Jetdirect Print Server General Question

Hi

I'm having trouble understanding a concept here I think, so I just
need a quick explanation.

I have a jetdirect printserver installed, J3263A, and an HP4SI printer
attached to it.

Every once in a while the printer will start printing out dozens of
blank pages, or pages with strange characters on them. Obviously
something is messed up so I'd like to stop it, however, I can't find
any way to do this.

Before I got this print server, I used to use a file server (A
computer with NT4 on it) as the print server. With that setup I could
always see what was in the queue (from my desk) and cancel it if I
wanted. But with this little print server it seems there is no access
to anything in it's queue and no way to stop something from printing.

I can access the built in web interface just fine, but all that does
is let me do setup work and shows me device info. Nothing about waht
it is actually printing.

I also tried installing Web Jetadmin 10, but it doesnt seem to give me
that ability either. In fact, Im not really sure what it does!

I found another program called Jetadmin (MUCH smaller!) and again, it
shows me all the device info, but not the queue!

SO.... The big question(s) is.... can I admin this device with regards
to the print queue? Or does a print job need to be cancelled at the
computer it was sent from? Or is that even not a possibility?

Thanks!

Scott

Unless and, often even if, jobs are funneled through a computer explcitly as the
print server computer, once a job has left a computer completely and is entirely
contained within the printer's own memory, there is little that can be done to
halt an erroneous job from being printer. This almost always requires manual
intervention at the printer.

The slowness of the parallel port interface when the 4si was attached to an NT
server computer actually had the advantage that a bad print job could be stopped
before too much of it had printed.

Neither HP JetAdmin program does anything for the ongoing management of print
jobs. All they can do is help with monitoring the printer status and with
changing the printer's network attributes. Not much else.

The real question is what is causing the blank pages or the pages with strange
characters. I can think of only a few possibilities:

1. Incorrectly operating printer or network hardware.
2. A rogue program.
3. Some other software configured incorrectly.
4. Bad parallel cable

Obviously, if there is a network malfunction, there is no way to purge a job
from a print queue, because none exists.

Consider changing printer cable, network cable, router/hub port to which printer
is connected, or JetDirect to see if problem still persists. A bad port in a
network hub could cause paper to spew out, for example. So could a faulty
parallel cable or cable connection. JetDirect cards are cheap these days, and
in internal JetDirect card should provide more reliable operation, as well.

Last of all, consider maxing out the internal memory of the printer. LaserJets
run more reliably with more memory. Memory does not need to be HP-branded,
simply 8MB 72-pin fast-page mode SIMMs that comply with industry JEDEC
specifications... Ben Myers

On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:14:45 -0700 (PDT), scotteh <> wrote:

>Hi
>
>I'm having trouble understanding a concept here I think, so I just
>need a quick explanation.
>
>I have a jetdirect printserver installed, J3263A, and an HP4SI printer
>attached to it.
>
>Every once in a while the printer will start printing out dozens of
>blank pages, or pages with strange characters on them. Obviously
>something is messed up so I'd like to stop it, however, I can't find
>any way to do this.
>
>Before I got this print server, I used to use a file server (A
>computer with NT4 on it) as the print server. With that setup I could
>always see what was in the queue (from my desk) and cancel it if I
>wanted. But with this little print server it seems there is no access
>to anything in it's queue and no way to stop something from printing.
>
>I can access the built in web interface just fine, but all that does
>is let me do setup work and shows me device info. Nothing about waht
>it is actually printing.
>
>I also tried installing Web Jetadmin 10, but it doesnt seem to give me
>that ability either. In fact, Im not really sure what it does!
>
>I found another program called Jetadmin (MUCH smaller!) and again, it
>shows me all the device info, but not the queue!
>
>SO.... The big question(s) is.... can I admin this device with regards
>to the print queue? Or does a print job need to be cancelled at the
>computer it was sent from? Or is that even not a possibility?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Scott

OK, Thanks.

I don;t know what could be causing the weird stuff. My guess is using
the wrong printer driver, but I dont know how that could happen. If I
set something up wrong, Im sure it would show up a lot more than once
every 6 months, considering people generally print something every
day!

But it's not just that, someone could be looking at 100,000 records in
a database and absent mindedly try to print the page and actually
print the whole database. With a computer being a print server, anyone
with rights can look at the queue and stop it (since a job that big
will take a while to spool to the printer).

I guess an option is an older computer. I have a few, so I could set
one up as a server in there. It's just bigger and one more thing to
keep an eye on.

Thanks

Scott