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Support Glossary


FTP

FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is an excellent way to send images and patch files to the printer. There are many FTP programs available on the Internet. Users familiar with DOS or UNIX can also use the command-line ftp available in Windows UNIX and Mac OS X systems. FTP allows for a great deal of control over the printer: easy access to FMF devices, access to VMF (for more advanced users), and the ability to upload image settings files to the printer. The FTP technical brief contains a more detailed discussion of the ftp capabilities of the Codonics printers. While ImageWeb allows most of the same functionality, the size constraints -- approx. 32 meg files maximum for TIFF, 20 megs for PostScript -- make FTP an attractive option for larger files. FTP is also considerably faster than ImageWeb.

IP Address

The IP address is a unique identifier, similar to a real-life street address. No two IPs on a network may be exactly the same just as two houses on a street block don't have the same address. IP addresses are in the form XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. Each set of three digits is called an "octet." The IP address for the printer is programmed using the front panel. The IP addresses in the examples below would take the form I192.168.000.001; the printer uses the leading zeros as placeholders. But as the examples show, when typing these on a workstation or PC to check connectivity, these leading zeros are omitted, as is the I.

"Duplicate IP's " refer to giving two things on a network the same address. When this happens, the address can be pinged, but any other communication will fail or behave erratically.

To test for duplicate IP's, shut off the printer or disconnect the network cable, and then ping it. If there is a response, another device on the network has the same IP. One address will have to be reassigned.

Contact your system administrator to obtain a new IP address, or if the printer is only on a hub and not a larger network, change the last set of 3 numbers so that they are different from the other addresses on the hub.

Sample (UNIX systems):

ping 192.168.0.1 [enter]
192.168.0.1 is alive

Sample (DOS)

ping 192.168.0.1 [enter]

Should produce something like the following:

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255

If you see:

Request timed out.

then there may be a hardware connection or ethernet card problem. Swap out the Ethernet cable and tranceiver and retry the ping. Also, try to ping another address on the network. If you are unable to reach that other address, then the problem lies in your computer. If you can reach that other address, then the problem lies with the printer configuration.

If you see:

Network is unreachable.

then there may be a TCP/IP configuration problem (maybe the printer and the computer are configured onto different networks.

Consult the Windows Help menu for additional help with Windows systems.



Activation Keys

To find out which activation keys are installed, print a test page or telnet into the printer and type "stat." There are several proprietary file formats such as PostScript and DICOM that must be licensed separately. Please contact Codonics Customer Service for pricing.

To install an Activation Key:

  1. Hit Online/Setup on the front panel of the printer.
  2. Press the down-arrow to the KEYS option, and hit Online/Setup to select.
  3. At the KEY: prompt, enter the 10-digit key furnished by Codonics. Use the up- and down- arrow to scroll through the alphabet, and the Online/Setup key to accept a value and move to the next space in the display.
  4. When all 10 digits are entered, hit Online/Setup to return to the previous menu.
  5. Hit the down-arrow until EXIT appears in the display, then hit Online/Setup to return to READY.
  6. Wait approximately 5-10 seconds for the printer to update its files before attempting a print.

Level Zero Reset

Releases 1.4.0 and above of the printer Operating System have the Level 0 Reset option. Level 0 is used to reset the printer's original configuration, erasing network information, user settings, the root password, and any temporary or core files.

To perform a Level 0 Reset:

  1. Press Online/Setup on the printer's front panel.
  2. Hit the Cancel/Down-arrow until KEYS displays.
  3. Hit Online/Setup.
  4. At the KEY: prompt, enter R0. Use the up- and down-arrows to scroll through the alphabet and numbers, and Online/Setup to select a value and move to the next space. After entering "0" hit Online/Setup to the end of the display, and then once more to return to the previous menu.
  5. The printer will display "Performing Level 0 Reset". When it has finished, shut the printer down (NP1600 printers with software 1.6.0 and NP1660 printers please use the soft shutdown feature to prevent file system corruption.)

Ping

Ping is a useful little utility that can check to see if there is a connection to another computer on a network. Ping is available with Windows 95 or NT from the DOS prompt, or from most UNIX shell prompts. The format is simply "ping" followed by the IP or hostname of the computer in question:

Sample (UNIX systems):

ping p12 [enter]
p12.codonics.com is alive

Sample (DOS)

ping 192.168.0.1 [enter]

Should produce something like the following:

Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=255

If you see:

Request timed out.

then there may be a hardware connection or ethernet card problem. Swap out the Ethernet cable and tranceiver and retry the ping. Also, try to ping another address on the network. If you are unable to reach that other address, then the problem lies in your computer. If you can reach that other address, then the problem lies with the printer configuration.

If you see:

Network is unreachable.

then there may be a TCP/IP configuration problem (maybe the printer and the computer are configured onto different networks).

Consult the Windows Help menu for additional help.


RJ-45

RJ45 is the network port on the back of the printer. The AUI port is the 15-pin d-sub-15 port to which one attaches a thick cable or ethernet transceiver.

Soft Shut-Down

Codonics NP series operating systems running Operating System Release 1.6.0 or above have a new option on the front panel to shut down the system. It is HIGHLY recommended that users do a soft shutdown to avoid corrupting the file system.

