This article possibly contains original research .(June 2013) |
HP Jetdirect is the name of a technology sold by Hewlett-Packard that allows computer printers to be directly attached to a local area network. [1] The "Jetdirect" designation covers a range of models from the external 1 and 3 port parallel print servers known as the 300x and 500x, to the internal EIO print servers for use with HP printers. The Jetdirect series also includes wireless print server (Bluetooth, 802.11b and g) models, as well as gigabit Ethernet and IPv6-compliant internal cards.
HP Jetdirect was first introduced in March 1991 (code named QuickSilver) with the LaserJet IIIsi network printer (code named Eli). Jetdirect is based on HP's MIO (Modular Input/Output) interface, which was designed from the ground up with the IIIsi to create a mainstream full function high performance networked printer. The initial MIO interface card had Ethernet and Token Ring physical layer variants and used various networking protocols over an AUI/BNC connection. Initially, a printer needed a separate card for each protocol, such as TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, or DLC/LLC. The following year, the team applied the technology to the legacy accessory slot on the LaserJetIIs and IIIs XIO (Extended Input/Output). MIO type Jetdirect cards were also used for network connectivity on some HP/Agilent laboratory equipment, such as the 6890A and 6890 Plus series of gas chromatographs. These included unusual network connection types such as HPs I-Net, which was used as an interconnect between various pieces of hardware that controlled the 58xx and 68xx series gas chromatographs. Not until 1994 would MIO interface cards be released that could support more than one protocol per card.
The next development releases added connection interfaces. In 1992, a card with both 8P8C modular telephone and BNC connectors for Ethernet was released, and in 1993, the first external Jetdirects were introduced with a parallel interface. This enabled Jetdirect cards to connect to almost any printer, making that printer network-capable. In 1995, the Ex plus 3 was released, with 3 parallel ports on one network interface, allowing 3 printers to share 1 network address.
1997 saw the new numbering format for both internal and external Jetdirect servers. Internals began the 6xx series with the release of the 600n, multiprotocol card that supported TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, DLC/LLC, and AppleTalk over a Token Ring network; along with the 1760x series external print server - also multiprotocol. An Ethernet version of the 600n was released in 1998. In 1999, the Jetdirect autoswitch was introduced.
1998 also saw the release of 170x, the first value-line print server aimed at smaller companies that did not necessarily need full networking - only TCP/IP or IPX/SPX support. This was followed in 2000 by the Jetdirect 70x home print server.
More advanced versions of JetDirect supported a number of network printing protocols. However, the protocol that ended up being associated with it, the JetDirect protocol, [2] is its raw TCP/IP protocol sometimes referred to as Socket API or RAW. It is an extremely simple network printing protocol. [3] Submitting a print job can be done by netcating a file containing the page description language (e.g. PostScript, PCL) to the appropriate TCP port on the printer (default port is 9100). Information about the printer and job is simply sent to the client while the TCP connection is active. The port would reject connections if the printer is busy. [3]
AppSocket is a very similar implementation by Tektronix for Phaser printers, later sold to Xerox. [4] This protocol adds support for querying for printer status by non-printing users via a separate UDP port. [5]
Most JetDirect devices also came with, JetDirect Interface, a telnet interface for configuring the device or printer. [6]
Model number | Printer ports | Network ports | Network protocols | Firmware | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
EX | One Parallel | 10BASE2 and 10BASE-T (Ethernet) or DE-9 (Token Ring) | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and DLC/LLC | Flash EEPROM | BOOTP Client, 4 Models were available: J2382A, J2382B (both Ethernet) and J2383A, J2383B (both Token Ring) |
EX Plus | One Parallel | 10BASE2 and 10BASE-T | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and DLC/LLC | Flash EEPROM | BOOTP & DHCP Client |
EX Plus3 | Three Parallel | 10BASE2 and 10BASE-T | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, and DLC/LLC | Flash EEPROM | DHCP Client (not BOOTP) |
