Print Shop

Print Shop
As jobs arrive safely at your destination
Printing over the network is no longer just
Pressure on the LAN, but also in the wireless LAN, through
Mobile networks or over the Internet, and for the
variety of sources. Thereby increasing the
Requirements for Print Management, dissolve
for example through the use of dedicated
Print servers, as well as hardware or software
Regulation of print data streams.
S ince the 80-years
Many desks
changed: PCs and printers
've typewriters, paper
pencil and replaced. But
with the number of computer workstations
increased the administrative burden
steadily. Already
was in the 90s in many
The printer companies historically diversity
conditioned such that
their entertainment too costly
and was costly. A
new development came to the company
to help: With the networking
the computer also received
the printer its own network card;
the network printer
was born. Entire departments
were converted: The desktop printer
were
much more powerful and faster
Network printers
displaced.
But the PCs were
of this development is not
spared: applications run
often no longer on the
From PC, but on a server.
This made ​​it possible for
the applications administration
and acquisition costs
. reduce With the
Release of Longhorn, the
Microsoft for January 2007
announced server operating system,
This trend is
expected to increase further.
User should then
hardly notice if a
Application locally on your PC
or runs on a central application
or terminal server.
And many employees who
Only applications
use of terminal servers,
already working with almost
maintenance-free terminals -
known as thin clients.
Print this turns on the
Development of entirely new requirements:
Print jobs come
from various
Sources - from PCs, terminal servers
or other application servers
such as
SAP, and they must have some
long distances to both
Network printers as well as to
Desktop printers sent
be.
Sometimes
multifunctional
Considering a network printer
it is
In the simplest case to
a laser printer with built-in
Network card. The printer
is usually far
away from the workplace
Employee. This is not to
every time you need to go far,
when a particular form
or envelopes labeled
wants. Therefore has
Ideally, the printer via
multiple paper trays, a duplex unit
and a sorter.
To place on the department hallway
to create integrated,
newer models of other features:
copy, scan and
fax - hence its name: Multi-Function Printers
(Fig. 1).
About the NIC
The printer is easy to
Corporate LAN network, respectively
(Local Area Network) embedded.
All computers on the LAN
- Whether servers or PCs -
send their print jobs directly
to the network printer
. send Previously, they must
even with the necessary
Software supplied: with
a printer driver and
one based on TCP / IP
Printing protocol. This process
is "Print Setup" as
known - independent
thereof, in which world
you are currently located:
Windows, Unix, Mac or
another.
Printer Network Cards
differ in two
Essential respects from those
a PC. First use
Printer manufacturers usually own
(Proprietary) designs.
Second, the network card
often take on tasks
otherwise the operating system
the computer does.
They must, for example various
Network and printing protocols
dominate, and
they must ensure that
Print jobs to wait when
the printer is busy
and not in a position to
to accept more print jobs.
The talk is of the
Print queue or
Queue. Therefore
called such a printer
Network cards also "internal
Print Server ". Are they part
the printer board
we also speak of onboard
Print servers.
Even desktop printer
can be to network printers
repurpose - provided
they cope
expected of them
Print volumes. Your network connection
then takes over
An external print server -
a small box, a network card
and a printer interface
contains.
All major printer manufacturers
have internal
and external print servers
in the portfolio.
But third-party
such as SEH,
Intermate, SMC or
Silex they exist.
Print server is not
the same print server
Print server can be very different
be fitted.
The models differ
both in terms of
supported printing protocols
as well as their interfaces, and
here there is no way the
famous all-rounder. During
internal print server naturally
only one printer drive
, it is at
External often two, three or
more. Internal Print Server
differ due
their different types
after the printer models
the manufacturer such as HP,
Epson and Kyocera Mita, external
however, the printer interface
such as parallel,
USB or Bluetooth. Relatively
new nor is the distinction
on network interface
such as Ethernet and
Wi-Fi. Brand new in the trend is
Support for Power
over Ethernet (PoE). The manufacturer
SEH offers approximately with
his models PS34-PoE
and ISD300-PoE devices,
their electricity needs from
the network cable cover.
Come as a "utility"
feature the respective switches
question.
A tip for device selection:
When purchasing a new
Network printer should be
not only on pressure and if necessary
Scan speed
eighth of a device:
He also supported in addition to PCL
Postscript printer language?
For all Postscript printers
understand PCL, but not vice versa.
In addition,
Unix machines and Macs always
PostScript print jobs generate
even if the appropriate
Printer driver not installed
is. Make one should
also that the desired
Device is a flat-bed printer
is, for printing on cardboard
labels and the paper must
horizontally through the printer
can be performed, ie
from front to rear instead of
bottom to top. And important
Not least of the qualities
the print server: Are
they internal, external or onboard
what print protocols are supported
and if he
how many printers?
