On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 13:03:49 +0100, "J Williams"
wrote:


"Chuck" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 22:00:35 -0800, Lance *email_address_deleted* wrote:



Chuck thought carefully and wrote on 3/29/2005 4:19 PM:
How is the printer physically connected to the network? I Googled
and Yahooed
(and never found a link to the manufacturer Oki - I wonder why?), but
all the
articles referred to it as a Personal Printer (ie to be connected to a
computer
for queue management and sharing).

'cuse me Chuck while I butt in:
http://www.okidata.com/mkt/html/nf/C7300-C7500Home.html

The C7300N comes with Ethernet, firewire and parallel ports and it's own
internal print server and web-based printer manager.

Lance
*****

Thanks for the link, Lance. So the printer has Ethernet. And it supports
IPP -
which IIRC is a TCP/IP protocol. TCP/IP does not provide named shares.

For a named share (something visible in Network Neighborhood), my guess is
you
have to set up a print queue on a Windows XP server, which then provides
the
share.

I have worked with HP Laserjets (not Deskjets - those are another story)
which
will let you configure IPX/SPX for named discovery by the HP Printer
Management
client. But that is simply to display printer status, manage print
cartridge
replacement, etc. For named shares, named print queue management, etc,
you
still have to configure the printer on a Windows server, and the printer
queue
seen in Network Neighborhood, by all the client workstations, will be a
component of the Windows server.

It sounds to me like you installed it on the one Windows XP Pro computer,
as
"http://192.168.0.7", with the Oki IPP driver. If you want to see the
printer
as a named share, you'll have to share it from the Windows XP computer.
Will
the IPP driver deal successfully with its possibly changing ip address (a
result
of using DHCP for address assignment)? You may need to read the printer
manual
to find out how that works.

If you don't want to share the printer from the one Windows XP computer,
my
guess is that you'll have to install the IPP client on each computer, and
refer
to the printer as "OKI C7300N on http://192.168.0.7". That's not a named
share,
so you won't see it in Network Neighborhood.

Hi Chuck,
And thanks for your help. You are right about the IPP method - that's the
one I've used.

The printer is connected by Ethernet to a switch box which is connected to
my router. From what you say, I now understand why the printer won't appear
in Network Neighbourhood unless I install it as a local/network printer
attached to one of my computers. But then it's dependent on that computer
being on. Thinking logically, a standalone network printer won't appear in
'Microsoft Windows Network' because it isn't a Windows machine!

The OKI installation CD1 allows me to set up the printer as a Windows share
name, or directly as a network printer. The latter also installs 'OKI LPR'
which is a system tray utility for TCP/IP printing, plus network drivers and
spool directories.

Because the printer supports IPP, I can add it by IP address
http://198.168.0.7/ipp, or better still name http://oki/ipp. The client
machines adding the printer just need access to the PCL Driver (Network)
file downloaded from http://my.okidata.com/PP-C7300n.nsf?opendatabase. So
overall this method is easier more lightweight than using OKI LPR.

I think you're getting the idea.

You appear to have 3 choices.
1) Use IPP for all 4 computers. Install the IPP client on all 4 computers, and
you will see the printer under "Printers and Faxes" on all 4 computers.
2) Use IPP for one computer. Install the IPP client on the main XP computer,
and share the printer out from the main computer. See the printer under Network
Neighborhood on 3 client computers.
3) Use Windows Networking on the printer, and setup a named share there. See
the printer under Network Neighborhood on all 4 client computers.

Option 1 is the simplest. Install a driver on each client computer, see the
printer under Printers and Faxes, and use it as a network printer.

Option 2 is the choice which PC World recommends "... only experienced network
administrators should attempt to install the C7300n on a Windows print server
with Oki's PrintSuperVision management software."

Sharing a printer from a print server isn't magical. The sharing has to be
supported by the vendor, and has to work with all the variances of the operating
system. And we all know how variant Windows is.

Option 3 is the one that intrigues me, though. The printer specs (link provided
by Lance, thanks Lance) mentions an optional 10G hard drive. Does the printer
operating system come with some portion of Windows? Again, Windows share names
are Windows functions, so there has to be some Windows component in the printer
operating system.

Please let us know what you decide to do.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.