James B. Byrne writes:
>
> Can one of the wise and learned denizens of this list deign to
> enlighten one who seeks the truth regarding page level recovery
> support as it applies to networked (tcp/ip) printing.
>
> Specifically, which printer models sold by HP support this option?
> For each, is it standard or does it required the purchase of some
> form of optional component.  Lastly, can this feature be used on
> printers networked using external JetDirect boxes.

Our D640 laser printer seems to support PJL/PLR without any problems, and it
is connected to a JetDirect EX, as are most of our network printers.

Our LPQ1200 impact printer did not support PJL/PLR on the original firmware.
We had to upgrade the firmware a few months ago to solve an unrelated PCL
escape sequence problem, and when I restarted the spooler after the upgrade,
I was surprised to see the spooler using PJL to talk to the printer!

Unfortunately this was too good to be true.  During the next week or so, the
poor LPQ1200 was corrupting output and generating all sorts of nasty network
spooling errors.  The HPRC engineer asked the printer division whether or
not PJL/PLR was now supported on LPQ printers, and the answer is still "no".
NPCONFIG.PUB.SYS was changed to disable PJL/PLR, and all of the problems went
away.

<RANT>

5.5 network spooling has been out for what, maybe 18 months now?  And there
*STILL* isn't any PJL/PLR support for LPQ impact printers (if I'm mistaken,
please correct me).  Without PJL/PLR, high-volume production printing of
large spoolfiles is impossible, because you can't backspace the printer to
reprint torn pages after a paper jam.

We first started using networked printers when we upgraded to a 969KS200 in
May 1996.  Because the 9x9 machines don't support HPIB, we converted our old
2567B printer to parallel and hooked it up to a JetDirect EX.  We added a new
LPQ1200, also with a parallel/JetDirect configuration.  Because we were still
on 5.0 at that time, we purchased a copy of Minisoft's NetPrint92 network
printing package.  Because we knew 5.5 network printing was coming soon, we
elected not to pay for NetPrint92 maintenance/support, under the assumption
that we would migrate to 5.5 network printing as soon as it was available.

Well, 5.5 network printing is here, but there's still no PJL/PLR support in
our LPQ1200, so we're still using our not-on-maintenance copy of NetPrint92
because NetPrint92 supports forward spacing and backward spacing without
needing PJL/PLR.  NetPrint92 meets our network printing needs, but it's also
confusing to operators who have to learn *both* NetPrint92 for networked
printers and standard MPE spooling for our many lower-volume serial printers
(most of which will never be converted to network printers).

I want to be able to migrate to 100% pure MPE spooling.  But I've been waiting
for a year because of the lack of PJL/PLR, and I'm still waiting, without an
end in sight.  :-(

Is ANYBODY using 5.5 network printing for high-volume impact printer production
output?

</RANT>
--
Mark Bixby                      E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Coast Community College Dist.   Web: http://www.cccd.edu/~markb/
District Information Services   1370 Adams Ave, Costa Mesa, CA, USA 92626-5429
Technical Support               Voice: +1 714 438-4647
"You can tune a file system, but you can't tune a fish." - tunefs(1M)