LaserJet 8150 DN Says The Printer Is Offline When There's More Than One Print Job

Need more info:

1) Version of NetWare?

2) Are you using NDPS or legacy Queue-based printing?

"We're experts, not mind readers" ;)

Hey, that's MY line! :-)

But I'm invisible :>)

Sorry, BPLEDGER, its all down hill from here.....

1) Version of NetWare?
4.11

2) Are you using NDPS or legacy Queue-based printing?
bindery queues

3) Also, are you using the NetWare client for Windows, or are you using the Microsoft-supplied crippleware client for NetWare?
netware client 4.6

Thanks a lot, PsiCop, ShineOn and DSPoole for considering my question.  This is a real head scratcher!  :-)

I seem to recall a similar problem when I installed an 8100DN a couple of years ago, and I think it was client-related.  Updating your NetWare client may help.

I would go with the 4.83 SP2 client, and apply the E patch.

Also, make sure you do a custom install and only select what you need, don't take the default install.

Make sure you change your IPX protocol properties to specify the IPX frame type and network number you are using.

Hrm. My leaning would be towards a client problem - that's an old client version, and there's been a lot of bug fixes since then. The latest is v4.83 SP2, with the "E" patch.

Say what you will about Bindery Queues, it was a rock-solid, reliable printing method. Not that NDPS isn't, but I rarely had problems with Queues.

See?  Invisible, I say ;)

Who said that?

Switch your queues from Bindery-based to NDS-based as well.

You'll need to create a Print Server object, a Printer object and a Print Queue object in NWAdmin32 (note:  when creating the Print Queue object, don't select the SYS volume for a location of your print queue).

After creating the objects, associate the Printer object to the Print Server, associate the Print Queue object to the Printer Object - set the Printer object Configuration (button) Printer Type (pulldown) to Other/Unknown

After the objects have been created and assoicated, use HP JetAdmin to configure the print server in the 8150DN - when setting up the print server, give it the SAME NAME as the Print Server object you just created.

Using JetAdmin, you will be prompted for your NDS Tree (pulldown) and context the printer exists in (pull down).

The Operating Mode (button) should be Queue Server mode - it'll eat up a NetWare connection license but be the best performance.

When you press the Queues button, you should see your NDS-based queue.  If you see a Bindery queue in there as well, delete the Bindery queue - keep only the queue you have created.

Save the changes and reboot the printer - later on you can use HP JetAdmin to lock down the Protocol Stacks (IPX/SPX and TCP/IP - or All depending if you see four or only two protocol options) and your Ethernet Frame types to best match your environment.  If you are running 802.2 only, I recommend setting the print server to use 802.2 only.  If you are running 802.2 and 802.3, I suggest you set it to run 802.2 only.

Then - as the others have suggested, update your NetWare clients to 4.83 SP2 'E' patch (4.90 is buggy and no patches have been released yet).

Then install printer drivers and point them to your new queue.

---

ShineOn?  Who's ShineOn? ;)

After you yelled at me ;) for recommending another user with printing problems on 4.11 upgrade their OS, I was hesitant to recommend switching from bindery queues to NDS queues, but I concur, that it would be best to be on NDS queues at this stage.  However, I still think that the specific problem is client-based and a client update should be first order-of-business.

Otherwise, I agree.  Who agrees?  Who am I?  What, is someone talking? ;)

Thanks all for your suggestions but I went into the properties of the Novell Client for Microsoft in Network Neighborhood and went to the Advanced Settings tab and turned the "Receive Broadcast Messages" to "none."  This solved the problem.

Thanks a lot for your help!

BPLEDGER

ShineOn, I think it was your question that lead me to the right place so I'm accepting your comment.

Thanks to both of you though.  I don't know how to split points.  Do you?

ShineOn! I didn't "yell" at you! ;)

BPLEDGER - Your problem is not solved, only hidden.  Like applying a bandaid to a heart attack victim.  You need to rework your print queues (such as I suggested) and rework the client such as ShineOn suggested.

Reason:  the MOMENT you disable Bindery emulation on your NetWare 4.11 box, you are going to lose access to your printers.  If you pull the replica of the container that holds your server off your server, that will disable Bindery emulation.  You need to move to NDS-based print queues.

