#PARNET – printer sharing
12 messages in this thread
I need help with PARNET… I've got my two amigas talking together
and exchanging files, running programs, etc. but I want to share the
printer as well. I have the printer connected to the serial port of
my A3000 and it works fine at the A3000 but how do I access it from
the A1000? I've tried copy filename to net:prt with no success. type
filename to ….. sorry….. type filename >net:prt seems to work,
but I want to redirect output from my word processor, editor,
spreadsheets, etc to the network printer. CMD doesn't seem to like
net:prt as a parameter since it says it can't open the printer
device. So now what? Anyone got any ideas? Many thanks for your
help.
Don,
I can't answer your question but I do have some of my own. I have two
Amigas at home. The A1000 is in my wife's office upstairs and the A3000 in
my office in the basement (yes she gets the nice office with windows and I
get the basement with A3000). The distance a cable would have to reach to
connect these two computers is about 40 feet. Would it work using Parnet?
If so does anyone have a diagram of how to make the cable? I would also be
interested in the answer to your question because with both parallel plugs
in use a serial connection would have to be made to use one of my printers
on this mini-net.
Thanks for allowing me to but in on your question.
Carl
Carl,
Someone else here (might have been the fellow who wrote the PARNET
software) mentioned that PARNET link-ups start becoming unreliable with
cables longer than about 25 feet.
The diagram for making the cable is included in the PARNET docs.
PARNET itself is available in LIB 11 of AmigaTech as PNET24.LZH.
-Dave (via AutoPilot)
Parallel cabling normally doesn't like distances that long, but there are
solutions in the IBM world that should work on Amigas also. These go
under the names Long-Link, Snap-Link, etc… What they do is allow you to
plug a device on each parallel port and use regular telephone type cable
to connect them. These can extend parallel connections up to 200'. We
use both of the aforementioned at work without any real problems, but the
Snap-Link solution is much more elegant. You don't need any external
power supplies etc…
Now getting these to work with parnet might be a small challenge since
these are primarily designed to help with printer sharing. You may need
to have a special cable made to satisfy any parnet requirements, but you
could attach this to one machine and use the link device to connect to the
other machine.
Bill
Thanks Bill,
This sounds like the solution I need. Wonder if there is anyone out
there who has tried one of these products with Parnet
Carl
Don,
There's a program called PSpool somewhere on here that spools print
jobs to disk. It involves a couple of ARexx programs. One of them
carries out a function when it notices that a file with a certain filename
has been written. Maybe you could run it on the 3000 and just write a
file (with the required file name) from the 1000->3000 and hopefully it
would take it from there. I know this isn't really well thought out, but
I have to go to work and hopefully it communicates the germ of the idea.
You might get a better idea if you just d/l PSpool and take a look at it.
-Sean
Well, that may help, but I don't really want to spool the printout onto the
A3000 then have to run something else (or have it looking for something to
appear) to get the printout going. But thanks for the idea, there may be
something in there I can start to work with.
Just an idea. 🙂
-Sean
Don, PSpool only requires that you install it. After that, operation is
transparent and in many cases it's quicker than direct printing. It does
not change the way you print from your programs.. So if it allows you to
share the printer over PARNET, why not use it?
-Chris
Actually, after discussions with Doug Walker in AmigaTech (the developer of
PARNET) in which we tried direct access to net:ser, etc. with no luck, I am
now going to try pspool. I've asked Doug about an enhancement to PARNET,
but haven't heard back yet. Thanks to all for your help and suggestions.
I'll let you know how it works out.
PSpool (which I wrote) would be the optimal printer-sharig arrangement
with PARNET (since PARNET doesn't seem to like using non-disk devices).
Install PSpool on the 3000 as normal, then install ONLY the modified-CMD
portion of PSpool on the A1000. Last, change the A1000 CMD's "FILE"
Tooltype from "FILE=devs:Spool_file" to "FILE=devs:Spool_file_NET".
That should do it… You'll need OS 2.04 on at least the A3000 side, but
I would try running the A1000 under 2.04 also if you have a problem.
-Chris
That's what I was thinking. Thanks for writing it, it's lovely.
-Sean