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Configuring an HP LaserJet printers networking by BOOTP

This page is tentative, and is based on one example of what the CS does internally. Exactly where the division is between what must be done and just how we do it is unclear to the author. If anyone know how to do this better please contact the author.

This page will describe a real set up the CS uses for one of its printers, an HP4000N in the author's office. The printer is to be contacted by lpd-serv.cam.ac.uk (131.111.8.42)) itself and any machine on the CS internal network (131.111.10.0/24 and 131.111.11.0/24). No other systems should be able to make contact with it.

As far as the author can tell, it is only possible to set up network access restrictions if you configure the printer using what the printer calls the RARP/BOOTP/TFTP configuration model. This requires a degree of infrastructure within your domain, namely a BOOTP and TFTP server. lpd-serv.cam.ac.uk cannot offer this service to printers outside the CS subnets because BOOTP requires special router magic to get between subnets.

Printer menus

To configure the printer it must be set up to use BOOTP. To do this you will need to navigate the menu system. This is likely to be very printer-dependent and you should consult the documentation that came with your printer and the documentation that came with the network card.

On the HP4000N it goes a bit like this:

  1. Hit the [Menu +] button until the EIO 2 JETDIRECT menu is listed.
  2. Hit the [Item +] button once to get CFG NETWORK=NO * shown.
  3. Hit the [Value +] button once to have it say CFG NETWORK=YES.
  4. Hit the [Select] button to have it say CFG NETWORK=YES *.
  5. Hit the [Item +] button until you reach the TCP/IP entry.
  6. If it says TCP/IP=YES * then skip to step 10.
  7. If it says TCP/IP=YES (no asterisk) then skip to step 9.
  8. Hit the [Value +] button once to have it say TCP/IP=YES.
  9. Hit the [Select] button to have it say TCP/IP=YES *.
  10. Hit the [Item +] button until you reach the BOOTP entry.
  11. If it says BOOTP=YES * then skip to step 15.
  12. If it says BOOTP=YES (no asterisk) then skip to step 14.
  13. Hit the [Value +] button once to have it say BOOTP=YES.
  14. Hit the [Select] button to have it say BOOTP=YES *.
  15. Hit the [Go] button to leave the menuing system.

BOOTP

The /etc/bootptab entry for the printer is the following.

centaur.csi.cam.ac.uk:\
        :ht=ether:\
        :ha=0060b0ad0a4d:\
        :sm=255.255.0.0:\
        :gw=131.111.11.62:\
        :lg=131.111.8.42:\
        :ip=131.111.11.34:\
        :T144="hpnp/centaur.cfg":\
        :vm=rfc1048:

The leading whitespace consists of single TAB characters. The terminal backslashes are immediately followed by newlines.

centaur.csi.cam.ac.uk
The DNS name for the printer. Note that this is the name of the machine, not the name of the print queue.
ht=ether
It's ethernetted.
ha=0060b0ad0a4d
And this is its ethernet (MAC) address. To determine this print the "configuration page" from the printer's menu system. The first page should contain the "LAN HW ADDRESS". We lowercase it before entry into the file. I don't know if that's required or not.
sm=255.255.0.0
This is the subnet mask. Yours may be different from ours. The IP-Register letter will carry the value you should use.
gw=131.111.11.62
This is the default gateway (or router) off your subnet. Yours will be different from ours. The IP-Register letter will carry the value you should use.
lg=131.111.8.42
This specifies the system to log to. The example here logs to lpd-serv.cam.ac.uk. Logging is by the Unix style syslog protocol. You are welcome to log to lpd-serv.cam.ac.uk. We don't offer to alert you to problems that get logged (low toner, paper jams, no paper etc.) but should we be called pon to debug a problem having the extra logging can help us.
ip=131.111.11.34
The IP address. Refer to the IP-Regster letter again.
T144="hpnp/centaur.cfg"
This option specifies the name of the file that will be TFTPed to the printer after it has BOOTPed. The path is relative to the directory /tftpboot.
vm=rfc1048
This refers to an extesion to the basic BOOTP laid out in RFC 1048 - BOOTP Vendor Information Extensions and is required.

TFTP

The configuration file /tftpboot/hpnp/centaur.cfg contains the floowing.

name: centaur.csi.cam.ac.uk
location: Balfour 3
contact: Unix Support, unix-support@ucs.cam.ac.uk
idle-timeout: 120
allow: 131.111.8.42
allow: 131.111.10.0 255.255.255.0
allow: 131.111.11.0 255.255.255.0
name: centaur.csi.cam.ac.uk
name is the peripheral (or node) name. It is displayed on the printer's self-test or configuration page, and when sysName is obtained through SNMP. name is limited to 64 characters.
location: Balfour 3
location describes the physical location of the peripheral. This is the value used by the interface for the MIB-II sysLocation object. The default location is undefined. Only printable ASCII characters are allowed. Maximum length is 64 characters.
contact: Unix Support, unix-support@ucs.cam.ac.uk
contact is the name of the person who administers or services the peripheral and should include how to contact this person. It is limited to 64 characters. This is the value used by the interface for the MIB-II sysContact object.
idle-timeout: 120
idle-timeout is the time (in seconds) after which an idle print data connection is closed. A value of zero disables the timeout mechanism. The default timeout is 90 seconds.
allow: 131.111.8.42
Allow access from this one machine. Up to 10 access lines may be included.
allow: 131.111.10.0 255.255.255.0
Allow access from any system in 131.111.10.0/24. Note that the various access lines are ORed together. Satisfying any one of them suffices to be granted access.