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 PRE-PRESS ENVIROMENTS

 

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"Macintosh Networking": -The Apple Macintosh is still the platform of choice in most pre-press environments. The plug and play AppleTalk networking - while it has many faults - has been one of the main drivers in the Macintosh's success in this pre-press market. The AppleTalk protocol was developed for the  built in serial networking (now called LocalTalk) which has been a feature of all Macintoshes from the beginning. To cope with the fragility of the LocalTalk cabling, AppleTalk developed with small packet sizes and a chatty protocol checking every few packets that the previous ones arrived correctly.  Modern Ethernet and physical cabling such as category 5 UTP is a lot more reliable than the early LocalTalk. AppleTalk's constant overhead in continually checking delivery and small packet size, has resulted in AppleTalk networking being the main bottleneck in Macintosh's network file transfer speeds. The TCP/IP protocol assumes a reasonably reliable physical network, uses large packet sizes, and is happy to send large amounts of data prior to the acknowledgement of earlier packets by the far end. This results in TCP/IP being a lot more efficient in making use of any networking connection. It's taken Apple Computers Inc. along time to get round to AppleTalk's limitations, but now has significant improvements in the latest versions AppleShare IP of the Mac OS8.x. Apple's delay lent to the development of several third party utilities to get round AppleTalk's networking limitations.

"OPI Open Pre-press Interface" : - The OPI open pre-press interface is defined by Aldus and enhanced by Quark. OPI-aware layout applications like XPress, PageMaker or Freehand no longer need huge the original high-resolution images but can use small low-resolution substitutes instead. This dramatically reduces the workload on the layout workstations and the size of the files they need to fetch or print over the network. All user actions on the low-res files e.g. positioning, scaling, rotation or cut-outs are marked by so-called OPI comments and inserted in the final PostScript print job. The OPI server interprets the OPI comments, searches for the hi-res originals, substitutes them instead of the low-res layouts and not only places them correctly on page, but also applies all the appropriate image processing. The use of OPI has helped to hide the AppleTalk's limitations for some time. OPI use is still highly recommended in today's environments to reduce network and workstation load by keeping the high-res graphics off the network and away from the majority of workstations.

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APPLETALK NETWORKING ENHANCEMENTS

AppleTalk ADSP : -
The latest version of AppleTalk that comes with Mac OS8.X appears to be making a lot more use of the ADSP streaming protocol. This streaming protocol is a lot more efficient. By forming an ADSP virtual tunnel connection to a server the higher session level communication uses this efficient delivery method. Assuming the AppleShare version on the server is compatible, this gives user transparent boost to file transfer speeds. (see below)

AppleShare IP : -
Recent versions of AppleShare IP with Mac OS8.X will automatically try make a TCP/IP connection rather than an AppleTalk to a AppleShare server. Assuming the AppleShare on the server is compatible this gives a further improvement in speed over AppleTalk ADSP. As long as the Macintosh has been configured with an IP address, this process is transparent to the user (see below).

Asant�NetDoubler: -
This AppleTalk utility was developed before AppleShare IP to achieve the same results of encapsulating AppleTalk over TCP/IP. Again it requires a compatible AppleShare server.   Although testing has shown significant gains are possible over the  initial versions AppleShare IP, Asant�as has now ceased developing NetDoubler for the latest versions of >Mac OS8.1 as they feel Apple's latest versions of AppleShare IP achieve the same results.  Asant�claim they will continue to do very limited support of NetDoubler, with releases of enhanced patches to correct discovered deficiencies, involving OSs earlier than OS8.1

Helios EtherShare 2.5 (or above): -
The latest versions of EtherShare support clients with all the above enhancements. Versions are available for Windows NT and Sun Solaris.

"Farallon Timbuktu Express" : -
This is a point to point file transfer utility that again uses TCP/IP to accelerate file transfers. Its use requires the user to specifically choose the utility to transfer a file rather than using Apple's OS normal drag and drop. If your server doesn't support the other enhancements above it may be suitable for transfer of high-resolution images.

"Client-Server File Transfer Rates" :-  Tested carried out with Sun Enterprise 250,  Ultra SCSI Raid, Helios EtherShare 2.5 and G3 Macintosh MAC OS 8.5 and 100BaseT Ethernet cards.

Pre OS8 AppleShare  access via AppleTalk  - 600KB/sec
OS8 AppleShare access via AppleTalk -  ~ 1.8MBytes/sec
AppleShare access via TCP/IP (AppleShare IP) - ~ 2MBytes/sec
AppleShare access via Asant�NetDoubler (TCP/IP) - ~ 4.3MBytes/sec 

CONFIGURING NETWORKED XEROX DOCUPRINT DCS35

The first thing to do is find out how the networking has been configured on the DCS35. The best way to find this out is to get the Xerox DCS 35 to print its configuration report out. To print a DC35 Configuration Report.

  1. Whilst pressing the Zero Key, press the Start Key to enter the Tools Screen.
  2. Press the NEXT button on the Screen.
  3. If a password has not been enabled press CONFIRM on the screen.
  4. If a password has been enabled enter the password by selecting the characters with the right 1 left arrows and the ENTER button on the screen. Press CONFIRM when the password is complete. (the default password is "4444").
  5. Press "Configuration Reports".
  6. Press "Print?"
If setting a print spooler up via NT4 Server you will be using the LPR protocol to talk to the DCS 35. You therefore need to know the IP address of the DCS35. If not listed on the configuration you will need to enter the DCS35 setup to add one. On the NT4 server add a new local printer port, choose LPR. Enter the IP address of the DCS35 and give queue name as "lp". The PostScript driver is available for www.xerox.com.

CONFIGURING A NETWORKED XEROX 5750 WITH FIERY RIP

If setting a print spooler up via NT4 Server you will be using the LPR protocol to talk to the Fiery RIP. You therefore need to know the IP address of the Fiery. Enter the Fiery startup setup and configure a suitable IP address. On the NT4 server add a new local printer port, choose LPR. Enter the IP address of the Fiery RIP and give queue name as "print_5750".

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Last modified: 04 June 2005

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