JetDirect

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Older JetDirect card with Token Ring connection.
new print server 610N with 10 / 100MBit Ethernet connection and web server for printer administration

JetDirect is the name for a network protocol that has become industry standard for connecting printers to the network in the simplest technical way (see below) and for the historical printer server adapter series from HP .

JetDirect integrates printers into a computer network and thus enables a printer to be used jointly by several computers / workstations. JetDirects existed with the LAN interfaces LocalTalk , Token Ring and Ethernet ( 10BASE2 and 10BASE-T) and are now mostly connected via TP Fast Ethernet or WLAN .

The direct in the name means that the first models were designed as a plug-in card for a dedicated slot directly in the printer. In spite of this, the cards had local memory and a processor for protocol processing .

A large number of external JetDirect "print servers" exist for older or very cheap printers. The name was adopted from a marketing point of view, although the connection to the printer is no longer so “direct”. Instead, USB or the older parallel interface are common today . External JetDirect print servers require a separate power supply, usually through a plug-in power supply .

In some cases, JetDirect servers not only support TCP / IP , but also AppleTalk , IPX and other network protocols .

functionality

JetDirect is designed as simply as possible, in principle it is just a network stream (nowadays TCP / IP) to LPT (software not hardware side) "socket adapter". The data is simply passed one-to-one to the printing unit. Better JetDirect implementations can still cache, but usually another one is simply rejected when the connection is open. Therefore, the term "print server" is rather an exaggeration.

Modern JetDirect interfaces offer far more functions than pure print servers. With the right software , the functions of multifunction devices such as scanning and faxing in the LAN can also be used and support technologies for easy integration into operating systems such as Rendezvous / Zeroconf .

At the TCP / IP level, JetDirect interfaces can be addressed with a wide variety of services. Including z. As HTTP , FTP , SNMP , Telnet , CUPS , etc. JetDirect usually uses the TCP - port 9100 as a native ability to send data to the terminal.

Network administrators can query many operating parameters of the JetDirect interfaces via SNMP ; z. B. the number of pages printed or the status of the toner empty notification. In some cases, parameters can also be set that are otherwise only accessible via the HP JetAdmin configuration program .

Web links

Commons : Hewlett-Packard JetDirect printserver  - collection of images, videos and audio files