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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: matt3k on March 26, 2003, 04:11:00 PM

Title: Printing to a network printer?
Post by: matt3k on March 26, 2003, 04:11:00 PM

I have a jet direct feature in my HP printer and all of my Amiga's have a Nic card with a router for internet access.  I'm using turboprint for the device driver.  

Can I print via my network to my printer?  

Title: Re: Printing to a network printer?
Post by: KennyR on March 26, 2003, 05:56:37 PM

Tricky. If your printer supports lpr or tcp/ip printing, there are a few custom devices to use. Just replace parallel.device in the Turboprint prefs. As for the devices, lpr.device and netpar.device are two that might suit you.

NetPar is on aminet:
http://ftp.plig.org/pub/aminet/comm/tcp/NetParLpr.lha (http://ftp.plig.org/pub/aminet/comm/tcp/NetParLpr.lha)

Lpr.device is on the OS3.9 CD in the contributions dir. You should be able to find it somewhere if you don't have the CD too.

It's no guarantee it'll work, but it's worth a try.

Also Samba (http://www.amigasamba.org) is a possibility.

Title: Re: Printing to a network printer?
Post by: on March 26, 2003, 11:41:47 PM

I have been using netpar from aminet for some time with my postscript laser printer and Epson inkjet, both connected through a network print server.  This allows me to print to either printer from any computer on the network, including Amigas, and in general it works great.

Only problem I have had is that when printing to the Epson from Graphics Publisher (part of Turboprint, needed to access the modern Epsons) after each printout the Amiga hangs and needs a reboot.  Anyone else have this problem, or better yet, a solution?

--Ray

Title: Re: Printing to a network printer?
Post by: KennyR on March 27, 2003, 12:23:52 AM

I use NetPar for my router's printer server, and I don't get any crashes here. In fact, it works almost flawlessly... strange. Have you tried making absolutely sure Miami has no Service entry for port 515? I know NetPar doesn't like that very much... It's never crashed me, though.

Title: Re: Printing to a network printer?
Post by: on March 27, 2003, 02:10:16 AM

I don't really get a crash--it hangs.  Graphic publisher puts up a busy icon while it's sending data to the printer, and the problem is that the busy pointer never goes away, and can't be cancelled.  The print job does finish, though, and the printout is complete and fine.

This problem does not occur when I print to the postscript printer on the same print server.

I have netpar set up so the postscript printer is unit 0 and the Epson is unit 1.  In Turboprint, for the Epson, I print to device "parallel.device", unit 1.  However, I have also tried setting turboprint to print to PAR:, and using ACTIVEUNIT to direct output to unit 1, with the same results.

--Ray

Title: Re: Printing to a network printer?
Post by: matt3k on March 29, 2003, 01:29:31 PM

Thanks KennyR and RayZ.  Works perfect.  I used the version packaged with OS 3.9.