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Print Server Appliances that Spool?

Posted by Cliff on from the throttling-back dept.

man_ls asks: "I have recently run across the need for a network print server appliance, that can spool the data it is given and send it slower than 10 mbps to the printer. A client of mine has an Intermec label printer, with an internal processor too slow to accept data directly from the network without being buffered. Due to the system the client is running (OpenVMS) it must be connected to the network, it can't be local on one of the servers. Any ideas of a small print server box that can act like a spooler?"

1 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. I think I used to have your job... by Zarf · · Score: 2, Funny

    A client of mine has an Intermec label printer, with an internal processor too slow to accept data directly from the network without being buffered.

    I ended up writing a bunch o' custom Intermec Printer Drivers for linux and using one of their prolific Linux boxen to act as a spooling server. Wasn't that bad to work out. The hardest bit was writing the Intermec drivers... I had to reverse engineer those. Fortunately it was a custom app and only printed a half dozen types of documents.

    If you're interested I could share the "reverse engineering" technique... more of a quick hack actually. Heck, the whole thing was a clever hack... I hate clever.

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