Re: Re Trouble

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Patricia M Godfrey  on Wed, 19 Nov
2003 19:45:43 -0500

Patricia:

Honor-bound indeed! I'm flattered; most people don't try any of my farfetched
schemes. At least you tried.

> Took forever (this was a very underpowered
> machine), but it worked.

You can make it nearly instantaneous by installing LPR (Line Printer Remote --
built-in, but not usually installed [activated]); you'd TYF your file first
(fast!), and then issue something like:

lpr -S 192.168.1.10 -P {server_name} -o l d:\path\FO.TMP

Boom! Paper comes out.

OK, so 9x won't let you do this -- live and learn. However, didn't you
recently say that you were in the market for a new machine? So: keep your old
machine, because that's your new server. You don't need a fancy box to serve,
any old piece of junk will do. Throw in a couple of network adapters ($12 at
Circuit City, a Siemens). Strip the computer of everything extraneous (really
weed out the services and devices that it won't require), and then give it two
tasks: let it do Network Address Translation (be your firewall -- NAT32 is
excellent software for this purpose, and will run under 9x very satisfactorily,
I had an old Win95 *laptop* for a server for my LAN for several years), and
secondly let it be your Print Server (connect your printer to it). This takes
some load off your real machine, which is hiding behind this "server" on your
brand-new LAN (now become a LAN-of-two). Or, spring a few bucks and buy a
Linksys BEFSR41 four-port router (under $50 I think -- NAT32 isn't free, so it
might be a wash, and hardware routing is simpler/better), and let that be your
firewall -- hook only the printer up to the other machine. Or, spring a few
more bucks, toss your old computer in the garbage where it yearns to be, and
buy a hardware Print Server (also $50 or thereabouts). In fact, you could just
buy a Printer Server box *only*, and connect that to your present computer --
let your computer (either the present one or the new one) do all other tasks
(connect to the Net, etc etc) but send printing to the Print Server.

Frankly I've forgotten why you wanted to do this in the first place, but there
must have been a good reason. Oh yes: USB. Well then, you Printer Server
needs a USB port. Hmmm. I'm sure you had a powerful reason to buy a USB
printer in the first place -- but WHAT WAS IT?

Anyway, your options aren't exhausted.

R.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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