Macintosh LPR Printing

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The following article was provided by techtutorials.com.  Visit their website for free technical reference and training materials. 

What is LPR?
LPR stands for Line Printer Remote and is a printing protocol that is part of the TCP/IP protocol suite. In other words, it essentially allows you to print to a printer via TCP/IP. LPR is responsible for sending jobs to a printer or print queue and is sometimes referred to as an "LPR Client". In order for LPR to work, there must be a receiving printer or queue that is running the Line Printer Daemon(LPD) which is a service that is responsible for accepting LPR jobs.

What is PAP?
PAP stands for Printer Access Protocol and is Apple's default protocol for sending jobs from a Macintosh to a printer. PAP is part of the Appletalk protocol suite.

Why LPR Instead of PAP?
There are several reasons that one would want to switch from PAP to LPR. A partial list follows:

• Many systems administrators do not want ANY Appletalk running on their networks. Appletalk has a reputation for being "chatty" which can lead to network performance problems.
• Many systems administrators do not know anything about Appletalk and would prefer to use protocols and networking architectures that they understand and are able to support.
• Appletalk networking is difficult to troubleshoot, which can be reason enough to cause some companies to avoid it altogether.
• LPR is platform independent and an industry standard.
• Some printers may not come with Appletalk support or may require that a fee be paid to enable it.

Apple has included an LPR client starting with the LaserWriter 8.5.1 printer driver, which shipped with Mac OS 8.1. The client is configured using a tool called "Desktop Printer Utility". Below are the instruction for configuring an LPR printer on a Mac.

Configuring LPR on a Mac
The first thing that you need to do is make sure that your Mac is configured to use the TCP/IP protocol and is on the network. First go to your TCP/IP control panel and open it. You should have the appropriate IP address and whatever other information your particular network configuration requires. If you aren't sure, ask someone.

Next, download LaserWriter 8.5.1. if you do not have it already. You will also need Disk Copy 6.1.3 or newer before you do this. If you have Disk Copy already, you can find it on your hard drive and "get info" on it to find out what version you currently have.

1. Launch the Desktop Printer Utility.
2. Select "Printer (LPR)" and click OK.
3. In the "PostScript Printer Description (PPD) File" section, click on "Change..." and select the PPD for your printer.
4. In the "Internet Printer" section, click on "Change...".
5. Enter the printer's IP address or domain name for "Printer Address".
6. Enter the queue name, if used. Otherwise, leave it blank.
7. Click on "Verify" to verify that the printer was found.
8. Click OK.
9. Go to the File menu and select "Save".
10. Enter a name and location for the desktop printer icon and click OK.
11. Exit the program and you should be ready to print.

That should be all there is to it.

Troubleshooting
If you are have set up your LPR printer, but it is not working, make sure that your Mac is actually configured for TCP/IP correctly and is on the network. A good place to start is to find a Mac with MacPing or other pinging utility and ping the address that you saw in your TCP/IP control panel earlier. The other option is to find a PC, click the start button, go to programs and then locate "MS-DOS prompt". When the window launches, type "ping mac_ip_address" where mac_ip_address is the address of the Mac as listed in your control panel. If you do not get a valid response then you may also want to make sure that the printer is on and that you entered the correct IP address for it when you configured the printer in Desktop Printer Utlility. You should also make sure that you can ping the printer from another workstation. If none of this is working, get help! If you have the time and patience, you can read a little about TCP/IP troubleshooting here. If you continue to have problems, try searching Apple's Knowledgebase.

For more technical advice and information, visit techtutorials.com.

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