HP printer fails to connect properly if second NW5 server is up

Question

Hi,
I have a baffling problem which sounds, I know, somewhat unlikely, but I
have looked at it carefully and I believe my description is accurate. I am
very much hoping that it is not as mad as it sounds and that someone can
offer some information on what is going on.
Our little local tree has two NW5 servers in it. I've got trad-style
printing set up for a number of HP network printers all with JetDirect
cards (various model numbers). The print queues are on server Dept1, in
fact Dept2 doesn't do much anyway at the moment - fortunately, as it turns
out. It all works beautifully, UNTIL one of the printers gets turned off.
Then, when it is turned back on, no-one can print to it.
At this point if I look at the JetDirect card's Novell/Netware status, it
says "Status: NDS PRINT SERVER NAME ERROR" where I would normally see
"Status: Ready". Everything else looks as normal, except under "attached
server" where after "Server 1[nds]:" it has our server dept2 where I would
expect to see dept1. I don't even understand the significance of this but
it is something which changes when things are/are not OK so I thought I'd
better mention it.
The workaround for this is that I down dept2 then power cycle the printer
with dept2 still down. Works like a charm - printing is then no problem,
Status is "Ready", Dept1 is listed as Server 1 under "Attached Server". I
can then restart the server dept2 and all will continue to be well, at
least until the necxt time someone turns off a network printer! And so on ...
Can some kind person please explain to me, preferably in simple language
which will not confuse me (it doesn't take much), what on earth is going on
here? Fortunately we can live with this workaround for the time being but
it's not exactly brilliant, and one day may become impossible. Any offers
please?
Thanks
Neville Young

Answer 1

Make sure your Printers are net set for "Auto-Detect" for frame-type.
I could imaging that your 2nd server has frame-types that server 1 does not and
your Print Server is detecting those frame-types.
The use of NDPS to service your PrintQs may help as well.
[email protected] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a baffling problem which sounds, I know, somewhat unlikely, but I
> have looked at it carefully and I believe my description is accurate. I am
> very much hoping that it is not as mad as it sounds and that someone can
> offer some information on what is going on.
>
> Our little local tree has two NW5 servers in it. I've got trad-style
> printing set up for a number of HP network printers all with JetDirect
> cards (various model numbers). The print queues are on server Dept1, in
> fact Dept2 doesn't do much anyway at the moment - fortunately, as it turns
> out. It all works beautifully, UNTIL one of the printers gets turned off.
> Then, when it is turned back on, no-one can print to it.
>
> At this point if I look at the JetDirect card's Novell/Netware status, it
> says "Status: NDS PRINT SERVER NAME ERROR" where I would normally see
> "Status: Ready". Everything else looks as normal, except under "attached
> server" where after "Server 1[nds]:" it has our server dept2 where I would
> expect to see dept1. I don't even understand the significance of this but
> it is something which changes when things are/are not OK so I thought I'd
> better mention it.
>
> The workaround for this is that I down dept2 then power cycle the printer
> with dept2 still down. Works like a charm - printing is then no problem,
> Status is "Ready", Dept1 is listed as Server 1 under "Attached Server". I
> can then restart the server dept2 and all will continue to be well, at
> least until the necxt time someone turns off a network printer! And so on ...
>
> Can some kind person please explain to me, preferably in simple language
> which will not confuse me (it doesn't take much), what on earth is going on
> here? Fortunately we can live with this workaround for the time being but
> it's not exactly brilliant, and one day may become impossible. Any offers
> please?
>
> Thanks
>
> Neville Young
Craig Wilson
CNE3, 4, 5 - MCSE - CCNA
NSC Sysop (http://support.novell.com/forums/)
Tech Writer - http://www.ithowto.com
(I Peter 4:10)