Todd Cary todd@aristesoftware.com wrote:
Byron - I got my wife a Mac (she has only been asking for one for three years): iBook G4. Well her printer is hooked up to a PC and she likes to roam around the house with the
wireless
connection. Can your suggestion be implemented in this environment?
Yes. Line Printer Daemon (LPD) is a well-established, legacy standard. It uses port 515 and is governed by IETF RFC1179:
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1179.txt
The new IETF standard is the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). It uses port 631 (both clear and SSL) and is governed by IETF RFC2910: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2910.txt
Another port to be aware of is port 9100, commonly referred to by it's vendor-centric names like a "HP JetDirect" port. The technical name is the [HP] Page Description Language datastream (PDL-datastream) port. Microsoft calls it a "TCP/IP port", and you set it up as a local port, which maps back to the IP address/port.
BSD/SysV UNIX LPD, LPR and LPRng offer LPD services.
CUPS offers IPP by default, and it can also offer LPD services. CUPS, as a client, can also use other methods including LPD, IPP, SMB, PDL-datastream, etc... CUPS also offers a replacement spooler for NT/2000/XP that radically simplifies/centralizes administration for Windows clients.
Windows Servers can offer SMB and LPD, and newer versions can offer IPP services. Windows NT/2000 clients can use SMB, LPD and PDL-datastream, with XP adding IPP. For IPP, LPD and PDL-datastream, you set it up as a "local port."
Macs can also use LPD and PDL-datastream, with newer MacOS X releases supporting IPP.