<<<This message is being sent both to the port-mac68k list for insight, as
well as the original questioner>>>

Sorry for the length of this message...& the fact that I have it kinda
piecemeal....


<<background first>>>
Hi all...
Another mailing list I'm on is for managers of Mac labs, & someone was
recently inquiring about using an old Mac as a print server running
MacLinux or NetBSD. I let him know kinda where the status of each project
was.... Anyway...he's trying to use the Mac (it'll be a IIci, IIcx, or
IIsi) to serve a Phaser IIIPxi (tabloid) printer on an Ethernet/PhoneNet
network. I explained that Ethernet and Serial are supported, but that
LocalTalk/PhoneNet is not. He wrote back:

>Does this mean that NetBSD has no support for Appletalk over the
>serial printer (Appletalk) port on the back of the IIci? How do
>you print from NetBSD if there's no support? If so, then
>this idea won't work at all as the Phaser printer only has Phonenet,
>parallel and maybe RS232 connections on the back. I envisioned
>NetBSD letting the mac act as a Ethertalk/IP router to the
>printer located on a private Phonenet segment. Is this not possible?


Yes, it does mean that NetbSD has NO support for AppleTalk over the serial
port. It can do serial over the serial port, & it can do AppleTalk, or any
other supported protocol, over the Ethernet, but not LocalTalk/PhoneNet.

The way that you print from NetBSD is (a) print serially.....or (b) print
via EtherNet.

Can you use the printer without AppleTalk turned on under MacOS? If so,
then it's not just a LocalTalk port on the printer, but it's really a
serial port with LocalTalk capabilities. That will work fine. At home, I
use an HP DeskWriter with NetBSD...it's just that I use it as a serial
printer, not a LocalTalk printer.

If all else fails, though, you can hook up the printer to the Mac using the
RS232 port.




Basically, it boils down to the fact that you'll actually be taking the
Phaser off the PhoneNet network and adding it to the EtherNet network via
the Mac. The GatorBox will still allow the LocalTalked Macs access, but it
should help the access to the "real" users on EtherNet.
--------------

I've never set up a network print server on NetBSD, so if anyone can help
by telling me if I missed anything vital...he's intending to use the Mac to
serve the printer to SGI machines (via lpd) and Macs (the server will be
running CAP or NetAtalk). Is there a way to do print serving in NetAtalk,
or would CAP be the way to go there? I've only used NetAtalk as an AFP
server.






===========================

Here's parts of his original querry to give you an idea of what he's
interested in.....

Background:
The department has a heavily-used but ancient Tektronix Phaser
IIIPxi tabloid-sized printer on an even more heavily-used and
ancient PhoneNet network. All the users are on an ethernet network -
most on macs running AppleTalk, a few on SGI workstations via TCP/IP.
Connectivity between the PhoneNet and Ethernet networks is provided
by an ancient GatorBox running GatorShare (PhoneNet-to-EtherTalk
routing) and GatorPrint (lpd print server for LaserWriters).
The printer is located in a PhoneNet zone which is 3 Appletalk router
hops away from the GatorBox. Printer usage is generally light
*until* a conference / grant deadline approaches.


Problem:
Not speed - surprisingly. The major problem is that printing is first
come, first served. Thus there's no way for rush jobs to be printed
if a number of lower-priority jobs are queued up. And there's no way
of telling who's queued up for the next job. This is a big department
spread over 3 floors of two buildings, so calling around isn't a
solution. Resetting the printer will cause the macs to canc*l jobs
in the queue, but the unix boxes will simply restart/requeue
any jobs that were in progress.

So it seems that a print server/spooler is in order - a box
which can connect to the printer and the ethernet network and
allow the owner of the printer to schedule/canc*l/hold print jobs
and identify where they are comming from for billing purposes.

My current brainstorm is to install a unix variant (either NetBSD
or Linux68k) and Netatalk or CAP to provide print services for
this printer on the network to the SGI users (via lpd) and to
Mac users (via CAP/Netatalk). This also gives me the ability to
install SAMBA if we ever get any Windows 95 users who also may
want to use this printer.

Plan B would be to buy a pc from surplus and buy Infomagic's Workgroup
Server software (<http://www.infomagic.com/catalog6.htm#workgroup)
to provide the same set of services.

Questions:

1) Is this a reasonable (and doable) plan, based on my
   financial constraint (less than $100)?

2) Has anyone out there set up a mac (or pc) with BSD or Linux
   to act as a print server/spooler for mac and unix users?

3) Should I be looking at BSD or Linux as my OS of choice? (I'm
   comfortable with either)

4) Which would be better choice for this task - Netatalk or CAP?

>Current inventory is now a IIci, a IIcx, or a IIsi - all with ethernet.
>The IIci and IIcx have 20 MB RAM and 230 and 80 MB disks respetively;
>the IIsi has 17 MB RAM and a 80 MB disk. Anything more powerful
>would be grabbed up by a lab looking for an extra computer for
>free (and they all are) - I had to even fight to keep the IIci
>because there are a couple people who want it for themselves.

======================





Thanks for any & all insight that you Mac68kers can give

Mike

Bikers don't *DO* taglines.