If you buy the network printer
even without a network card
and obtains instead
an internal or external
Print server at a third party,
the printer can
use generally more flexible
and acquisition costs and
ongoing cost savings.
Where Freud is, there is sometimes
also suffering. Print Server
occasional problems
prepare, for example,
competing TCP / IP access:
As described, working
Print Server print jobs
the order of receipt
off. This works in general
even then, if
multiple print jobs simultaneously
arrive - assuming
They come from computers
the same operating system family,
So only
from Windows machines or
only from the Unix sources. For it
are print servers that are at
overlapping and Unix
Windows print jobs
ever refuse to serve.
Here, the only answer, the
Print server locally reset.
For internal print servers
this means that printer ausund
on again - with
the risk of paper jams
and that may
after this procedure
or two jobs in
Nirvana is gone.
If so, a
Between the station: a computer
as a dedicated print server, the
solely to processing
dedicated print jobs
is (Fig. 4). All orders
to go from the same
Source to the printer, regardless
What have they origin.
A print server -
many advantages
On Windows, can be attributed to
Thus, a print server
easy set up: simply all
Printer in the Printers folder of the
Server and set free;
now require all computers
These printers use the
should only connect
to a desired
Share that and the
Printing can begin. Under
Linux is the effort to
May be slightly higher, but
leave here the licensing costs
save for the operating system.
In addition, there are
A number of other reasons,
for the use of a
Print server to decide.
The most common is perhaps his
Ability to other computers
relief - are meant primarily
Line application server.
The print server can practically
indefinitely large and many
Save print jobs between
(New Germany: spool).
He also assumes the
Communication with the printers
respectively, their print servers.
If a printer is offline
or he needs toner or paper,
then do not wait the
pressure-triggering application server
until the printer
is ready again, but the
Print server. In pure Windows
NT environments is the
Discharge of the application server
greater than in other
Environments, this is because
that the final completion
a print job with
The printer driver, the
called rendering, in this
Case only on the print server
takes place.
Another not insignificant
Side effect of using
of print servers is the
Centralizing printer management.
Many interventions that administrators
in daily
Pressure to make business
need, they can participate in a
single machine and do:
Prioritize print jobs, new
or delete it and start -
times when nothing works -
Restart the print spooler.
Occasionally solves a critical
Printer drivers sometimes even
from a server crash. This is
While annoying, but the better
Print server as an application server crashes.
However
It is more common for
large, but less important
Print jobs to prevent
a small but unmissable
Job can be printed
can. Could no print server
the administrator does not determine
who the big jobs
sends. The print server
provides this information,
and it allows the administration,
the order of
To control execution.
Windows vs. Unix
Windows computers can
among some in the
Operating system installed
Automatic use, however,
is to Unix in general
more manual work is needed.
This concerns for example the
Deploy printer drivers.
Represents a Windows
Computer to connect to
a printer share on the
Print server, then the
Print server the printer driver
automatically to the Windows
Computer to send, if
that there does not exist
- Even if the
Windows computer, a substantially
Windows uses older
as the print server. This
Automatism but can also
be disturbing: on the one hand, if
for instance on a Windows Terminal Server
as few
Drivers should be installed
a high system stability
to ensure and
on the other hand, if the printer driver
not at all
accepted by the operating system
is. Then seems
to help only one: a
Unix print server.
But all is so hopeless
The situation is not for Windows,
there are software solutions,
the print data in one of
Printer drivers independent
Transfer format. Though
the majority of these
Programs for connections
Windows Terminal Servers
confined to their clients
(About Citrix, EOL, Ingenica, triCerat).
Only the solution of
Thinprint relates and Windows
Print server with one, so
on the Windows terminal servers
absolutely no printer driver
must be installed;
Thinprint called the
as Driver Free Printing. The
ThinPrint print server take
but also print jobs from
any other systems
contrary, must in this case
the print job as usual
on the sending server
be rendered.
For after all, and who
Contradict but rather to a
Unix print server tends to the
where possible, to reach
so-called appliance servers
a handy device that
in addition to a hard disk, a
full spool contains
(Fig. 5). The establishment
such an appliance can
compared to the touchdown
a print server as a plug-and-
be called play.
A search function finds all
available in a network print server
and therefore all printers.
Branches and
Homework
Jobs leave the
Spooling a print server
with a speed of
several tens of Mbit / s, this speed
we call them
Spoolgeschwindigkeit is strong
of the hardware equipment
dependent. Computer networks
a - theoretical -
Throughput of 100 or 1000
Mbit / s to cope with the effort.