170x | One Parallel (IEEE 1284.4) | One RJ45 10BASE-T Ethernet | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and DLC/LLC | Non-upgradeable | Discontinued |
175x | One USB 1.0 | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet | TCP/IP, AppleTalk, LPD (Windows and Mac OS only) | Non-upgradeable | Discontinued in favor of the en1700 |
300x | One Parallel (IEEE 1284.4) | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, and DLC/LLC, IPP, FTP | 2 MB | Four models have been made available: J3263A, the base model; J4101A, an OfficeConnect model designed to mimic the style of 3Com OfficeConnect equipment so that stacking it on top of such equipment is aesthetically pleasing; J4101B, an updated version of J4101A; and J3263G, a RoHS-compliant version of J3263A. All except the J3263G have been discontinued, but all still get firmware updates. |
310x | One USB 1.0 | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, and DLC/LLC | 2 MB | Discontinued in favor of the en3700 |
en1700 | One USB 2.0 | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet | TCP/IP, AppleTalk | 2 MB | Limited Firmware flashable for USB connectivity to certain HP printers |
en3700 | One USB 2.0 | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, and DLC/LLC | 4 MB | Discontinued in favor of ew2500 |
500x | Three Parallel (IEEE 1284.4) | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet, one BNC (10BASE2) | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, and DLC/LLC | 2 MB | Discontinued in favor of the 510x |
510x | Three Parallel (IEEE 1284.4) | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, and DLC/LLC | 2 MB | Same product as the 500x, except no BNC connector and RoHS compliant, discontinued |
wp110 | One Parallel (IEEE 1284.4) | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet, Wireless 802.11b | TCP/IP, AppleTalk, IP Direct mode, telnet, SLP, IGMP, BOOTP/DHCP, WINS, SNMP, HTTP, Auto-IP, and Apple Rendezvous | 2 MB | Discontinued |
380x | One USB 1.0 | Wireless 802.11b | TCP/IP (IP Direct Mode, LPD, FTP, IPP), IPX/SPX, DLC/LLC, and AppleTalk. Also NDS, NetWare Bindery, NCP, telnet, SLP, IGMP, BOOTP/DHCP, WINS, SNMP v1 and v2c, and HTTP | 4 MB | Discontinued in favor of ew2400 |
ew2400 | One USB 2.0 | One RJ45 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet, Wireless 802.11b/g | TCP/IP, IPX/SPX Direct mode, AppleTalk, IP Direct mode, LPD printing, telnet, SLP, IGMP, BOOTP/DHCP, WINS, SNMP, HTTP, Auto-IP, and Apple Rendezvous | 4 MB | Discontinued in favor of ew2500 |
ew2500 | One USB 2.0 | One 10/100BASE-TX Ethernet, Wireless 802.11b/g | TCP/IPv4, TCP/IPv6, AppleTalk, IP Direct Mode, LPR/LPD printing, FTP, IPP, IPX/SPX, DLC/LLC, Novell NetWare NDS, NetWare Bindery, Novell iPrint | 8 MB |
MIO (Modular Input/Output) was the first technology developed by HP for its laser printers to enable the addition of peripheral cards such as Jetdirect.
Model number | Network ports | Released | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
C2059A | Ethernet Attachment Unit Interface (AUI), 10BASE2 | October 1, 1991 | IPX/SPX only, discontinued |
C2059B | Ethernet AUI, 10BASE2 | October 1, 1991 | DLC/LLC only, discontinued |
C2059C | Token Ring DE-9 connector | October 1, 1991 | IPX/SPX only, discontinued |
C2059D | Token Ring DE-9 connector | October 1, 1991 | DLC/LLC only, discontinued |
C2059E | Ethernet AUI, 10BASE2 | October 1, 1991 | EtherTalk only, discontinued |
C2059T | Ethernet AUI, 10BASE2 | October 1, 1991 | TCP/IP only, discontinued |
J2337A | 10BASE-T, 10BASE2 | November 1, 1992 | IPX/SPX only, Can be upgraded with J2546B SIMM, discontinued |
J2338A | 10BASE-T, 10BASE2 | November 1, 1992 | DLC/LLC only, Can be upgraded with J2546B SIMM, discontinued |
J2339A | 10BASE-T, 10BASE2 | November 1, 1992 | EtherTalk only, Can be upgraded with J2546B SIMM, discontinued |
J2340A | 10BASE-T, 10BASE2 | November 1, 1992 | TCP/IP only, Can be upgraded with J2546B SIMM, discontinued |
J2371A | 10BASE-T | April 1, 1993 | Can be upgraded with J2546B SIMM, discontinued |
J2372A | 10BASE-T, 10BASE2, LocalTalk | April 1, 1993 | Can be upgraded with J2546B SIMM, discontinued |
J2373A | Token Ring DE-9 connector | April 1, 1993 | Can be upgraded with J2549B SIMM, discontinued |
J2550A/B | 10BASE-T | May 1994, November 1, 1996 | "A" version can be upgraded to "B" version with a firmware update, discontinued |
J2552A/B | 10BASE-T, 10BASE2, and LocalTalk | May 1994, November 1, 1996 | "A" version can be upgraded to "B" version with a firmware update, discontinued |
J2555A/B | Token Ring DE-9 connector, RJ45 | November 1, 1996 | "A" version can be upgraded to "B" version with a firmware update, discontinued |
