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NDPS also allows more control over print flow than queue-based printing. Administrators can place size limits on print queues and change the order of service on a job-by-job basis. Jobs can be processed in three different orders: "first in, first out," "smallest jobs first," or "minimize media changes."
Other end-user improvements include the ability to copy or move print jobs after they have been submitted to the printer--a godsend if you discover you are the 100th job in the queue. Additionally, through the agents, a user can find out what features a particular printer supports, such as color, duplex or maximum resolution.
For administrators, NDPS offers automatic print driver download and install. No longer will you have to touch every workstation each time an updated printer
driver is released. With NDPS, printer drivers will be downloaded from a central repository and installed when first accessing an NDPS printer. This feature alone may make the migration to NDPS worthwhile. When adding an NDPS printer, users can browse the NDS tree for printers or filter the list for printers with desired attributes.
Using the Windows95 NDPS client program, NWPMW95, we were able to view both NDPS printer objects and our public-access printer. Printers can be installed manually with the NWPMW95 utility or automatically. An administrator can mark specific printers in the NDS tree as "mandatory" installs. When marked in this manner, printers are installed via a command-line utility called PSETUP. We were able to launch PSETUP from our system login scripts and automatically add printers to our Windows95 workstation.
Who Will Benefit From NDPS?
Currently, only Windows 3.1 and Windows95 can take advantage of the NDPS enhancements. And workstations must be running Novell's Client32 vers
ion 2.2 or later. We found another caveat: the default Client32 install does not add NDPS support automatically. However, this is easily remedied: You can edit a few files for network installations or select the custom install when run directly from the Client CD.
Printer manufacturers are taking a wait-and-see approach to NDPS. Although HP and Xerox worked with Novell, neither have embedded the technology in their printers. Novell has yet to release the NEST (Novell Embedded System Technology) SDK, but says it plans to do so soon. HP and Xerox will be watching how well NDPS has caught on, and set their priorities for embedding NDPS technology.
But even with the lack of NDPS enabled printers, network administrators can still take advantage of it. Included with the NDPS CD is a printer gateway for HP printers. This gateway will allow any printer with a JetDirect interface card to act as an NDPS printer. Xerox has also written a gateway that can be downloaded from its Web site.
At first we were skeptic
al of a gateway solution, especially with large numbers of printers, but we found that when we used it we could sleep at night. To guard against high utilization on the server, gateway parameters can be tweaked. For example, HP's gateway lets you control the frequency with which JetDirect cards are polled for problems and status. Two settings are provided for setting polling intervals: when the printer is idle and when jobs are printing. The gateway can also turn off JetDirect card SAP (Service Advertising Protocol) traffic while under NDPS control to reduce network traffic and shrink ever-growing SAP tables.
What Does the Future Hold
The HP, Xerox and Novell agreement prevented the release of NDPS technology to other vendors for a period of 60 days after its initial release. This period ended as of December 1997, and Novell claims that other vendors will be announcing products based on the NDPS technology.
James E. Drews is a network administrator for the Computer Aided Engineering Center o
f the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He can be reached at drews@engr.wisc.edu.
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