HP3000/HP 3000 FAQ

Last Updated: Thursday, February 01, 2007 02:38 PM

Remote printer access (LPR/LPD/etc) on the HP3000

4.5.5. Remote printer access (LPR/LPD/etc)

printing to printers on remote systems requires:

1. NS/3000 - only good to other 3000s also running NS - users can file equate a remote printer and print "directly" to it, or spoolfiles can be DSCOPY'd after the fact [this requires manual effort though]
2. Third party spooler packages
3. MPE/iX release 5.5 or later can print directly to HPJetdirect-equipped network printers

In MPE/iX release 5.5, users are able to print directly to printers on their network equipped with JetDirect cards; you'll configure these printers as (pseudo) spooled printers on the 3000 using a special config tool/command file provided with MPE. A configuration file called "NPCONFIG.PUB.SYS" contains control information for the actual printers - including their IP addresses and TCP port numbers. Look for sample configuration files called "NPSAMP@.PUB.SYS" which you can use as a basis for your own setup.

The big caveat; HP *really* wants you to use JetDirect cards for remote printing from your HP3000. The built-in network printing capability in MPE/iX 5.5 "supports" only HP Jetdirect cards. Part of this requirement is the fact that the network printing solution makes extensive use of the SNMP network status options that the Jetdirect card supports (and most other network printing cards do not). An (undocumented?) workaround for some network printer cards is to add a "snmp_enabled=FALSE" setting to the printer's entry in the NPCONFIG file. This disables the SNMP controls used, but also means that you lose page-level recovery and other printer control features.

If you need LPR/LPD remote printing, you'll need to look up one of the third-party spooler vendors. Check the vendor/product directory on this site for a list of vendors and products.

A freeware solution (if you only have *1* network printer) is the IPS spooler program from SMM Ltd. which runs on MPE/iX 4.0 and later. You can pick this package up in the public domain software area of this web site.