M205/M206 v5.6.

5 Release Notes
Microplex Systems Ltd. Fax: +1 604 444-4239
8525 Commerce Court Support: +1 800 665-7798
Burnaby, BC V5A 4N3 Internet: [email protected]
Canada FTP: ftp.microplex.com
Tel: +1 604 444-4232 URL: http://www.microplex.com/

OVERVIEW
These release notes expand on the new features incorporated into firm-
ware versions 5.6.1 to 5.6.5 for the M205/M206.

NEW FEATURES
Novell Configurations
Version 5.6.5 introduces a slight modification to the preferred server fea-
ture under Novell environments helping with file server connections in
larger installations. With version 5.6.5., if there’s more than 32 file servers
in total, the desired file server should be set as a preferred server using
these commands on the M205/M206:
store pserver novell pserver add fileservername
reset

The M205/M206 will only acknowledge 32 file servers and there’s no

guarantee that the desired file server will be one of these 32 servers.
Therefore, the preferred server setting will guarantee the right server is
recognized. To view which file servers the M205/M206 does acknowl-
edge at a given time, please use this command on the device:
debug novell fserver

Note If you have any version prior to 5.6.5, the preferred server feature should
not be used for any reason. If you have more than 32 file servers though or
would like improved file server connections, please upgrade to version
5.6.5. Microplex Technical Support can help you with this.

IPAssign Windows Configuration Tool

Prior to version 5.6.5 of the M205/M206, assigning an IP address to the
print server is accomplished using Microplex’s own NPWin Windows
utility, ARP, RARP, or BOOTP. Most often NPWin or a manual ARP
command is the preferred choices but there can be problems with
NPWin’s complexity or with some ARP implementations on Windows
stations. Therefore, with version 5.6.5, Microplex has introduced a new
simplified Windows uility, IPAssign, which helps identify all Microplex
products on your network and temporarily assign IP addresses to them.
IPAssign automatically recognizes BOOTP packets broadcasted on the
network by a Microplex product allowing you to then assign a temporary
IP address to it for initial communications over the network.

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To use IPAssign to recognize an M205/M206 on your network, you will

need to:
1 Insert the Microplex diskette labeled “IPAssign” into the floppy drive
on your Windows station.
2 Load the File Manager or WinFile and look under the floppy drive for
an IPAssign self-extracting file.
3 Double click on the IPAssign file to launch the install program.
4 When prompted to install, click on YES to load the InstallShield
Wizard.
5 Answer the prompts throughout the wizard.
6 Once the install process is complete, you will be prompted to view the
“ReadMe” file. Select “Yes” to read this and when done, close the
file.
7 Find the new IPAssign program group and double click on the “IPAs-
sign” icon to load the program.
8 At the “IPAssign” main dialogue box that appears, you should see an
entry for your M205/M206 appear in the list box. If not, give IPAs-
sign a couple of minutes to find the device on the network or repower
the device to speed the process. Figure 1 shows an example screen.
Figure 1: IPAssign Main Screen

9 Once your M205/M206’s Ethernet address appears in the list box,

select it and press ASSIGN.
10 At the “Assign IP” dialogue box that displays next, fill in the IP
address and subnet mask for this print server.
Note: You can also assign a default router/gateway entry
within this dialogue box allowing your M205/
M206 to communicate across subnets. This is
optional though.
11 Click SET when done to assign these TCP/IP settings to the print
server. IPAssign will then display two dialogue boxes informing you
of its progress.

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Once you see the message about successfully assigning the settings, click
OK. These TCP/IP settings are now in the M205/M206’s current memory
to be retained until the next power cycle.
You will now need to store these settings into the device’s EEPROM to
ensure the settings are not lost after a power cycle. To do this, you will
need to:
1 Begin a Telnet session with the print server using the IP address you
have just assigned to it.
2 Log in as “root” when prompted for a login name and at the password
prompt, just press ENTER since there is no password by default.
3 Once successfully logged in, enter these commands to store the IP
address and subnet mask into EEPROM:
store net 1 addr IPaddress
store net 1 mask netmask
4 If you want to store a default router entry allowing for communica-
tions across subnets, you will need to enter this command specifying
the IP address of your subnet’s default router in the routerIPaddress
variable:
store net route add default routerIPaddress 1
5 Repower the M205/M206 to make these settings take effect:
reset
At this point, your Telnet session will be closed and the M205/M206 will
reboot. This ensures that the new TCP/IP settings are stored in EEPROM
and they are in fact being used. Now you will not lose these settings
unless they are changed using similar commands.

