Additional Issues in Establishing a OIT UNIX Printserver Print Queue for an HP LaserJet 5Si MX

This document contains some printer-specific information about the HP LaserJet 5Si MX printer, for use when establishing a OIT UNIX printserver print queue.

In addition to the information, there are some questions below for you to answer; please send your answers to printmaster@princeton.edu at the same time you submit the Request to Establish a New Printserver Print Queue.

Although the printer may speak both AppleTalk and HP's version of IP printing, printserver will communicate with the printer exclusively using HP's version of IP printing; that provides better performance and features. Therefore, please configure the printer to speak IP, and to obtain its configuration using "BootP"; see your HP manuals for instructions. (You can still configure the printer to speak other communication protocols; printserver simply won't use them.)

The HP 5Si MX has some additional features we are able to support when driving the printer from the OIT printserver. To do this, we need you to answer the following questions:

1. The printer comes standard with two built-in paper trays, numbered '2' and '3' (plus the manual feed, tray number '1'). Have you also purchased and installed the optional High-Capacity tray option (tray number 4)?

2. Did you purchase and install the optional duplex feature? If not, is that possible/likely in the future?

3. Will you be loading all the built-in paper trays with the same kind of paper (so the printer should just draw from whatever tray has paper available)?

4. If the answer to question #3 is "yes", please skip this question. Otherwise, if the answer to question #3 is "no", then what ONE kind of paper will be loaded into tray 2? And what ONE kind of paper will be loaded into tray 3? And if you have the optional High-Capacity tray installed, what ONE kind of paper will be loaded into tray 4? (Note that if you have the duplexing option installed, 3hole paper will require two trays (assuming you wish to be able to print one 3hole paper in both simplex and duplex modes) since it must be loaded one way for simplex printing and the other way for duplex printing.)

5. If the answer to question #3 is "yes", please skip this item. Otherwise, if the answer to question #3 is "no", then please use the printer's front panel controls to tell the printer that you have a unique *kind* of paper stock in each tray (tray 1, 2, 3, and if present, tray 4).

   (You do this using the console's "Tray' menu; see the HP manuals that came with the printer.)

   E.g. tell the printer that one tray contains "letter" paper, another tray contains "bond" paper, etc. It doesn't matter the kinds of paper you select; they can have no relationship to the paper you actually plan to load into each tray. The important thing is just to convince the printer that each tray has a different kind of paper stock. Note: you are specifying kinds of paper stock, *not* paper sizes.

   All this is simply to convince the printer that it has different kinds of paper in the trays, so it will not switch from one tray to another when it runs out of paper; that switching would defeat the purpose of loading different kinds of paper into each tray.

   Note that doing this may mean that non-UNIX users who print to this printer may need to experiment with their printing software to determine what they need to do when they want to cause the printer to draw paper from a particular tray.

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   The Office of Information Technology,
   Princeton University
   Last Update: September 11 2001