Subject: [netatalk-admins] IP-only netatalk [formerly:Network Server 700 and netatalk]

From: [email-masked] (Donald Lee)
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 22:17:03 -0500

>Q: what do i lose by going to tcp/ip only?  
>A: tcp/ip based networks don't advertise services. as a result,
>   you'll need to know the server/printer to which you want to
>   connect. 

Printing is also somewhat degraded.  The UNIX lpd has no "backchannel" so
the more intelligent things done by appletalk printers, like telling you about
paper shortages, font downloading, querying for PPD stuff and so forth are
not possible. For the most part, this simply means that you have to
produce "conservative" postscript, and make guesses about what's at the
other end of the connection, but there are a bunch of other things
you simply can't do with current protocols.

-dgl-

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From: Andrew McNabb <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 22:29:15 -0500 (CDT)

Is there any way to get UNIX to communicate better with the printer?  I am
curious if anyone has written anything that isn't built around line
printers.

> you simply can't do with current protocols.

----------------------------------------------
                Andrew McNabb
             Argus Systems Group
          [email-masked]
----------------------------------------------
  I am an International Arms Trafficker!!!!!
http://online.offshore.com.ai/arms-trafficker/
----------------------------------------------

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From: Edan Idzerda <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 23:58:14 -0400 (EDT)

> curious if anyone has written anything that isn't built around line

Well, LPRng and its associated filters do a fairly nice job of talking with
HP printers, though there isn't really a facility for querying PPDs--but I have
heard some talk of it.

So, an lpq on the unix side will tell you "paper out" or "the printer's not 
answering" or "busy" and simple things like that.  Whether or not the Apple-side
lpr/lpq can get at this information depends on how they query LPRng's LPD.

Whatever happened to that Internet Printing Initiative Thingy, I wonder.  
That's not it's real name, obviously, but wasn't there a working group of some
kind that was working up something like this?

oh well.

- edan

home page for LPRng: http://www.astart.com/lprng/LPRng.html

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From: Jonathan Peterson <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 11:05:36 +0100

Helios EtherShare and Sun PCShare are two commercial packages that claim to
do more or less what netatalk does. If anyone has experience, 1st or 2nd
hand of these packages, please could they let me know how good/bad they are?

We are about to grow out of our trusty Linux box onto a Sun E450, and all
of a sudden there are commercial programs that might make my life easier.
Or might not. And I'd love to hear what people's experiences are.
 
--------
Jon Peterson	[email-masked]	+44 (0)171 613 5300

Give me liberty or give me death or give me coffee.

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From: Harald Deppeler <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 12:50:40 +0200 (MET DST)

> Or might not. And I'd love to hear what people's experiences are.

I would be very much interested in those reports, too.

At my former working place we were using a Linux/netatalk solution. It 
was ok (unstable once in a while [using the unpatched 1.4b2
distribution]).

At my new working place (since April 1st) we are using Helios
EtherShare on an old sun. I've no experience with it so far. However,
we are planning to run it on new hardware and we're not sure whether
to use EtherShare or Netatalk (or Sun PCShare).

-- Harry

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From: Matthias FERDINAND <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 12:44:20 +0200

>hand of these packages, please could they let me know how good/bad they are?

Hello,

to those who are just about to send their comments on these commercial
packages - please let me know, too! :-)
I just set up netatalk-1.4b2+asun2.0a18.2 on our linux box - so far 
no problems yet. But I've heard rumours that Helios comes with a
nice admin application, so a Mac-User can manage
users/groups/permissions without the need to resort to Unix
commandline- or X-Windows-Tools.

Regards

Matthias Ferdinand

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From: Michael Berghaus <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 18:56:27 +0200 (CEST)

> hand of these packages, please could they let me know how good/bad
they are?

As Netatalk doesn't run on DigitalUnix, at work we use Helios EtherShare
on a DEC Alpha. Actually, it was not me who installed the package, but our
network administrator, who isn't very skilled with Apple hardware and
AppleTalk.
Obviously everything works fine, so the installation can't be very
difficult and EtherShare seems to be as stable as netatalk. In
addition, it has a nice administration tool. So, I could vote for
EtherShare; it does good work.

Michael

---------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Berghaus            Tel:   ++49-(0)2202/97449
In den Hesseln 7            email: [email-masked]
D-51519 Odenthal            ham:   dg2kbh@dk0mwx.#nrw.deu.eu