Print Server Features

Support for 255 Printers

The print server in NetWare Services supports up to 255 printers. How effectively it can support a large number of printers depends primarily on the speed of your printers. The faster your printer, the greater the likelihood you will notice that performance has been affected by a large number of printers. For example, network-attached printers running in remote printer mode are usually capable of high printing speeds if the print server is not heavily loaded.

Configurable Queue Sampling Interval

In NetWare Services, the default queue sampling interval is 5 seconds. As long as there are jobs in the queue, continual queries are made. This interval is configurable for up to 255 seconds, but the lower default setting will increase printer performance in most cases, especially when using a fast printer.

Address Restrictions for Remote Printers

When you configure a print server, you have the option of putting an address restriction specifying that a printer must run from a specified address (a node address and network segment) in order to connect to the print server. If you retain the unrestricted option (which is the default), the print server will allow the remote printer to connect to it from any address.

Support for PostScript Banner

You can configure a printer so that PostScript banners will be generated for that printer. When using this option, you must be sure to select a banner type that matches your default printer type.

Auditing Log

The auditing log provides tighter security and billing information about all jobs that have been printed. It can be read through PCONSOLE.

In designing the auditing log, Hewlett-Packard recognized that companies do accounting in a variety of ways. For this reason, the auditing log provides a basic default format based on ASCII and a fixed record length. Both characteristics are designed to make it as easy as possible to write a customized program to retrieve the information it needs in a format determined by a particular company.

The auditing log is sufficiently flexible to record whatever information a printer sends to it. Regardless of printer type, the log will record how many bytes a job took to print, the user who submitted the job, when the job entered the print queue, when the job was printed, and what printer serviced the job.