With the continuing evolution of the speed and performance of personal computers and LAN networks, the next generation of printer technologies has emerged that raises networking printing to new levels of performance, quality, manageability and cost. The scope of this review is to document how the HP LaserJet 4000TN performs with the VPS suite of products distributed by Levi, Ray and Shoup, Inc (LRS). This printer was configured and tested by the Systems Engineers in the Enterprise Document Engineering (EDE) group at LRS.

Company Profile

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Hewlett Packard employs more than 120,000 people; about 69,000 work in the United States. HP has major sites in 28 U.S. cities and in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada. Hewlett Packard pioneered desktop network printing in 1991 with the LaserJet III Si printer and the JetDirect MIO print server card. For more information about Hewlett Packard products and services, call (800) 527-3753 or visit the HP LaserJet 4000 web site at http://www.lj4000.hp.com.

Printer Highlights

The HP LaserJet 4000 family of printers was announced on November 10, 1997, to replace the LaserJet 5 printer family. Our test model of the HP LaserJet 4000TN provides native support for the PCL 5e, PCL 6 and PostScript Level 2 data streams using standard TCP/IP and Novell NetWare SPX/IPX protocols. The HP LaserJet 4000TN utilizes a 100-MHz RISC processor and an enhanced high-speed JetDirect EIO (Enhanced Input/Output) adapter. HP includes a Windows-based configuration tool called JetAdmin to simplify the network attachment configuration. The HP LaserJet 4000TN was tested with the VPS/TCPIP, VPS/PCL and VPS/PC extension products to VPS.

VPS/TCPIP Configuration & Testing

The HP LaserJet 4000TN was tested with the VPS/TCPIP, VPS/PCL and VPS/PC extension products to VPS. The HP LaserJet 4000TN was installed on the network using the JetDirect Ethernet adapter and was configured to support TCP/IP using the both the LPR/LPD protocol and the direct sockets connection.

The VPS test system used during this review was VPS Version 1 R7.0 at fix level 076, which was configured to include VPS/TCPIP and VPS/PCL. The HP LaserJet 4000TN was first configured in VPS as a standard LPD supported device using the VPS keyword COMMTYPE=(TCPIP,LPD). The LPD queue name should be “raw” in lower case and is defined in the VPS printer definition using the keyword TCPPRTR=raw. The VPS printer definition contained two special TCP/IP printer options using the keyword TCPOPTS. They were 02000000 to wait after the connection is closed and 00100000 to process multiple copies by sending the dataset multiple times.

The HP LaserJet 4000TN was also configured in VPS as a direct sockets supported device using the VPS keyword COMMTYPE=(TCPIP,SOK). The remote port number used to receive the data on the JetDirect adapter is 9100 and is defined in the VPS printer definition using the keyword TCPRPORT=9100. The VPS printer definition also contained the keyword RELREQ=I, since the direct sockets connection can maintain the connection until all the available output is delivered.

In general, we recommend the use of the direct sockets connection for functionality and performance. We also recommend the installation of VPS User Exit 8 to handle automatic error recovery of standard TCP/IP errors that can occur with both configurations.

The first step in testing consisted of standard line mode reports and line mode reports formatted with VPS user exit 14 to add PCL and PostScript formatting commands. All output and formats were printed correctly. The last step in testing was to modify the VPS printer definition to include support for the VPS/PCL product. The printer definition was changed to include the keyword CONVTYPE=PCL. This option allows output referencing AFP resources to be converted to PCL prior to being sent to the printer. Reports formatted by VPS/PCL containing multiple fonts, overlays and page segments were printed correctly.

VPS/PC Configuration & Testing

The HP LaserJet 4000TN was then configured to support Novell networks as a Novell NetWare print server. The JetDirect adapter provides NetWare printing support from NetWare 3.x and 4.x servers supporting both bindery emulation and NDS. The VPS system used for this testing was configured to include VPS/PC for NT. The VPS/PC for NT product was installed on a dedicated Pentium PC using VPS/PC for NT Release 1.0.015, which supports both bindery and NDS NetWare print queues.

The first step in testing the NetWare support included line mode reports. These reports were sent to the printer with PCL and PostScript formats included at the host using VPS exit 14 and at the PC using VPS/PC printer command sequences. All output and formats were printed correctly. The last step in testing was to modify the VPS printer definition for VPS/PC to include support for VPS/PCL. Reports formatted by VPS/PCL containing multiple fonts, overlays and page segments were printed correctly.

Features & Options: HP LaserJet 4000TN Printer

Parameter	Description
Engine Speed	Up to 17 ppm rated engine
Resident Memory	8MB standard, expandable to 100MB
Hard Drive	1-GB EIO-based (optional)
Resident Fonts	45 scalable fonts (TrueType)
	35 Adobe Type 1 fonts
Resolution (quality)	300, 600, and 1200 dpi
Paper Handling	Up to 5 input trays with a total capacity of 1,100
	One ouput tray - 300 sheet capacity
Automatic Data Stream Sensing	Yes
NPAP Bi-directional Communications	Yes
Language(s)	HP PCL 5e
	HP PCL 6
	PostScript Level 2 Emulation
Printer Port(s)	High-speed bi-directional parallel port (IEEE 1284)
	Serial RS-232C (9-pin)
LAN Connectivity	HP JetDirect 600N for Ethernet (Token Ring optional)
Duty Cycle	Maximum of 65,000 pages per month
Warranty	One-year warranty

Report Card
Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4000TN

Installation	+		Ratings:   = no problems - = problems + = above average N/A = not applicable
VPS
VPS/PCL
VPS/IPDS	N/A
VPS/TCPIP
VPS/PC