J2556B | 10/100BASE-TX | June 1, 1997 | Flash upgradeable, discontinued |
J4100A | 10/100BASE-TX, 10BASE2 | February 1, 2000 | Also known as the HP Jetdirect 400n Print Server for Fast Ethernet, flash upgradeable, discontinued but not considered a legacy part in regards to firmware development |
J4105A | Token Ring | February 1, 2000 | Also known as the HP Jetdirect 400n Print Server for Token Ring, flash upgradeable, discontinued but not considered a legacy part in regards to firmware development |
J4106A | 10BASE-T | February 1, 2000 | Also known as the HP Jetdirect 400n Print Server for Ethernet, flash upgradeable, discontinued but not considered a legacy part in regards to firmware development |
LIO (Low-end I/O) interfaces were developed by HP as a corporate response to the strictly internal MIO and EIO development path. The LIO interface differs from MIO/EIO in that the card is wrapped in an external plastic casing and is hot-swappable. The LIO backplane technology is based on a low power/low-voltage (< 1-volt) differential signaling technology.
EIO (Enhanced Input/Output) is a modular interface developed by HP for its printers to expand their capabilities. EIO does not just serve Jetdirect cards, but EIO hard drives and the EIO Connectivity card for adding communication ports to the printers as well. EIO utilizes the 3.3V signaling technology of the Conventional PCI bus and is significantly more energy-efficient than MIO technology. EIO print servers will not work in LIO slots, nor will the LIO print servers work in EIO slots.
In 2002 HP released the 615n series of Internal EIO print server. This model featured a new chipset manufactured in Singapore that had a problem related to either overheating or data overload. Otherwise known as the ASIC issue, this meant the 615n card could fail without warning, and when it failed, would completely shut down, appearing to vanish from the printer entirely.
Soon afterwards, HP began to do a per-item replacement policy that has ended as of October 31, 2008, when all known 615n cards were at least 4 years old and at such time HP felt it had taken appropriate corporate responsibility for a defect in manufacturing.
The 615n cards most often affected were the units installed in the Laserjet 2300, 4200 and Color 4600 series. Those cards appear to be most prone to failure.
Any 615n series card can fail, but it is up to HP to determine if the failure is due to the chipset or some other factor. HP recommended to call them or contact them through the Web site and they will proceed to do some simple troubleshooting steps to determine if the failure is due to the chipset or some other cause. [11] If it is proven to be the chipset, HP would be able to replace the card under warranty with an as-new card (nominally a 620n).
The BT1300 is a Bluetooth compliant network adapter for network-ready parallel or USB printers. (Discontinued)
The Print Server Appliance 4250 is perhaps the most ambitious of the Jetdirect products - being a complete printing facility in a box. The system comes ready to go with a pre-loaded and configured Print Server running on a Linux core with an Apache Web Server. Once connected to the network, the device is able to manage up to 50 print shares with any supported network-ready printer, not just HP products. (Discontinued)
The Jetdirect EIO connectivity card allows for the expansion of any EIO printer to gain a USB 1.0, Serial, and Localtalk interface. This card has all three interface connectors and on-board electronics to give the printer the ability to use these interfaces. (Discontinued)
Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) is the network-layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol suite. IPX is derived from Xerox Network Systems' IDP. It also has the ability to act as a transport layer protocol.
Ethernet over twisted-pair technologies use twisted-pair cables for the physical layer of an Ethernet computer network. They are a subset of all Ethernet physical layers.
In computer networking, Fast Ethernet physical layers carry traffic at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s. The prior Ethernet speed was 10 Mbit/s. Of the Fast Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-TX is by far the most common.
In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in 1999, and has replaced Fast Ethernet in wired local networks due to its considerable speed improvement over Fast Ethernet, as well as its use of cables and equipment that are widely available, economical, and similar to previous standards. The first standard for faster 10 Gigabit Ethernet was approved in 2002.
