Arev Printing to Hp Jetdirect printer

Running:

Arev 3.12

Win98se

Novell Network 4.11

Just bought a HP 5100 with Jetdirect Lan card (Tcp/Ip Printer server card) Configured driver to use LPT2 for dos

Can do (without problems) Copy autoexec.bat lpt2

Or any file for that matter.

Under Arev :

When anything is sent to this printer. I get a dos type of error

?General failure reading device LP2??

Abort, Retry, Fail?

I do think its strange that the error say ?LP2? not LPT2? not sure if this is a clue

With no redirection. I tried $PRNSTAT which returned ?1

I tried PDISK LPT2 but I get

W579

Access to the output file has been denied.

Printer output has not been redirected.

Any help would be great

Thanks

Bob,

This thread might be of some assistance.

msorrel@greyhound.com

Greyhound Lines, Inc.

Matt, helps some

Charlie said "If I switch to the shared printer BEFORE starting AREV"

I think he is saying he changes the default printer…

This would be a real pain in the …..

Basicaly I got out of it.. dont use more than one printer..

and set the one you want to use as default.

Thanks Matt

Bob,

I have no idea about Novel Networks… Although I just gotta say this…

My AREV uses a networked printer. And before it will sucessfully print to the printer, I must do a "NET USE LPT1: \\SERVER\HPLJ6L" DOS command. So I am wondering if that has anything to do with your problem. Maybe, or maybe not since you can do the COPY AUTOEXEC.BAT LPT1 command successfully.

Ok to be clear here..

This has nothing to do with a network server.

This printer has a cat5 cable connected to it and has its own ip address.

The Hp driver handle the tcp/ip stuff..

My best guess is it has something to do with Arev/Dos isn?t able

to get a response from the printer.. and therefore it fails.

But like i said this is my best guess at the problem.. not the

solution which is what i need.

I hope someone has a solution.

Thanks

I would try deleting the printer and setting it up again. This looks like maybe something went awry in the initial setup. You might also want to experiment with using a different port.

I have a customer currently with a printer and using HP Jetdirect. Unfortunately they are Unix/UniVerse. Next week I will be visiting them. I will do some tests to see if I can print to the printer using Windows/Arev. I will let you know of the results next week.

I would think that each AREV workstation needs to map to the printer. And given that AREV is DOS based… I would think that using the "NET USE LPT1: \\ip address\printer name" command would map the printer. Well we shall see next week.

Bob,

Don't know if this link will be any use to you?

The Sprezzatura Group

World leaders in all things RevSoft

I have several clients with JetDirect printers running on their Novell 3.x networks that ARev sees with no problem. I did not set these up on Novell so I can't give you specific details, however they are setup as normal queues on the Novell servers and a standard capture command with /q=queue_name works.

Try using HPs Network Printer Installer Wizard to add the printer to Windows if you can't find the queue on the Novell server in the network browser. This should be included with the JetDirect card.

And try using the Novell Windows client to set the capture commands.

Warren & The Sprezzatura Group

I must be missing something because I dont understand how NET USE or Novell applies.

This printer has a net card in it so (to my knowledge) there are no mappings involved.

Other than workstation drivers. Which at the time of installing it asked if Dos would be printing to it and i said Yes.. and assigned it to LPT2

The printer is not connected (per say) to a fileserver but a Cat5 cable

goes from the printer to a 16 port switch.

Hope this makes sense..

btw I have purchased OI 4.x but need to take some classes :)

Bob,

The Windows NET USE command and the Novell CAPTURE statement both perform similar functions - basically they map a local printer port to a network printer.

As you said, you performed this function when you installed the driver, but in the case of some DOS apps like ARev on W2K/XP etc you need to do this 'manually' using the appropriate command like NET USE.

Your printer should have a path\address to identify it on the network, regadless of whether or not it's attached to a server, so it's this that needs to be used with the NET USE command.

The Sprezzatura Group

World leaders in all things RevSoft

Adding to Sprezzatura's message…

Next week I will have access to a "JetDirect" printer. Until then you might want to check out this HP site.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?locale=en_US&objectID=bpj05130&locale=en_US&taskId=115&prodSeriesId=27314&prodTypeId=18972

I cannot remember well … it seems I had problems with jetdirect some years ago. … Case sensitivness lpt2 LPT2? … It was not with connection to AREV, but …

BTW: We almost never print directly from AREV, we use files instead. With this practise the problem vanishes:) … the exceptions are print screens:(.

You could add PDISK commands to the following code and add it to a macro key to do you printscreens.

DECLARE SUBROUTINE VIDEO.RW

* capture screen buffer contents

IMAGE='

VIDEO.RW(0,0,(@CRTWIDE-1),(@CRTMAXHIGH-1),'R',IMAGE)

* take original image and insert carriage-return line feeds

NEW.IMAGE='

FOR I=1 TO LEN(IMAGE) STEP 2

 NEW.IMAGE := IMAGEI,1

 IF MOD(I+1,160)=0 THEN

 NEW.IMAGE := (\0D0A\)

END

NEXT I

* add page break to end of dump, so that each screen has its own page

*NEW.IMAGE := CHAR(12)

PRINTER ON

PRINT NEW.IMAGE

PRINTER OFF

Thanks Victor … good idea … no printer access from AREV needed :)

… simple when colors are not missused (but it can be tailored for special format when colors are required as well).

A key feature of network print servers is they don't necessarily require a computer or the net use command for most applications. However, reliability is remarkably improved when TCP/IP print servers are configured with a STATIC IP address, even on a DHCP system.

For example, "out of the box," the HP JetDirect is set to use a dynamic IP. Power failures, etc can cause the unit to change its IP address from time to time, leading to print delays and failures.

On a small workgroup with a gateway at say . . . 192.168.1.254, we will usually reserve 192.168.1.253 for a TCP/IP print server, resulting is a far more stable environment.

This method also applies to LinkSys, Brother and other vendors and to network TCP/IP fax devices.

Bob, In my experience AREV never liked to print to anything but the default printer. I use JetDirect in this manner: Setup a local computer port (Any Name You Want) using the JetDirect connection utility. Create the Arev reports to spool to a DOS file(PDISK or OSWrite) on some directory. At the end of the report I just execute a copy command to the named port. Works every time. It is important the the name you use in JetDirect is the same on ALL the workstations so that you can automate the copy process in Arev without managing the ports.

Assuming your are using the Novell Netware Client for Windows, right click on the red "N" icon on the systray and pick "Novell capture printer port" from the menu.

Then just fill in the information, using the drop-lists/browse features if necessary.

are you running arev on your novell server or just using it for a print server?,are you using ipx/spx on your novell server, if so try setting it to use ipx/spx and setup a novell print-q and assing the jetdirect to the novell-q, i use novell 4.11 with just ipx/spx with built in jet direct card on a 5000 printer and i found that sometimes is't best not to use HP's jetdirect installation software, especially if you are not using the novell client 32 it like to add microsoft ports, use the web browser to open the configuration and set up the print q for novell there

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