Unix Host Software

Microplex’s Unix host software, which comes with each Microplex prod-
uct, has now been improved making it easier to use.
Overview The Unix host software provided with Microplex products comes com-
pressed and tarred using standard Unix utilities. The file will always be
called “npdist.tar.1.Z” so once copied onto your Unix system, you will
need to uncompress and untar it for use in a temporary directory.
Once undone, you will have a configuration script like “ezsetup” and a
directory called “npdist”. The directory contains extra files such as pro-
cessing binaries, source code, and interface scripts which are not always
mandatory in a Microplex print setup.
Prior to the latest version 5.7 software release, Microplex products
could be configured for TCP/IP environments using either “npconfig” or
“ezsetup”, Microplex’s two configuration software programs written for
several flavours of Unix. “npconfig” was for more detailed configurations
and “ezsetup” was the program to run if you needed a simple, quick con-
figuration of the print server or a print setup on your host.

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With the version 5.7 release of the Unix host software, “ezsetup” is now
the only Unix installation program provided. Therefore, to configure a
print server with TCP/IP settings (i.e. IP address, subnet mask) and to
configure a print setup on your Unix host, you just need to run “ezsetup”
from your Unix command line once you’ve logged on as root or supe-
ruser. The syntax is:
./ezsetup
Note If you have HP/UX, you must run “ezsetup” like this to ensure the proper
menus appear:
ksh ./ezsetup
You will be prompted about your type of Unix system and then a Main
Menu will appear providing these choices:
1 Configure New Unit
2 Configure Host Setup
If you’d like to configure the Microplex print server with an IP address
and subnet mask, select “1”. If you can already communicate with the
print server over TCP/IP, then you can select “2” to create a print setup on
this Unix host which can send print jobs to the print server. Simply follow
the prompts until “ezsetup” tells you it has completed its steps.

New “ezsetup” Advantages The key advantages to this new “ezsetup” besides its ease of use are:
• It will work with all Microplex print server models including the M200/
M201, M202/M212, M204, M205/M206, and M208. You do not need
different versions of the software for each model.
• It will work with all firmware versions going back as early as version
4.0. You do not need to worry about firmware compatibility issues any
longer.
• If doing a print setup on a System V Unix host, a very simplistic
Microplex interface script, “rawsysv.if”, will now be used eliminating
the need for any extra host binaries or compilation. This also holds true
if you have a BSD-type Unix system but you want to use an interface
script within the printcap file rather than the standard LPD (or “remote
printer”) print method.

As for the rest of the Unix host software (i.e. the files contained within the
“npdist” directory), the only difference from earlier software versions is
the interface scripts provided. If interface scripts are needed for a Unix
print setup, the concentration is now on short, simplistic scripts which do
not require any additional host binaries or compilation. The scripts simply
capture the spooled data, send it to standard out, and then redirect this
data over the network to the print server. Any extra processing like car-
riage return insertion can then be done on the print server.
Note All other binaries and source code are the same as before.

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Microplex Printing System (MPS) for Windows

Prior to version 5.6.5 of the M205/M206, the only Windows print meth-
ods available were those provided with the operating system. Now with
this new firmware version, Microplex has introduced “MPS” as an alter-
native direct socket print method for Windows NT and Windows 95 envi-
ronments.
To configure a new MPS printer on a Windows station, you will need to:
1 Insert the Microplex diskette labeled “MPS” into the floppy drive.
2 Load up the File Manager or WinFile and look under the floppy drive
for an MPS ZIP file.
3 Double click on the MPS ZIP file to extract all files within it to a
directory on the Windows station.
4 Once extracted to a directory, find the “Setup” file and double click on
this to load the InstallShield Wizard.
5 Answer the prompts throughout the wizard and select “Yes” to restart
your computer at the end.
6 Once your computer is rebooted, open the Settings:Printer folder to
view your existing printers.
Note: MPS will only work with an existing printer.
Therefore, if you don’t have an existing printer that
you can alter, create one now using any port set-
tings you’d like. These will be changed in the fol-
lowing steps anyways.
7 Select the printer that you want to use with MPS and click on the right
mouse button to bring up a sub-menu.
8 Select “Properties” from this menu to display the current settings for
this printer.
9 Click on the “Details” tab to display the printer’s port settings.
10 Click on the ADD PORT button.
11 At the “Add Port” dialogue box that displays, click on the radio but-
ton labeled “Other”.
12 Click on “Microplex TCP/IP Printer Port” from within this “Other”
list.
13 At the next dialogue box that displays, fill in the host name or IP
address of the M205/M206 in the first field.
14 Fill in a valid TCP port number on the M205/M206 in the second
field. Since there is only one port on this print server model, this will
always be 4400.

