Network Printing

N

NICK7

Registered
1st things 1st.

I have about 30 computers on my network. One Xerox Phaser 7750, 2 HP 5000s, and 2 HP 1000 series plotters. I switched from using AppleTalk to TCP/IP. I have had problems with the AppleTalk and flashing screans and viewer windows. After the switch one computer can ping the Phaser and seems to send a job, but nothing prints. I have switched ports, changed back to AppleTalk, and rebooted. I also have a mac mini that can't print to anything. I have even set up a print server to the HP plotters to redirect the connection and it still won't send a print.

Any ideas? Going crazy here..... thanks for the help in advance!
 
Going to need more info - what OS are you using on all computers? Do you need Classic printing? Do the HP 5000s have postscript cards (I don't think so)? Does the Phaser have postscript? What model Designjet/Deskjet?
Do all the printers have built-in ethernet? Do you have the manuals? Which TCP/IP protocol have you tried? For the HPs, the best protocol is usually HP Jetdirect protocol, because it doesn't need a queue name. For IP > LPD and IP > IPP, you need the queue name of the ethernet interface on the printer.

As a minimum, you will need to install the hpijs and ESP ghostscript driver set here:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/hpijs/
and the pnm2ppa driver set (only need ESP ghostscript once):
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/pnm2ppa/

I just Googled queue name for the Phaser and it suggests "PS"

Good luck.
 
Who setup your printers? Which of the printers did not work via AppleTalk? BTW, each of your printers already has a print server. They are internal. I have seen Windows-centric staff disable certain network protocols. On occasion--usually following a power failure--I have experienced problems with AppleTalk, but I have never had problems with flakiness. The Xerox printers should show up as Bonjour printers by default. I am not sure about the HPs, but the company supports Bonjour. This gets back to my first question: Who setup your printers?
 
Computers are running 10.3.9. I have some computers that are working in Photoshop 6 needing the classic environment. The HP 5000s do not have postscript cards. The Phaser does not either. The DesignJets, one is a 1050 and the other is a 1055. All printers have built in ethernet. I have the manuals, and I've tried to follow them, but you see how far that has got me. I have set a queue name on the print server. However I have not set a queue name of the ethernet on the printer. I will try that!

As for who set up my printers, I inherited this position from the person before me. There was 2 different Phasers on my network, the normal AppleTalk and the the Bonjour or Rendvous. I would have to switch back and forth all the time, hence...One HP 5000 and the Phaser didn't work on half the office via AppleTalk. I would have to delete the printer from Printer Setup and then reboot the machine to get it to work.

Thank you for the advice!, I will keep you posted.
 
Like I said, with the HPs, don't mess with queue name - use IP printing > HP Jetdirect for the protocol when you ADD in Printer Setup.
If you don't have the postscript cards in the 1050 + 1055, you will need to buy the driver at www.easysw.com. HP doesn't make an OS X driver for the non-postscript models.

The PS queue name is for postscript Phaser. So, for your Phaser, try IP > IPP protocol or Rendezvous and hope for auto-discovery.

Good luck.
 
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