On 27 Mar 00, at 13:51, Jack Barnett wrote:
It depends, can you get a electronic automatic switch that works under Linux? One that is OS indepent, or that includes drivers for Linux? I have never used a automatic switch before, so I can't really give any advice on this. See if it will do what you want, maybe email the company that is sale-ing these devices and see if they can give you some usefully information about them.
Just my .02 here-- I've never been able to get those electronic automatic switches to work properly with any consistentcy under 'doze, so I'd be *really* wary of using one on a real print server. It gets real ugly if you've got different types of printers on those devices and a large job gets sent to the wrong printer and no one's watching. You can waste a ream of paper very quickly.
three parport ISA cards (probably only need 2, if the motherboard has a built in parport (most do)). I have installed 2 par ports on a system before, but never three. The downfall to this, is that it will be a resource nightmare try to get the parport from conflicting with each other. Make sure you have a good hardware book and some time, before you even consider trying this. The good thing to this, is you /should/ be able to print to all ports at the same time.
Get Boca parport cards-- they're about $19 at buy.com and they come with *jumpers* and give you IRQs 3, 5, 7, and I think, 1. 3, 5, and 7 should all be free on a print server, so you should be OK here. These cards all really configurable-- SPP, EPP, and ECP, and seem to hold up well in production, and seem to speed up printing considerably on older machines. Be sure you read (and understand) the docs that come with it, especially if you're using ECP. Cheers, Dennis Hope this helps. "Custard pies are a sort of esperanto: a universal language." --Noel Godin -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/