Studio Press

New IT technologies are often bandwidth-hungry. Print jobs with intensive use of graphic elements and colour also quickly grow into large volume files. Gigabit and fibre optic technologies play an increasingly important role for network design as both provide for greater bandwidth. The new PS1126 print server enables users to connect printers directly to gigabit fibre optic cabling. In this way network printing benefits from fast and eavesdropping secure data transmission, eliminating the need for special media converters, which also often cause failures.

Future Technologies for Network Printing

The SEH PS1126 print server comes with even more features which offer protection of investment. While being fully functional with the currently still prevalent network protocol IPv4, the print server is IPv6-enabled, allowing for a planned migration to this protocol which is spreading out more and more so printers, too, can be attached to IPv6 networks. The latest ThinPrint .print client is integrated for utilising PS1126 in environments with innovative ThinPrint .print software, e.g. desktop virtualisation or server-based computing, providing efficient bandwidth control and optimisation for network printing.

As all SEH print servers, PS1126 comes with a powerful security package as well as regular soft- and firmware updates, free tech support, and a warranty of up to five years.

Source: http://pressemitteilung.ws/node/149523

Users often have trouble setting up hardware in Linux they simply aren’t used to the way things are done in Linux. Setting up hardware is relatively simple (once you know where the tools are.) And setting up a printer is one of those jobs made very easy by modern Linux administration tools. One of those tools is the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS). Once installed, CUPS is an amazingly simple tool to use and administer.

Getting and installing

The easiest way to install CUPS is to fire up your package manager (such as Adept, Synaptic, Yumex, etc), do a search for CUPS, click it, and install it. Or, if you’re more comfortable with the command line, you can run apt-get install cups or yum install cups.

Once installed, you will want to run the CUPS daemon with the command

/etc/rc.d/init.d/cupsys start

Or

/etc/init.d/cupsys start

Once it is started, you are ready to go.

Configuring your printer

CUPS is managed through a Web browser. So open up Firefox and point it to http://localhost:631 and you will find yourself on the CUPS main page (Figure A) on your system. And no, you do not have to have Apache installed for this to work.

Figure A

It’s not exactly pretty, but from this page you can manage every aspect of your printer.

Now the first thing you want to do (after you have plugged in your printer and fired it up) is to click on the Add Printer button (from the front page of the CUPS Web tool). The first Add Printer dialogue (Figure B) is simple: Name, Location, and Description.

Figure B

You can not use a space, “/”, or “#” symbol in the Name field.

These fields are exactly as you would expect them to be. These are not taken from a driver or from the machines’ firm (or hard) ware. So fill out these fields and then click Continue.

The next step is to select a device to associate with the printer you are adding. This is where you actually select your printer (or printer type) from a list. As you can see, in Figure C my Samsung ML1710 was detected by the CUPS system.

Figure C

There are two instances of my Samsung ML1710. I will select the second because it was recognized as a USB printer.

The next step selects the PPD file for the device. A PPD file is the Postscript Printer Device file that describes the fonts, paper sizes, resolutions, etc that the printer can handle. As you can see, in Figure D, my ML1710 has a few entries (most of which are duplicates for some reason).

I will select the foomatic entry because foomatic entries tend to be the most reliable of the PPD files. Now, if your device does not have a listed PPD file, fear not. You most likely can find a PPD file from either the included drivers, from device’ manufacturer Web site, or from an online search. If you find one just upload it with the help of the browse button in the dialog shown in Figure C.

Once you have selected your PPD file click Add Printer at which point you will be prompted for a username and password. On an Ubuntu system I was able to get by with using my regular username and password. In some instances you may have to use the root user and password.

Once you have added the printer you will be redirected to the configuration page for that printer. The configuration page is broken up into five sections: General, Adjustment, Miscellaneous, Banners, and Policies. Each section has its own configuration options.

Adjustment

These options will depend upon the type of printer you have added. Since I have added a laser printer I get options that relate to saving toner. These are crucial if you do a lot of printing and don’t want to be replacing expensive toner every month.

Miscellaneous

This section holds all of the options that don’t belong in any other section. Here you can actually correct for high altitude and other options as they relate to your printer.

Figure F

Altitude correction only gives you options for high or low altitude. There should be an option for “No correction”.

Banners

The Banners section allows you to select from six different starting and ending banners. These banners are: Classified, Confidential, Secret, Standard, Topsecret, or Unclassified. Or you can select None. These banners will be automatically added to the top and bottom (respectively) of every page printed.

“None” is the default (and toner saving) option.

