I thought this worthy of mention since I was "educated" a few days ago...
 
The third-party options for network printing have been mentioned, as well
as the upcoming MPE/iX 5.5 support for JetDirect boxes.  However...
 
We have had a dozen or so JetDirect cards in LaserJets for some time,
mostly for Novell or Appletalk, but one was used from the 3000 with a
third-party package (ESPUL in our case, not a plug; I'm trying to stay
generic here :-) ).  Configure the IP address from the printer control
panel and off you go.
 
We recently got a 5000/C40D (I posted that earlier) with a JetDirect EX
box.  Using the supplied software, we had it on a Novell queue in no time
but we wanted to get to it from the 3000.  Ooops... no way to configure
the IP address!  Only answer was bootp.  The documentation on that is
rather cryptic, assuming you're loading the (extra-cost) Unix software
and using their utilities.
 
Then I was pleased to find ESPUL had a bootp daemon with a clear example
file.  I think this applies to other packages, and I know it's planned
for the upcoming MPE version as well.  Probably not news to most of you
but I never understood why you *had* to have bootp until I got an EX box.
 
In fairness, I received a private reply from an HP person stating that the
newer EX boxes had a new EPROM that would let you telnet to the box and set
the address.
 
Now my final point, which I learned from reading the ESPUL docs, is that
these boxes will report status to a "syslog" daemon (also provided).  The
neat part of this is that you get console messages for the networked
printers (never knew about that part either!).  So once installed, you
get console messages on power-up, online/offline, intervention required,
etc.  I may "retrofit" this to some of our other printers, it's a handy
little feature.
 
I don't know of the other vendors provide the syslog daemon, nor if it is
planned for 5.5, but it is certainly handy!
 
Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>