Increasingly, however, connections
to servers via
slower networks produced
be it on a wireless network, from
a laptop via UMTS
or by a branch or a
Home office via DSL or
also known as IEEE Wireless DSL
802.16 (WiMAX). This affects
a quality of print jobs
sometimes devastating effect:
Jobs "grab" the
entire standing available
Bandwidth - maximum course
to Spoolgeschwindigkeit mentioned.
DSL and UMTSVerbindungen,
but also
WLANs can, through this
large print jobs quickly
be overloaded. The result is
that the network traffic
comes to a halt.
In the case of an existing
SAP or Citrix session, for example
the server has
then no longer connected
to the terminal, and the assumption
that the user
Session has ended, breaks
the server to connect
from starting. By the end
the session will depend
Minutes from the pressure, possibly
also the print job
aborted. The Session
must be restarted,
and the user and the
Experiment was repeated, his
File, print, repeated
the problem.
Therefore, an Tip: Attention
the use of wireless LAN. They
are only recommended,
if the local independence
of the key devices
Criterion. WLANs pose
two risks: First, you must
eavesdropping and unauthorized
be made ​​more secure access.
And secondly, it is useful
Throughput is much lower
than their nominal. In WLANs
divides the flow rate through
the number of network participants,
Access points included.
One is at 54-Mbit/s-WLAN
20 devices with 2.7 Mbit / s per
Willing participants, which is
already well below the
Spoolgeschwindigkeit one
printing calculator. If
but the actual throughput
less than the Spoolgeschwindigkeit
about one
Print server is blocked, then
large print jobs
Communication in the network. The
same also for other
Types of connections such as DSL or
UMTS. In other words: the
faster, the sending computer,
the more likely result
Bottlenecks in the network.
May be subject to network congestion
one of two strategies
choose: either you raise
throughput of networks or
With faster connections
LANs, faster-Standleitun
gene or higher DSL speeds.
Or are you limited
the bandwidth for certain
Applications or
Protocols. The increase in
Throughput, however, has
Limits: it is not for all
Connections are possible (for example,
UMTS), and they
possibly causing high current
Costs.
For the limitation of
However, bandwidth can be
between different Hardund
Select software solutions.
As a hardware solution
serve as devices, the so-called
Quality of service
Features (QoS). They
able to prioritize IP data streams
and the bandwidth
. limit This allows, for
Possible example, SAP and Citrix
Sessions is a very high
Priority allocate print data
however, lower.
Simultaneously, the print data
low bandwidth
assigned to other applications
always enough
Bandwidth
stands. Difficulties for
while a few protocols
as the Remote Desktop Protocol
(RDP), Windows Terminal Servers.
It contains both
Application as well
Print data, the QoS devices
can not be distinguished
can. The cost of
QoS devices are relatively high,
firstly because they have a number
other functions and provide
secondly, to speed classes
be selected
need.
Available as software solutions
two limiting
Bandwidth of print data
Selection: Windows Terminal Server
Citrix Presentation Solution
Server and on the
Management of print jobs
specialized Thinprint
. Print. The latter may at any
Windows and Unix servers
are used;
for AS/400 and
IBM mainframes, the Thin Print
Technique used. The
Client software may differ from
ThinPrint Web site download
be, but it is
and in print as a print server protocol
"ThinPrint" available
(As with Intermate, Lantronix,
Praim, SEH, and Troy).
Certainly
For safety-relevant data
Encryption is actually
a must, because it is very easy
with one of the Internet
freely available programs
intercept a print job.
As a standard for encryption
has originally
for Netscape
Navigator developed Secure
Socket Layer (SSL) established
- It was standardized
under the name Transport
Layer Security (TLS). Print data
can be via existing
encrypted connections
such as RDP, ICA or
Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
. send After leaving the
encrypted connection
However, they get unencrypted
to the print server, respectively
Printer. This method
is appropriate when the
Destination LAN no increased safety requirements
. there
Otherwise you have to
the print data to at least
to the print server is encrypted
transferred. Afford both
the Internet Printing Protocol
(IPP), which nearly all print servers
supported, as
The ThinPrint protocol
Version 6.2.
In addition, systems can access
that use an authentication
using PIN, fingerprint
or magnetic or
Smart card on
Printers require (personalization).
In addition, provide
some manufacturers, the so-called
Follow-me printing to,
the location-independent
Allows retrieval of prints.
This one needs either
software such as special
Print servers Compusys
or Ringdale or special
Such as the Océ printer, the
with a print-Mailbox
. work
Printing To Go
M obiltelefone and staff
Digital Assistants (PDA)
are smaller and lighter than laptops,
But now let
still for an overview
via electronic mail
. use E-mails are particularly
for users in the field
important, or for people who often
change their place of work. Precursor
is in mobile e-mail
called the Blackberry PDA
the Canadian company Research
In Motion (RIM), the mail
by a proprietary
Push e-mail server receives.