Policies

The policies section is a bit more complex. Policies refer to configuring a printer such that a user would have to provide a password in order to use the printer or allowing use from only specified printers. The only configuration option available is to select a policy from the drop down. Of course you would have to create a policy (which is beyond the scope of this article) first. But if you have created policies, you can choose them from the list and apply them to the configured printer.

Figure H

As you can see there are two default policies available for this printer: Error Policy and Operating Policy.

Checking your printer

Once you have the printer added, the first thing you will want to do is check to make sure it is printing properly. To do this click on the Printers tab and you will see the newly added printer listed.

Figure I

Here you can start, stop, reject and move jobs, set as default, and a number of other options.

If this is the only printer you have added it will be set as the default. If this is a second (or third) printer you will have the option as setting this printer up as the default. To do that, click Set As Default button.

Now, let’s print a test page for this printer. Click the Print Test Page button and a test page should be immediately sent to your printer. You will get a quick banner page claiming a test page has been sent and then you will be redirected to the printer page.

If your test page prints successfully, congratulations, you have added a printer to a Linux-based computer.

Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=222

Data Requirements

The following table lists the data requirements for setting up a print server.

Parameter	Description	Your Value
Printer name	User-assigned name of the printer.
Printer share name	User-assigned name of the printer as it will appear to network clients. This can be the same as the printer name if you want. Due to client limitations, this name should be limited to 8 characters.
List of client operating systems	To facilitate automatic download of drivers from the server to the client, you must know in advance the operating systems of the clients which will use the shared printer.

Configuration Procedure

1. The first step in setting up a print server is to set the machine up to print directly to the printer. If you have not already done so, do the procedure Configuring Windows 2000 to Print Directly to the Printer, and return here when done.
2. Select Start, then Settings, then Printers. You see the Printers folder.
3. Right-click on the printer and select Sharing....
4. Click the Shared radio button, then enter the printer's share name.
5. If there will be clients on other operating systems that are going to use this shared printer, click Additional Drivers, select all such operating systems in the resulting list, then click OK. At this point, you will be prompted to install the drivers by inserting the Setup CD-ROM. Follow the instructions to do this.
6. As an option, you can enter the location of the printer (such as "Building 3, Room 107") and a comment about the printer (such as "For use by marketing only"). To enter this information, select the General tab.
7. Click OK.
8. Inform the clients that will be using the printer of the share name of the printer.

Verifying the Configuration

You will test the shared printer by installing a client of the printer and printing a test page from that client. To install a print client, see Configuring Windows Print Clients on TCP/IP Networks.

Networks are naturally susceptible to failures because they contain many components and are affected by the configuration of every component. Where, exactly, is your network? In the switch? The drop cables? Bounded by all of the network interface cards in your systems? Any of those physical components can break, resulting in network outages or, more maddeningly, intermittent network failures.

Networks are also affected by configuration problems. Incorrect routing information, duplicate hostnames or IP addresses, and machines that misinterpret broadcast addresses can lead to misdirected packets. You’ll also have to deal with redundancy in network connections, as you may have several routers connecting networks at multiple points. When that redundancy is broken, or its configuration is misrepresented, the network appears to be down.

When a network that you trust and love is connected to an untrusted or unmanaged network, you run the risk of being subject to a denial-of-service attack or a network penetration attempt from one of those networks. These types of attacks happen within well-run networks as well. Security mogul Bill Cheswick asks the attendees at his talks if they leave their wallets out in the open in their offices. Nary a hand goes up. Then he asks how many leave unprotected network access points like twisted-pair wall jacks in open offices, and you see the tentative hands raised. Access to the network is valuable and has to be protected while still allowing user activity to proceed without onerous overhead.

Finally, networks use a variety of core services or basic information services that we lump into the network fabric. Naming systems like NIS or DNS, security and authentication servers, or host configuration servers for hosts requiring DHCP to boot and join a network will bring down a network if they are not functioning or are giving out wrong answers.

File and Print Server Failures

When file and print server fail, clients will hang or experience timeouts. A timeout can mean that a print job or a file request fails. The timeout can also lead to wrong answers or data corruption. For example, using Network File Systems (NFS) soft mounts, a write operation that times out will not be repeated. This can lead to holes in data files that will only be detected when the file is read.

Source: http://www.web-articles.info/e/a/title/File-and-Print-Server-Failures/

File and print services are among the most critical in any organization. It is imperative that users have quick, guaranteed, and secure access to their data. Helping organizations to create highly available, well performing, and secure file and print services are amid the key improvements in Windows Server 2003.

