Poly | Phone: (805) 756-2516 San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 | **********************************************************************
U12570@UICVM.BITNET (Ed Garay) (06/07/91)
On Tue, 4 Jun 1991 09:09:59 PDT <DI001@CALPOLY> said: >A: We have very little money (what else is new). >B: The HP Ethernet card for the IIISi does not support TCP/IP. I have been told repeatedly that HP is indeed working on a direct TCP/IP connection for the LaserJet IIISi. Perhaps, it will be available at the end of the year. Who knows. Fortunately, there are, at least, two offerings from third-party companies: XYplex (from Forsboro, MA 1-800-338-5316) and Microplex (from Vancouver, Canada, 604-875-1461, eMail: fff@microplex.com (Fred Fierling)). Both products: the XYplex MX1400 and the Microplex NetPrint M200 sound good, but we don't have either of them yet. The XYplex MX1400 is a print server that lists for under $2K. It has a BNC Ethernet port, four printer ports (2 serial and 2 parallel), and one "management" port. It comes with some software that needs to be downloaded to their 18" x 24" x 2" box. The Microplex NetPrint M200 lists for $995, and will be going in beta test this month. I was told it should hit the market by the end of July. It has two Ethernet ports, one high speed parallel port capable of handling 50 kilobyte-per-second throughputs (:-), and two serial ports. They provide some software (host spooler) that is required to drive their 8" x 6" x 2" box. Their software currently runs on SCO Unix, Xenix and SunOS, but they are interested in porting it to VM (;-) Naturally, these two products are not specific to the HP LaserJet IIISi, or to the LaserJet family at all. You can pretty much connect any ASCII printers to these TCP/IP interface products. Hope this helps. --- Ed Garay University of Illinois at Chicago, Computer Center P.S. -- Btw, IMHO, the HP LaserJet IIISi has the best 300dpi laser print quality to date, and makes an excellent PCL/PostScript/Duplex/17ppm/fast distributed printer, all for under $5K (;-)