Unlike parallel and serial devices, print devices with built-in
network adapter cards do not have to be physically connected to
the print server. Where you locate these types of print devices
has no effect on printing performance, assuming users and print
devices are not on opposite sides of a network bridge or gateway.
An Advanced Server/9000 print server can control dozens of
network-interface printers, depending on the server's processing
capability, the amount of installed memory, and the size and number
of documents typically sent to the print server. To maintain high
server throughput levels, increase memory as you add print devices.
Network-interface print devices are attached to the network
through a built-in adapter card or add-on attachment.
In most cases, you must determine the network-print device's
address before you can add printers to Advanced Server/9000 using
the Add Printer Wizard. If you are printing over TCP/IP, you usually
need the print device's TCP/IP address. If you are printing
to a Hewlett-Packard network-interface print device, run a self-test
to obtain the network card address.
Installing Printer Drivers for Multiple Hardware Platforms |
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Different hardware platforms and operating systems require
different printer drivers. For example, to use a printer (or shared
printer queue) created on an Advanced Server/9000 computer, a client
running Windows NT on an Alpha computer requires the appropriate
Alpha printer driver for that printer. The driver can be installed
locally or on the Advanced Server/9000 print server. Similarly,
clients can use Advanced Server/9000 print servers only if the requisite
drivers are installed locally or on the server.
If your network contains a mixture of Windows 95,
Alpha, Power PC, MIPS, and x86-based client computers,
you can install printer drivers for each one on each print server.
This ensures that documents originating from Windows NT
or Windows 95 clients running on any of the hardware types
can use all print devices.
If you have clients running earlier versions of Windows NT,
you will need to install the appropriate older printer drivers for
each version/platform combination. Separate printer drivers are
required for each hardware platform to support every version of
Windows NT: Versions 3.51, and 4.0.
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 | NOTE: When you choose to install an alternate driver for Windows 95,
you are prompted for the Windows 95 printer driver file(s).
Because Windows NT Setup cannot extract these files from
the Windows 95 .cab files, you must use the Windows 95
Extract.exe program to extract the printer driver file(s) from the
Windows 95 installation media (CD or floppy disks) or from
the Windows 95 .cab files on the Windows NT Server CD. |
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For example, if your network contains Windows 95
clients, x86-based clients running Windows NT 4.0 and 3.51 and Alpha
clients running Windows NT 4.0 and 3.51, and you are creating
a shared printer queue on an Advanced Server/9000 computer, you
should install four printer drivers in addition to the x86-based
Windows NT printer driver that is installed by default
for the printer you have selected:
Windows NT 3.5 or 3.51 x86
Windows NT 3.5 or 3.51 Alpha
Advanced Server print server determines whether incoming print
requests are Alpha, Power PC, MIPS, or x86-based and automatically
sends the appropriate driver to the client.
To install multiple printer drivers, select each version/hardware
platform pairing in the Add Printer Wizard after you choose to share
the printer. You also can add support for other platforms later
from the printer's Properties Sharing property sheet.
For more information on changing a printer's properties
after the printer is installed, see "Setting Properties
for a Printer (Shared Printer Queue)" later in this chapter.
Installing a Printer Driver for an Unsupported Printer |
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If a particular device is not supported, try setting up the
printer according to the following table.
If your device is not in this list, contact the manufacturer
to determine if custom drivers are available.
For information about obtaining new printer drivers for your
system, obtain the latest version of the Windows NT HCL
or contact your hardware manufacturer. The latest version of the
HCL can be downloaded from the Internet. For more information, see
the Microsoft World Wide Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/.
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