Feature	Benefit	Key Scenarios	Notes
Windows SharePoint Service	Windows Server 2003 R2 provides a sophisticated collaboration system that takes your file and print level to the next level by empowering end users to share information and work together more effectively through collaboration on documents, meetings and projects. This enhances your operating efficiency, and provides the functionality that makes your end users more productive. This system also is designed to give the IT Pro, control over the environment, while providing end-user self-service to minimize calls to IT and/or the helpdesk.	Simplify end user collaboration by facilitating the sharing of documents amongst teams. Effectively manage your documents, lists, contacts, and tasks in a team and project centric Windows SharePoint Services environment. Leverage wide range of out-of-box custom scenarios with 30 new application templates for the Windows SharePoint Services platform, a starting point for effective collaborative experience. Easily extend it to support your business processes and customer interactions.	Now built-in with Windows Server 2003 R2
Print Management Console	New print management console based on a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. This console enables the management of multiple printers and with integration with other Windows services, it is now easy to push drivers to the different resources and also enables the management of the print jobs from a remote location.	Facilitate the management of remote printing resources (in branch office for example) and enables management of multiple printers from the same console.	Integrated with Active Directory
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)	The ability to quickly create point-in-time copies of data, allowing easier and more reliable backups of important organizational data, even while files are open. VSS significantly reduces a server's backup window by providing on-disk, point-in-time recoverable data sets.	All major backup independent software vendors (ISVs) are developing solutions based on VSS to take advantage of this service. By moving a point-in-time copy to another server, a business analyst can query against the latest company data without affecting performance on the production system.	Introduced in Windows Server 2003
NTFS Journaling File System	Because NTFS offers reliable file system recovery, extremely large storage media, and strong granular security, organizations can be confident that their data is safer.	NTFS allows reliable, secure, and high performing access to data.	100-139 percent increase in performance over Windows 2000 Server
Encrypting File System (EFS)	EFS creates a layer of security that transparently encrypts data on the physical disk with no need for end user interaction, ensuring that data is safer.	Since data on the disk is encrypted, even a mobile user whose sensitive organizational data is lost or stolen will be safer from data theft.	Encryption of offline and Web folders now possible EFS files can be shared among multiple users
Enhanced Anti-Virus Support	Choose from a huge selection of enterprise anti-virus vendors to protect resources in your organization from malicious code delivered by viruses.	Create a comprehensive anti-virus strategy by using third-party tools to scan file servers.	New kernel level anti-virus APIs Windows Hardware Quality Lab test suite and driver certification test process for antivirus and file system drivers New tools are available for third-party anti-virus vendors to enhance the performance and reliability of their products
Improved Print Cluster Support	Improve administrator productivity by making it easier to install and configure print clusters.	Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of printers can be installed on a highly available print cluster therefore allowing end users to have continual access to their resources, even during a hardware failure.	8-Node clusters supported in Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Clustering is not available in Standard or Web editions. Printer drivers automatically propagate to each node in the cluster
64-bit processor support	Take advantage of the latest and best performing hardware in the industry.	File and print server consolidation can reduce administrative and hardware costs dramatically.	Introduced in Windows Server 2003 Supports GUID Partitioning Table (GPT) Approximately 3,800 in-box 64-bit print drivers
Improved Print Performance and Availability	Users will get their printed documents faster than ever.	Organizations see the need to consolidate print servers to lower total cost of operation (TCO) without losing performance or availability.	Optimized file spooling for higher print volume management Kernel mode driver blocking Enhanced printer redirection through Terminal Services
Enhanced Windows Defragmentation Tool	Optimizing files on a server can dramatically increase the performance and availability.	Administrators can use the scheduled tasks feature to schedule disk defragmentation seamlessly optimizing the file system. Administrators can also script disk defragmentation on servers using command line utilities.	Faster performance than in Windows 2000 Supports online defragmentation of the Master File Table (MFT) Defragmentation of any NTFS cluster size now possible Volume Shadow Copy support Command line scripting support
Increased CHKDSK Performance	CHKDSK is a program that verifies the logical integrity of a file system on Windows. When CHKDSK encounters logical inconsistencies it takes actions to repair file system data.	Because NTFS has always been a true journaling file system that supports file system recovery, it is very rare that a disk need to be checked (less than 1percent of unplanned outages require checking). However, in Windows Server 2003, CHKDSK performs faster, requiring even less downtime. Source: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/overview/technologies/fileandprint.mspx	Performs 20-38 percent faster than Windows 2000 Server