tcpip printing with 5494 features

[Guest.Visitor]

I would like to know what options there are for printing from the AS400 to the LAN using TCPIP over a frame line. We donot wish to use tunnelling but aim to be able to retain the print control features we now have with our 5494 controlled printers. I have read all previous postings but am able to find anything specific enough to help me considering my limited understanding of the subject.

[Guest.Visitor]

tcpip printing with 5494 features

When you use Ethernet and TCP/IP to send to printers, you should be aware that there are IPDS printers and LPD printers. IPDS was first developed by IBM to run on SNA networks. IBM then ported IPDS to TCP/IP networks. About the only IPDS printers that run on TCP/IP networks come from IBM or Lexmark. LPD was developed on Unix computers for TCP/IP networks. It is also used by NT servers. Most printers such as HP laserjet printers use LPD. There are differences between IPDS printers and LPD printers on the AS/400. Under OS/400, you can tell the AS/400 to send the report to a remote system or send it to a print device. The LPD protocol does not distinguish between a remote system or a printer. You simply send to an LPD location. That LPD location can be a computer that spools the report or a printer. That is why on the AS/400 you tell it to send LPD printout to a remote system rather than to a device. IBM says there is no need to modify OS/400 to send printout to a LPD print device as you can send it to a LPD printer by telling the OS/400 to send to an LPD remote system. However, this causes problems as you lose the ability to restart a printout on a certain page number. If you have a 1000 page report and want to restart on page 990, you can when printing to a printer device, but not when sending to a remote system. The logic for remote system handling says the entire printout is transfered or none of it is transfered. Another problem is that the copies function does not work on LPD printers on the AS/400. If you spool a report to an LPD printer and want it to print 3 copies you have to spool it 3 times. IBM says the LPD protocol does not provide a way to send property information such as the number of copies so that information is lost on a transfer to a remote LPD system. As far as I know IBM has no intention of changing OS/400 so it will print to an LPD device rather than an LPD system. So, we still buy IBM printers and Lexmark printers with Ethernet and TCP/IP. We have many HP laserjet printers, but we do not use them for large printing jobs from the AS/400.

[Guest.Visitor]

tcpip printing with 5494 features

Thanks for your info Jim. What about the IBM printers now on the 5494 controller what can we do to run them on tcp/ip without tunnelling the frame line and retain the functionality.

[Guest.Visitor]

tcpip printing with 5494 features

There is a solution that will give You a TCP/IP printer with controll as a SNA printer. The protocoll is called TN5250E, IBM don't have printers that supports this but there are printservers that will support it. You will be able to printout copies, pagerange, just as the old IBM printer.

[Guest.Visitor]

tcpip printing with 5494 features

You have 3 options Option 1, use a router than can send SNA and TCP/IP over the frame relay. This cost more than a router that supports TCP/IP only. These routers will come with extra ports on them. You create vitual connections between the ports on the routers. You would create a connection between a port on a router connected to the AS/400 and a router at the remote site that is connected to the controller. Any data send by the AS/400 into the port will be sent to the remote router using TCP/IP and output to the controller. Any data sent by the controller will be routed to the AS/400. Because SNA is very time critial, you must give traffic on these com ports priority over traffic on the router's ethernet ports. Because of the SNA timing problem, the CIR on the frame should be higher than the speed of the SNA port and this can increase your com cost. Options 2, use a device like the IData 7913. This is a small converter box that has a twinax port on onte side and an Ethernet port on the other. It allows you to connect one twinax printer to an Ethernet network. You can usually buy 4 or 5 of these boxes for the price of routers that support SNA and TCP/IP. We converted to TCP/IP in 1996-1997. We used the Idata boxes for our old twinax printers. Since then we only buy printers with Ethernet connectors. Option 3, replace printers with new models that have Ethernet connectors.