Category 3 cable, commonly known as Cat 3 or station wire, and less commonly known as VG or voice-grade, is an unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable used in telephone wiring. It is part of a family of standards defined jointly by the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and published in TIA/EIA-568-B.
A network interface controller is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.
In the OSI networking model, Data Link Control (DLC) is the service provided by the data link layer. Network interface cards have a DLC address that identifies each card; for instance, Ethernet and other types of cards have a 48-bit MAC address built into the cards' firmware when they are manufactured.
Power over Ethernet (PoE) describes any of several standards or ad hoc systems that pass electric power along with data on twisted-pair Ethernet cabling. This allows a single cable to provide both a data connection and enough electricity to power networked devices such as wireless access points (WAPs), IP cameras and VoIP phones.
TCP offload engine (TOE) is a technology used in some network interface cards (NIC) to offload processing of the entire TCP/IP stack to the network controller. It is primarily used with high-speed network interfaces, such as gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, where processing overhead of the network stack becomes significant. TOEs are often used as a way to reduce the overhead associated with Internet Protocol (IP) storage protocols such as iSCSI and Network File System (NFS).
In computer networks, a tunneling protocol is a communication protocol which allows for the movement of data from one network to another. It can, for example, allow private network communications to be sent across a public network, or for one network protocol to be carried over an incompatible network, through a process called encapsulation.
In computer networking, link aggregation is the combining of multiple network connections in parallel by any of several methods. Link aggregation increases total throughput beyond what a single connection could sustain, and provides redundancy where all but one of the physical links may fail without losing connectivity. A link aggregation group (LAG) is the combined collection of physical ports.
Autonegotiation is a signaling mechanism and procedure used by Ethernet over twisted pair by which two connected devices choose common transmission parameters, such as speed, duplex mode, and flow control. In this process, the connected devices first share their capabilities regarding these parameters and then choose the highest-performance transmission mode they both support.
A medium-dependent interface (MDI) describes the interface in a computer network from a physical-layer implementation to the physical medium used to carry the transmission. Ethernet over twisted pair also defines a medium-dependent interface – crossover (MDI-X) interface. Auto–MDI-X ports on newer network interfaces detect if the connection would require a crossover and automatically choose the MDI or MDI-X configuration to complement the other end of the link.
The physical coding sublayer (PCS) is a networking protocol sublayer in the Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet standards. It resides at the top of the physical layer (PHY), and provides an interface between the physical medium attachment (PMA) sublayer and the media-independent interface (MII). It is responsible for data encoding and decoding, scrambling and descrambling, alignment marker insertion and removal, block and symbol redistribution, and lane block synchronization and deskew.
lwIP is a widely used open-source TCP/IP stack designed for embedded systems. lwIP was originally developed by Adam Dunkels at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science and is now developed and maintained by a worldwide network of developers.
The physical-layer specifications of the Ethernet family of computer network standards are published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which defines the electrical or optical properties and the transfer speed of the physical connection between a device and the network or between network devices. It is complemented by the MAC layer and the logical link layer. An implementation of a specific physical layer is commonly referred to as PHY.
In computing, Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 introduced in 2007/2008 a new networking stack named Next Generation TCP/IP stack, to improve on the previous stack in several ways. The stack includes native implementation of IPv6, as well as a complete overhaul of IPv4. The new TCP/IP stack uses a new method to store configuration settings that enables more dynamic control and does not require a computer restart after a change in settings. The new stack, implemented as a dual-stack model, depends on a strong host-model and features an infrastructure to enable more modular components that one can dynamically insert and remove.
10 Gigabit Ethernet is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlike previous Ethernet standards, 10GbE defines only full-duplex point-to-point links which are generally connected by network switches; shared-medium CSMA/CD operation has not been carried over from the previous generations of Ethernet standards so half-duplex operation and repeater hubs do not exist in 10GbE. The first standard for faster 100 Gigabit Ethernet links was approved in 2010.
The OPEN Alliance is a non-profit, special interest group (SIG) of mainly automotive industry and technology providers collaborating to encourage wide scale adoption of Ethernet-based communication as the standard in automotive networking applications.
The Socket API is a very flexible job transfer protocol. It is widely support by most Print Server manufacturers, with the Hewlett Packard JetDirect setting the de facto standard. The Socket API is extremely simple.