RE: "dumb" terminals and printers

["Riesner, Giles" <griesner@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We use only PCs these days; but used "dumb" terminals with our
OLD (pre-III) library system. We used automatic "electronic"
switchboxes that could accommodate up to 4 terminals each on our
catalog terminals. (Virtually all "dumb" terminals use serial 
printers rather than parallel.)  They ran maybe about $75 each and 
were for serial ports. This worked well for us; though I was 
happy to move away from the dot matrix printers on switchboxes 
to networked laser printers -- far fewer printer jams! 

Another possibility, as David mentioned is to hook up the
terminal to the Printer via the Serial Port. I know that many
laser printers have both on them, but don't know how well
this arrangement would work, never having tried it.

And here's a third possibility: is the laser printer set up as
a III system printer? Then any terminal or printer whose
login had rights to that printer could print to it 


Giles W. Riesner, Jr.,   Technology Support Specialist
Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville Library  
800 S. Rolling Road Baltimore, MD 21228  USA
Voice mail: 1-410-455-4245
Email: griesner@xxxxxxxxxx OR griesner@xxxxxxxxxx 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Lowe [mailto:dlowe@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 9:54 AM
> To: innopac@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: "dumb" terminals and printers
> 
> 
> On 8 Oct 2001, at 9:31, Linda Anne Divan wrote:
> 
> >  My question is : can I hook up the dumb terminal to use the
> > same printer that the other terminals are using? If so, 
> what do I need
> > to know in order to able to do that?
> 
> The Wyse uses serial printers; most PC printers are parallel.  One 
> solution is to find a printer that has both parallel and serial 
> connections.  We do this in one location.
> 
> You could also configure the Millennium PC for serial printing and 
> let it share a printer with the Wyse through with a switchbox.  I 
> have bad memories of mechanical switchboxes from those days 
> long, long ago before we installed Ethernet. Perhaps electronic 
> switches are better.
> 
> 
> David Lowe
> Computer Services Librarian
> Bounds Law Library
> University of Alabama
> 
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