BPLEDGER - I must agree with DSPoole.  All you did was to stop messages from going back to your clients from the printer or print server, or anthing else for that matter.  You just stopped an error message from propagating rather than resolving the root cause of the error message.  That's like putting novocaine on a bad tooth - it doesn't stop the cause of the toothache, it just blocks the "pain messages" from the toothache.

I thank you for the points, but you should still update your clients and strongly consider updating your queues from bindery to NDS, and even more strongly, but with a more long-term outlook, consider upgrading your NetWare to the current version, which is 6.5.  There are so many gains other than having a current, supported version that is fully IP-RFC compliant.  If you'd like, we'll be glad to give you a rundown of the additional benefits of upgrading to 6.5, but for now, just try to do what we suggested to fix your problem, rather than applying that bandaid with a little numbing agent...

DSPoole, I was kidding around, continuing the japing from earlier...  I know you didn't yell at me...  ;)

BPLEDGER -

To find out how to split points, on the left-hand side of the screen, in the box that is titled "Your Status," select the "help" link.  

All you ever wanted to know about asking, scoring, grading, slpitting or whatevering a question on Experts Exchange is laid out for you there.

If you want to change anything you've done in a particular question, post a request in the Commuinty Support topic area, including a link to the question and a request of what you'd like changed.   The Moderators here are very accommodating.

Yes, to change how points were allocated, simple go to the Community Support  TA and post a (free) message explaining what you want to do (change point allocation). Be sure to include a link to this Question.

Like my fellow Experts who've been helping, I think that altering the client properties does nothing more than mask the problem. To actually solve it, you need to move your NetWare environment into at least the late 1990s, if not into the 21st century. That means getting rid of bindery-based printing and bindery emulation, in that order.

Thanks, PsiCop!  We're actually getting rid of Novell all together in a few months.  The only thing that's truly on there right now are the printers!  

Thanks for your help!

Well, sad to hear you're losing the Novell environment. Hopefully you're moving to something at least as reliable, like Linux, and not, say, downgrading to Windoze.

Show me a Linux environment that's as fast as NetWare...

You guys want independent benchmarks?

UnixWare is slowest, followed by Linux, Windows is slightly faster - NetWare blows them all away with significant margins.  All on the same hardware.

Linux is too immature to be taken seriously in the enterprise.  Seriously, it's all hype.  If you wanted a free NOS with some good maturity, stability AND security, then you'd have to go with BSD.  Linux is nothing more than this tech years buzzword, like "web applications" was last year and "thin client computing" was before that.  Both the ASP and thin client markets ended up bombing even though people had put significant resources into them - including the vendors such as IBM.  Take a look at Apple, did they base their new OS/X on a Linux kernel?  Nope - they went BSD.  There are places for Linux, but it's NOT to replace everything in the enterprise.  Our first Linux box was replaced (it was a DNS server and a proxy/cache server) by NetWare/BorderManager (easier to manage and performed just as well.  Our next Linux box (just got it the other day) is a Linux-based Repartee (ActiveVoice) voicemail system - considering the hardware (Socket 7 AMD 450MHz) it was obviously built to be cheap.

Hype hype hype - lemmings lemmings lemmings.  This one just happens to wear a tux and waddle...

Well, I didn't want to get into the OS war, and besides, all I said was "at least as reliable as NetWare".

Love the "wear a tux and waddle" comment. :-)

Ha-ha-ha, PsiCop!

We are moving over to Windows 2000 print queues in just a few months.

Good luck. Hope you like patching and spending twice as much for server hardware as you would if you stay with NetWare. I know I would enjoy having my business enterprise depending on the most-hacked server platform on the planet - always what I wanted to do.

Glad its not me running that network.

One of the main reasons Apple went with BSD is because they didn't want to have OS/X subject to the GNU public license...  and it would be very difficult for anyone to argue against that position.  The BSD license allows you to make proprietary modifications to the kernel without giving them away.

But that, again, is off-topic, and it is only a matter of time before Linux benchmarks faster than Windoze.  If you want really fast, efficient file and print serving, the NetWare kernel is the best.  Too many people want "one size fits all," and are unwilling to invest the effort into using best-of-breed any more - partly intellectual lazines, and partly corporate ignorance of how to measure TCO.