Jeff: When you say "protocol," I presume you mean the "language" that devices on the network use to communicate, such as TCP/IP, Appletalk, IPX/SPX. How does one determine what protocol any particular computer (Mac or PC) or printer is using?
My Powerbook, running OS X Panther, is using TCP/IP to communicate with some network devices -- routers, the Internet, etc. -- and Appletalk to communicate with others (printers, peer-to-peer file sharing on our LAN). The PCs are clearly using TCP/IP to communicate on the Internet, but I don't know what they use for printing and LAN file sharing. How would I find that out? I've never really known what the term "NetBios" means -- is that a communications protocol and if so, is it the standard for LAN communications in the PC world, as Appletalk has been in the Mac world? Once I do discover what protocol the PCs are using to talk to printers, is it something that I can change on the printer side, using its configuration menus, or on the PC side (using the Network control panel?). Can a printer be set up to communicate using different protocols depending on which machine is doing the talking? My LaserJet 5, for example, _seems_ to be set up to handle both Appletalk and TCP/IP protocols (both give a status of "Ready" when I print out the printer's configuration sheet. That would seem to indicate that it's ready to communicate with either protocol. Is that the way it works? Sorry for so many questions, but I really need to understand how this protocol thing works. I appreciate your help. Dan > Dan, > Could be a couple of things. The printers are hooked up on ethernet, > but > what protocol are they using? If the LJ4000 can only be seen by the > Macs, > I'd suspect the printer isn't using a protocol the Windows boxes are > using - > thus no communication. They (the Windows machines) can see the printer > directly connected to the other Windows machine because of the common > protocol. It could be TCP/IP or NetBios. > > That's where I would start. > > Jeff Slyn, Owner > SLYN Systems & Peripherals > (502) 426-5469 > serving Kentuckiana clients 7 days a week since 1985! | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be February 24. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>.
