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ETHERNET PRINT SERVER
5.1 NetWare
NetWare allows any networked node (a “client,” usually a PC) to access
another node (a fileserver) as if it were locally attached. You can use hard
disks, printers, and other devices as if they were directly attached to the client
station. You can assign access rights, passwords, and privileges to prevent
unauthorized use of the file server’s resources.
File servers are essential to the NetWare concept, and the system cannot
function without at least one file server on the network. Users typically have
to log into a file server to use the NetWare function. The file servers also
provide print spooling for the clients—they will accept print jobs and hold
them locally until the print resource is available to print the job. In this case,
the EPS appears as a print resource, and will occasionally contact the file
servers on the network to see if they have jobs that the EPS can service.
Each file server that needs to use the EPS’s print services must be
configured with a print queue that the EPS can service. Users then send their
print requests to the file server’s print queue, and the jobs are spooled until
the EPS prints them. Since the file server controls the queue, all NetWare
access restrictions and permissions are enforced, and only jobs that are
privileged to use the EPS are permitted to do so. You can enforce different
methods of queueing priority on the file server, and the EPS requires no
knowledge of them. Some options are passed to the EPS (such as number of
copies to print, banner page, etc.) and those are handled locally by the EPS.
The EPS services the NetWare hosts in two steps. Every minute, it sends
a broadcast to try to locate all the file servers on the network. Also, it will
contact each file server at least once per minute to see if there are any
pending jobs that it can service. If there are no NetWare-enabled services
on the EPS, the EPS will not contact the file servers, and the EPS will not
broadcast to find the available servers.
5.2 TCP/IP
The TCP/IP protocol provides a guaranteed data stream between two hosts,
but does not specify what is carried in the stream and how it should be
handled. Various other applications and protocols use TCP/IP, so the
sending and receiving hosts must agree on how certain connections will be
treated. The interpretation done on any particular stream is usually based
on which “port” the connection is made to. For example, a connection to
TCP/IP port 511 means that the sender wants to send an LPR print stream
to the receiver.