Topic: Help needed with network printer setup

[Allen]

Hi,

I am on the tech committee for a small school (talk about the blind leading...) and we keep having problems with the W2K server that one previous parent insisted on installing.

The school has about 35 computers, 20 or so running W2K, 4 running W98, 6 Macs running 0S 9,.1 2 Macs running 10.1 or 10.2 . We have about 10 printers with network cards - most HP JetDirect - scattered about the building and 2 copier/printers that are network connected. These printers are a mix of B/W and color Laser printers and some inkjet printers. HP4, 4MV, 5, 5MP and 2100. The inkjets are mostly Epson

Nobody really knows enough about the W2K server to really make it work right as a network print server.

What we need is for any computer to print to any printer. All the tutorials that I have seen talk about hanging a couple of printers off the back end of a Linux box or they refer to using cups. The first does not apply to our topology and second has the major problem that the documentation leaves a lot to be desired for semi-savvy parents and having multiple people responsible.

Will the SME server do the job? I can't tell if it will handle the Mac OS 9.1 computers needs or the Mac OS 10.x needs.

I can set up a Samba server for the Windoze boxes so I have some Linux savvy but not a lot.

Any help, pointers, or reference to documentation most appreciated.

[Ray Mitchell]

Allen

Yes the blind leading the blind feeling is good isn't it !!!???

From how I interpret your requirements I think this is what you want to do.

You need to allocate each printer with an unique IP that is in the sme (unused) range. You will have to read the printer/card manual to find out how to do this for each JetDirect card, but I assume there would be either setup software or network management software to do this.
Then in sme server manager you can setup each network printer using the printers IP address as a remote printer with a remote address name.

Then setup that printer address name in the Hostname & Addresses panel with it's corresponding printer IP address, as a local connection.

Setup all the sme printer shares on each w/s and that way all printers are available to all workstations. The print jobs are effectively sent directly to each printer as the sme server just acts as a print job "forwarder".

You could try it out on one printer first to prove the theory for your situation, but I have done it elswhere and it works OK. I would not worry about what the other tutorials say etc, as sme has been designed to do this as described above.

As fas as I know there is no hands on samba setup required, sme takes care of all these things if you drive it via the server manager.

I don't know about Macs and which OS's are supported but I'm sure there was something in the documentation, look online, or on the sme instal CD at the manuals. Sme server does support appletalk out of the box (enabled by default), so you can connect a mix of Win & Mac PC's OK.

Hope this helps
Regards
Ray Mitchell

[Michael Smith]

My experience with SME and Macintoshes is that SME 5.1.2 would support Macs for printing right out of the box, no trouble at all ... 5.6 would provide file services but I've been having the dickens of a time getting an iBook to see a printer shared by the SME server.


If you don't want to rip & replace, you should make sure your Windows 2000 server has File & Print Services for Macintosh installed.  If you have to install it, reinstall the current service pack also ... I know, you're not SUPPOSED to have to do that, but it won't hurt anything.  

Then search HP's site for Web Jetadmin software ... it makes setting up all these printers an absolute breeze.  Run it on your Windows 2000 server; it'll search out all JetDirect-equipped printers, install them and *even offer to share them*.