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15 Click OK when done to return to the “Details” window. You should

now see something about “MPS Port” within the “Print to following
port:” field.
16 Click OK to close this printer’s properties window.
You now have a new network printer which relies on MPS to print
remotely to a printer off of the M205/M206.

Test Pages
To test M205/M206 and printer communications without bringing the net-
work into the picture, a test page feature has been added in version 5.6.3
and higher.
To get test pages, you will need to:
1 Unplug the M205/M206.
2 Look to the front of the device and move Dipswitch 1 and Dipswitch
2 to the on position (i.e. down).
3 Once the M205/M206 is attached to a printer that’s ready to print,
plug it in to get two automatic test pages.
4 When done, unplug the M205/M206 and move Dipswitch 1 and
Dipswitch 2 to the off position (i.e. up) again for normal operations.
Note It is very important that the dipswitches be returned to their default states
once you are finished with the test pages.

COMMAND CHANGES
The M205/M206 print server has a command shell called “npsh” built in
to its firmware. This command shell can be accessed through Telnet or
remote command sessions (i.e. rsh, rcmd, remsh) to the unit, through the
“npsh” Novell executable, or through one of the serial ports with a dumb
terminal, PC, or laptop directly attached.
Changed Commands Within the parallel port command structure of this shell, this command is
used to alter the speed and flow control used on the port:
Old set portname [-]ackmode [-]bbmode [-]fastmode [-]slow-
mode [-]vslowmode
where:
portname “prn” for the parallel port.
ackmode Flow control. Use the ACK signal to trigger next
data transfer. Busy mode is used as the default flow
control method.
bbmode Bit Bucket mode. Simulate an attached printer even
if one isn’t attached.
fastmode Speed. Increase the data transfer rate.
slowmode Speed. Slow the data transfer rate.

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vslowmode Speed. Slow the data transfer rate even further to

accomodate slower or older printer models.

With version 5.6.2 and higher, this command has been changed to:
New set portname mode slow|cen|pc|fast|bb
where:
portname “prn” for the parallel port.
slow Slow the data transfer rate.
cen Centronics mode. Use with older impact printers
(i.e. dot matrix, line printers).
pc Default mode. Will work with most printers.
fast Increase the data transfer rate. Used with some
newer, faster printers like the HP 4 and 5 series.
bb Bit Bucket mode. Simulate an attached printer even
if one isn’t attached.
Note There is no longer a setting to adjust the flow control method of the paral-
lel port from busy mode to ACK mode. This is no longer necessary.
Note Using the old command syntax for the parallel port will continue to work
with version 5.6.2 but this will eventually be phased out in future firm-
ware releases.

New Commands The following are the new commands incorporated into this release:
set sysinfo module [-]novell [-]appletalk [-]netbios
Prior to version 5.6.3, only the Novell and AppleTalk stack could be
enabled or disabled within the M205/M206 allowing for easier memory
allocation or network broadcast control. However, with version 5.6.3 and
higher, the NetBIOS over TCP/IP protocol can now be controlled as well.
store tcpip tcp opts [-]disbufmgmt
Use this command to enable or disable receive buffer management on the
M205/M206. The receive buffer controls how many simultaneous TCP
connections can be allowed with the unit at one time. The only time you
may need to have receive buffer management turned off is if you notice
short pauses between the end of one print job and the start of the next job
usually with LPR printing.
store pserver opts [-]iobuffer
Though not something normally used for parallel printing, this command
enables and disables buffering on the parallel port. Only special circum-
stances would require buffering to be turned off.
store pserver opts [jobtimeout seconds]
This command only applies if a logpath setting is used for printer feed-
back (e.g. logpath type equals “printer” for printer errors). Adjusting this
seconds value will tell the print server how long to wait for printer feed-
back at the end of a print job before it continues on to the next print job in
the queue. The default value is 0 meaning it will hold indefinitely. Most

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printers should respond quite quickly so you won’t need to adjust this
value but if you have time-critical printing happening (e.g. one job every
7 seconds) with certain logging requirements, this may come into play.
Note Anytime you execute a “store” command, you must reboot the print
server with a “reset” command or physically unplug and plug it back in.
Otherwise, the setting will not become a current or working setting in
memory. When using a “set” command, a “save” command should fol-
low to ensure the new setting is not lost after a power cycle.

debug lpd
View Line Printer Daemon (LPD) related information. This is normally
used by Microplex Technical Support when troubleshooting certain types
of problems.

NOTE: If you are experiencing any configuration problems with the M205/M206, you might want
to look at the “Microplex Training Guide for All Products” found under the Technical
Support section, the “Support Shack”, at Microplex’s Web site (www.microplex.com).

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