RIM Blackberry with the
a typewriter
Keyboard features, the
many users as ergonomically
meaningful sense than the previously
usual SMS typing on
the phone (see Figure 1). Meanwhile
Nokia also provides the
Business Center Pushmail one
Push E-Mail Service. And
Microsoft adapted in October
2005 Push Mail service with the
Pack 2 for its Exchange Server
2003rd
The push e-mail technology
acts from the perspective of
User such as receiving
SMS: Any e-mail is delivered immediately,
and the mobile terminal
reports the Inbox.
This is a user with his
mobile terminal via
GPRS or UMTS with the
"Push-server" connected. This
is when an agent
Registered mail server and asks
him regularly.
However, the output of mobile
Devices such as cell phones and PDAs
not on a printing system as
a PC. To use these devices
be able to print, it is therefore
necessary, additional programs
to install. Lend
to operating systems for which
Development tools exist,
so that so-called third-party
are able to own
To develop and deliver software.
The most widely
Here are the operating systems
Windows Mobile, Symbian,
Palm and Linux.
Printing via wireless
The current trend in
- Preferably portable -
Printers is characterized
radio links
the wired
Interface more and more
adversely affected. For wireless
Data transmission
mainly infrared or
Bluetooth interfaces used
where one of the most infrared
Transmission method IrDA (Infrared
Data Association) is used.
An IrDA interface
Data can be between
Computers, mobile phones
printers and related
. Replace IrDA works
but only over short distances:
The specification provides
1 m with line of sight before. In the
Contrast, the wireless technology
Bluetooth can be used more flexibly,
and up to a
Distance of 100 m and in
Unlike infrared, without the
tedious alignment of the transmitter
and receiver.
With Bluetooth, you can not
high configuration overhead
ephemeral networks between
Small appliances (ad-hoc networks)
. build Bluetooth Adapter
also be built into notebooks
or as an expansion card
for the
PCMCIA slot available. Bluetooth
and WLANs are
others in the band range of
2.4 GHz operation, even WLAN
in the 5-GHz band. The Bluetooth
Interface also allows
Encryption, and it is in
Future probably still
boast higher speeds,
about the use
Ultra Wide Band (UWB).
Are at the printers themselves
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi too
as a standard radio transmissions
emerged - at
Office printers primarily
Wi-Fi. A steadily increasing number
builds from printer manufacturers
Today, Bluetooth adapter in their
Devices. Easier to transport
are against Bluetooth Printer Adapter
for the USB or
the parallel interface. On the
Interface of any
Printer plugged in turn,
them in this one Bluetooth
Printer.
Printing process
When printing via Bluetooth
or infrared are in
not a real sense
Network printing, because
crucial is not the type of connection,
but the way
the creation of jobs.
Generated in this process
A special software
The actual cell phone or PDA
Print job (see Table
"Software for mobile printing").
Disadvantages of local
Printing: It offers only one
limited print quality
(Margins, fonts, character sets).
In addition, the printing on
the few file formats is limited,
for those on the mobile device
Software is installed
- About Messenger, mailers,
Address book, calendar or viewer
- The first such data
must prepare.
A second method is the
Printing from a server on
Network printers or fax machines.
This requires the network printer
configured on the server
and this reached
be. In this process,
printed with the software that
installed on the server.
This has the advantage that all
File types can be printed
may, on the programs
the servers are installed. This
Printing process using
Providers such as Nextel, Printer On
and GPXS (under the name
Print to a fax). When printing
an e-mail or attachment
with a push e-mail
Blackberry has no such system
previous upload or download
the data necessary because
E-mails and attachments on the
Mail servers are, in this case
on the Blackberry Enterprise
Server (BES). In comparison with
Print this leads to the local
Printing process to a
better quality.
The third method is the
mobile printing. Also here
is the actual job
created on the server.
This server - for example,
a push e-mail server
- The pressure but transmits data
not to a network printer
but directly to
mobile terminal, the mobile phone
or PDA. The creation of a
such a job to start on
the server includes the rendering
with all of the sites for
the page layout needed
Data. This would allow small devices
often on the storage
overwhelmed her.
Services such as content
Beamer Corporate Thin Print
additionally compress the
Pressure data and limit them
on the available bandwidth.
In this method only
a small number of printers
excluded, such as when
their drivers are not on the
Server install and let
the target printer no other
Printer emulations knows.
Also for mobile printing
leave from a server
all file types, print
for at least one viewer
Version installed on the server
is. By rendering on
the server can be installed there
Programs with their
printing-related tools and
Fonts are used optimally.
In this variant of
There is no mobile printing
Limitations of print quality.