SS 145 Computer Lab

Using the PrintServer 20 Laser Printer

Located in the Computer and Networking Services (CNS) Center

Since printing will be available in the lab only during class time, students may want to use the PrintServer 20 to obtain print outs outside of class. A VAX computer account and a laser printing account are needed to print to the PrintServer 20 Laser. These can be obtained at the CNS Center.

Printing to the laser involves 3 steps.

Making sure the correct printer is selected in the application that you want to print from.
Uploading the print file to the VAX.
Logging on to the VAX and printing your file to the PrintServer 20.

This document will cover the first two steps. Step 3 is covered in the Student Handbook for Alpha and VAX Users which is available in the college bookstore.

Step 1: Selecting the Correct Printer

Unfortunately, this differs slightly depending on the application that you are in. For example, in Word, you go to the File menu and select Print. The following dialog box appears.

If the Printer is PostScript Printer on FILE skip to the section marked with an *. If another printer is selected, click on the Printer button from the Print dialog box and the following window appears.

Finally, select the Digital PrintServer 20 on FILE in the Print Setup dialog box. Click on the Close button and you will return to the Print dialog box. *Hit OK and the Print to File dialog box will appear with c:\public as the current directory.

Give your print file a name in the Output File Name field and hit OK. You will now have a print file in the c:\public directory.

As another example, in Netscape, you again go to the File menu and select Print. Again a Print dialog box appears.

There is no Printers button, instead click on Setup if you need to change the printer selection.

When the Print Setup dialog box appears, click on the Specific Printer radio button. Select the Postscript Printer on FILE and hit the OK button. A Print to File window appears.

In the Output File Name put in the name of the file that you want to print to, but make sure you put it in the C:/Public directory. For example, type C:\PUBLIC\NET.PRN. You will now have a print file in the C:\PUBLIC directory.

Step 2: Uploading the Print File to the VAX

WinFTP is used to upload the print file to the VAX. Find the WinFTP icon and double click it. A session profile appears. Click on the pull down Profile Name menu and select UAlbany VAX. Add your VAX user id and password.

Hit the OK button. You should see a window something like the following. Make sure the Binary radio button at the bottom of the window is selected. The listed files and directories might be different.

If C:/PUBLIC is not the default directory on the local machine (left hand side of the window), click on the ChgDir button on the left side of the window. Type in C:/PUBLIC in the Enter local directory name field and hit OK. You should now see the file that you saved in step 1 on the left or local window. If there are a lot of files listed, you may have to use the scroll bar to find yours. Select the file that you want to upload and click on the right pointing arrow. The file will be uploaded to the VAX and will be listed in the file names on the right side of the window.

Step 3: Printing the File on the PrintServer 20 Laser Printer

This is covered in the Student Handbook for Alpha and VAX Users which is available in the college bookstore. The last time that I looked, the instructions were on pp. 73-74. Below I have included a log of a VAX session which includes the commands to print to the PrintSever20. CCSLASER is the name of my laser account, you will have to substitute the name of your laser account.

Username: STROTHER
Password:
***************************************************************************
                         The University at Albany
                   Computing and Network Services Center
                                  VAX/VMS
  DECnet:  ALBANY                                      BITNET:  albnyvms
                       Internet:  cnsvax.albany.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
               UNAUTHORIZED USE OF THE SYSTEM IS PROHIBITED
 
***************************************************************************
    Last interactive login on Monday, 26-AUG-1996 10:49
    Last non-interactive login on Thursday, 22-AUG-1996 14:54
To obtain more information on the following news items enter: $ NEWS
Current unread news items are:
 
  1.  * News and Announcements -- Just Type "news"
  2.  New On-Line Information Service: QUEST
  3.  How Trustworthy Is an Electronic Mail Message?
  4.  Inappropriate TDISK Use Will Cause Loss of Privs
  5.  Mail Will Not Be Delivered to Overquota Users
  6.  Look at PREPARE NEW for New Software offerings
  7.  New Version of IMSL Library Installed - NEW LINK PROCEDURE NEEDED
  8.  Important info for BASIC and SQL users
  9.  NEW WORLD WIDE WEB HOME PAGE IS HERE
 12.  Reminder - Mail sent to bitnet addresses must contain .bitnet
 28.  Ignore certain AOL.COM mail from the weekend of 4/12 thru 4/14.
 42.  Student Computer Accounts unavailable morning of May 22      
 43.  User Room Hours for Summer - May 28 thru August 16, 1996
 44.  "Good Times" Virus is a HOAX                              
 
  User [420022A,STROTHER] has 650 blocks used, 5350 available,
  of 6000 authorized and permitted overdraft of 100 blocks on USER610
$ prepare laser
Type "lps_summary" for a summary of PrintServer 20 commands.
 
LASER prepared
PREPARE done
$ postscript/name=ccslas test.prn
Job CCSLAS (queue LPS40, entry 732) pending
$ show entry
  Entry  Jobname         Username     Blocks  Status
  -----  -------         --------     ------  ------
    732  CCSLAS          STROTHER        107  Pending
         On stopped generic printer queue LPS40
%LPS-I-JOBSTART, Job CCSLAS (queue LPSGEN, entry 732) started on PS1
Job CCSLAS (queue PS1, entry 732) completed
$ lo
  STROTHER     logged out at 26-AUG-1996 10:58:36.79

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