xtnewcastle@levels.sait.edu.au (David Morrison) (12/19/90)
I have a problem. I am about to set up a lab of Macs (50 LCs probably) all with Ethernet cards. I want a laser printer to be shared by all these Macs. As far as I am aware, there is no LaserWriter with an Ethernet interface available from Apple, and I have not seen anything from anyone else either. How can I make it work? (I presume I cannot simultaneously use LocalTalk and Ethertalk. This would be too easy :-) -- David Morrison, Manager, Networks and Comms, Uni of Newcastle, Australia sysnet@cc.newcastle.edu.au or (VAX PSI) psi%0505249626002::sysnet Phone: +61 49 680401 Fax: +61 49 685308 (Till 22 December) Phone: +61 49 215000 Fax: +61 49 ?????? (After 1 January)
sanders.parc@xerox.com (12/20/90)
In article <15773.276e8b84@levels.sait.edu.au> xtnewcastle@levels.sait.edu.au (David Morrison) writes: >I have a problem. I am about to set up a lab of Macs (50 LCs probably) all >with Ethernet cards. I want a laser printer to be shared by all these Macs. > >As far as I am aware, there is no LaserWriter with an Ethernet interface >available from Apple, and I have not seen anything from anyone else either. > >How can I make it work? In no particular order, these are the solutions (I hate that word) I know: 1. Buy one of the ~US$2500 LocalTalk/Ethernet gateways like Shiva FastPath or Cayman GatorBox. (We are using FastPaths now). You would use a short LocalTalk network between the gateway and the laser printer. Gateway is overkill unless you need other features (like GatorBox AppleShare<->NFS translation). Can be a pain to keep running. 2. Buy one of the ~US$600 Mac-based routers like Farallon Liason. Again, a short LocalTalk network goes between the routing Mac and the laser printer. Expect performance hit on the routing Mac, unknown if these routers work on LCs. 3. Buy a Dayna EtherPrint ~US$500. Direct connection between Ethernet and one LaserWriter. Simple - 3 dip switches, no software, all cables included, small box. I have one in hand, about to test. 4. Use LocalTalk for printing, Ethernet for TCP/IP access. Not sure if you can print over LocalTalk and use AppleShare/TOPS/etc over Ethernet. This works, but might not meet your other needs. 5. Wait for Apple's rumored Ethernet LaserWriters. See latest MacWeek. You might wait a long time, who knows? 6. Buy or co-opt a Unix host, attach the LW directly to the host with RS-232, and run CAP (free) or TOPS spool ($????) or something. Not recommended unless you are desparate, hard to set up and keep running. You can get printer accounting this way, might be important to you. 7. Like number 6, but instead of RS-232, get a LocalTalk board for Sun S-Bus. Don't know if CAP/TOPS/etc will work with this. 8. Use a (gag, choke, sputter) PC clone with Ethernet and LocalTalk boards somehow. Too gross to discuss further :-) 9. There IS a PostScript laser printer with Ethernet (DEC LPS-40?), but it doesn't speak AppleTalk. Very expensive (~US$25k), and you need a DEC VAX/VMS host and software and ... Use only if most of these pieces are lying around anyway. Basically, the Macs see the VMS host as a LW spooler, the VMS host speaks DECnet (or something) to the LPS-40. If #3 works well, I'm leaning strongly to the KISS solution. Would be even simpler if Apple came out with Ethernet upgrades to existing LW II NT/NTX printers. With Apple's well known low-price upgrades :-), #3 will probably still be cheaper. -- Rex
bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG) (12/20/90)
In article <15773.276e8b84@levels.sait.edu.au> xtnewcastle@levels.sait.edu.au (David Morrison) writes: >I have a problem. I am about to set up a lab of Macs (50 LCs probably) all >with Ethernet cards. I want a laser printer to be shared by all these Macs. > For a single printer, the best solution might be Dayna's EtherPrint box, which will interface a printer to an EtherTalk network. It lists for about $500. Alternatively, one could use software like Liaison from Farallon (list $300) on a machine which is powered up all the time. It will steal some CPU cycles from that machine, but it may still be used as a workstation, depending on the software one wants to run on it. John Heckendorn /\ BMUG ARPA: bmug@garnet.berkeley.EDU A__A 1442A Walnut St., #62 BITNET: bmug@ucbgarne |()| Berkeley, CA 94709 Phone: (415) 549-2684 | |
woods@convex.com (Darrin Woods) (12/20/90)
>I have a problem. I am about to set up a lab of Macs (50 LCs probably) all >with Ethernet cards. I want a laser printer to be shared by all these Macs. > >How can I make it work? > Etherprint from Dayna. Works great in all my installs. -- Blacksheep woods@convex.com Senior Systems Engineer 'I do not work for Convex, I am a guest on their systems - therefore