M10AM   Managing Network Printers and Print Spoolers
Patrick Powell, AStArt Technologies

Who should attend: System managers who are faced with managing a wide variety of printers in a distributed and non-homogeneous environment. Participants should be familiar with the basics on UNIX and networking, and the concepts of client/server programming.

This tutorial will provide an overview of network based printing, and discuss the various approaches used by UNIX, Novell, and Microsoft to support printing. It will focus on the problems of supporting a heterogeneous print spooler environment, such as UNIX BSD, System V, and Microsoft NT printing.

Topics include:

	Printer interfaces, printer job lanaguages, and page description languages
	Print spooler architecture and functions
	BSD print spooler organization, system V print spooler
	Novell print spooler, and Microsoft print spooler
	Network protcols - RFC 1179
	Application programs, drivers, and PDL conversion programs
	BSD print spooler    Organization    LPRng, BSD 4.4 LPD    Installation of software    printcap files    Filters
	SAMBA and SMB print spooling support    Organization    Installation    Configuration
	Exotic spooling problems    System V to LPD spooling    PCNFSD spooling    Windows WINSOCK client programs
	Guidelines and recommendations

After completing this course, attendees will have a better understanding of the problems and some solutions when managing a large number of printers with different capabilities. Examples covered in depth include supporting NT print clients on UNIX systems and vice versa, using LPRng and Samba.