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Review
Hewlett Packard JetDirect 300X Print
Server
By Terry Fong, Cyberwalker
Media Syndicate
Network operating systems on servers -- computers dedicated to serving networks -- can be an expensive way to allow many people to share a printer.
Hewlett Packard's JetDirect 300X Print Server may be just the thing for small businesses with more limited means or space. The $255 US price is reasonable for what you get and it's only seven by four inches, with a height of 1.25 inches -- smaller than many paperback books.
External JetDirect devices (there is an internal model for HP Laser printers) can be hooked up to almost any parallel printer. Postscript, HP-PCL, and HP-GL/2 printers are supported out of the box. The only exceptions listed among HP printers were GDI (also known as "Windows only") printers. There doesn't seem to be any way to hook these up.
The unit tested, the HP JetDirect 300X, is an external unit, supporting Ethernet (the most common Local Area Network technology) and fast Ethernet (often used for LAN backbone systems). It uses a RJ-45 connection to connect to a network hub, and one parallel port to connect to a printer or plotter. Variants supporting token ring, BNC connections and three devices are also offered.
The unit was tested connected to a four-node network with a mix of PCs running Windows 95 and Macintoshes running OS 7.X and OS 8.1 and using an HP printer.
The HP JetDirect 300X external unit comes with a CD and a Quick Start Guide. This guide is the same one for all of HP's JetDirect print servers. It gets you up and running, doing a manual installation, five minutes after reading it.
Physical installation of the parts also took no more than five minutes.
Configuring the device for a computer operating Windows 95, using the "Install Network Printer" option on the CD's automatic installation routine, also took less than five minutes.
Managing the print server (and attached printer) can be done using three means. The first two connect to an embedded Web server, either using a supported Web browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer, running on Windows 95/98, NT 4, Solaris or HP-UX), or through HP's preferred solution, Web JetAdmin, which works on eight different network operating systems. HP is slowly phasing out the third option,JetAdmin.
There is no documented means to manage the server from a Macintosh. Installation on a Mac was a little irritating. The supplied CD has a Macintosh compatible volume, but provided only HP Laserjet drivers. This test used an HP Laserjet printer so no problem was encountered, but documentation is a little murky about the necessity of using HP drivers for non-HP printers. The documentation supplied on the non-Mac side states that they are only needed for hooking up to HP Laserjet printers.
The print server was able to handle multiple print jobs from both the Windows machine, using TCP/IP (the main communication language for the Internet, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol can also be used for private networks) and the Mac, usingethertalk.
Admittedly, a network with only four machines would not be unduly stressful, but it kept the printer busy.
If you are running an office or department that uses computers with multiple platforms, this is certainly worth a look, although it is a single-use device. After reading about a lot of other possible solutions, this reviewer was not looking forward to implementing them. However, the JetDirect division has a motto: "It Simply Works." And it does.
Reviewer's rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
Comments: An inexpensive, easy way to allow multiple computers using different platforms to share a printer or plotter, despite the Mac and documentation irritations. You really don't want to know about the alternatives.
Approximate price: $255 US
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