To perform a soft shutdown:

  1. Press Online/Setup. If the printer has the soft shutdown feature, the first option will be "Administration."
  2. Press Online/Setup again, and "Administration: Shutdown" will appear.
  3. Press Online/Setup again, and "Shutdown: No" will appear.
  4. Press the down arrow, and "Shutdown: Yes" will appear.  Press Online/Setup to begin the soft shutdown process.
  5. When the front panel reads "Power-Off OK," switch the power off.

Software Installation

Most Codonics NP printers ship with a set of operating system diskettes. If you need to obtain a set of software diskettes please contact Codonics technical service department at 1-800-444-1198 or 440-243-1198. Be sure to have the serial number of the printer when you call.

To re-install the operating system:

  1. Turn off the printer. If you are running OS 1.6.0 or above, use the soft shutdown available on the front panel of the printer.
  2. Insert the boot floppy into the floppy drive, and power on the printer. If it boots off the floppy properly the printer will start beeping. If the printer does not start beeping then the problem is almost certainly the processor board. Please contact Codonics Service Department to arrange for repair.
  3. Power down the printer, pull out the boot floppy, and power it back on. If it comes up to READY then the code used at the beginning of the bootup sequence had been corrupted, but was fixed by booting from the floppy. If the printer does not boot up to READY, then it will be necessary to do a full software installation. Power down the printer, insert the boot floppy, power it up, and when the printer starts to beep, insert the first diskette. When the printer beeps again, insert the next diskette.
  4. After all the diskettes have been loaded the printer will need to rebuild its operating system. This will take approximately 1 hour, depending on the operating system and the size of the hard drive. DO NOT SHUT OFF THE PRINTER during this process or the operating system will be corrupted. When the printer has finished it will reboot itself.

Telnet

A user with root access can communicate over a network with the printer using the Telnet protocol. Telnet is useful for monitoring print jobs, checking communications, and checking the printer status. Note that it is possible to delete or corrupt files using telnet, so please be cautious when using it. There is also a technical brief available about telnet.

Telnet is a network protocol. Users who are connecting only through the parallel port or through Ethertalk cannot use telnet unless their host system and printer are also on a TCP/IP network.

To telnet from Windows, go to Start --> Run and type "telnet [ip address]". If you are logging a print session, click Terminal --> Start Logging and choose a filename and directory for the telnet transcript.

To telnet from UNIX, go to a shell prompt and type "telnet [ip address]". To save to a file, type
telnet [ip address] | tee > log.txt

To telnet from a Macintosh, ensure that you have a telnet program (i.e. NCSA Telnet) available. Set the username to "root" and the initial remote directory to /.

  1. Telnet into the printer using the printer's IP or host name.
  2. Log in as root.
  3. You may be prompted for a password (root passwords are set by you; to delete a lost or forgotten root password you must either perform a level 0 reset or a software reload.
  4. To find the printer's status, type stat [Enter].
  5. To monitor the printer, switch back to your application, make a print, and return to the telnet session. It is not necessary to enter any commands. The telnet session will automatically show the print job's progress.

 

Example:

UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0 (np1660)
login: root
Last login: Wed Apr 22 10:02:10 from 206.99.131.29
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.5.1 Generic May 1996
# csh
np1660# stty erase ^H
np1660# stat

Status: Ready
13:25
Media: 8x10-Size DV Film
Ribbon: None

Queues:
0 jobs in image queue
0 jobs in print queue
0 jobs in hold queue
 Date: 24-Apr-1998
Printer ID: 8086-5be8
IP Address: 206.99.131.148
E-net Addr:
08:00:20:86:5b:e8
Mem Config: 16MB RAM
Hard Drive: 1281MB
SW Version: 2.1.5
DICOM Ver: Not Installed
Captions: none
Keys: UNKNOWN(04) Key=04TID35KRX Temporary (02-Apr-1998, 60 days)
POSTSCRIPT Key=00ACVK3N1X Permanent
DICOM Key=014VCPHVAY Temporary (10-Apr-1998, 60 days)
Defaults:
Printer (root) CVPAPER CVTRANS DVPAPER DVFILM
TCR 0 0 -- --
Gamma 2.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
Contrast 0 0 0 0
Antialias Better Better Better Better
Rotate Auto Auto Auto Auto
Scale Bilinear Bilinear Bilinear Bilinear
MCM Off Off -- --

Test Page

Releases 1.4.0 and above of the NP-1600 operating system have the T1 test page option.

To print a test page:

  1. At the printer's front panel, press Online/Setup.
  2. Hit the Cancel/Down-arrow until KEYS displays.
  3. Hit Online/Setup.
  4. At the KEY prompt, enter T1. Use the up- and down-arrows to scroll through the alphabet and numbers, and Online/Setup to select a value and move to the next space. After entering "1" hit Online/Setup to the end of the display and then once more move to the previous menu.
  5. Hit the down-arrow until the EXIT option appears.
  6. Hit Online/Setup to return to READY. After about 5 seconds the display will flip to PROCESSING and in less than a minute the printer will print the test page.

3.1.0 ONLY

  1. Press Online/Setup twice.
  2. Press the down-arrow to Test Print.
  3. Press Online/Setup twice.

Update Via FTP

Update-Via-FTP is a special device that allows the printer to be patched remotely, i.e. without using a diskette. The update-via-ftp procedure is available with printer operating systems 1.4.0 and higher. To perform an update:

  1. Start an FTP session.
  2. Log in as root with password 300.
  3. Upload the file to the printer. Be sure that the transfer is occurring in BINARY (RAW in the program Fetch), not ASCII mode.
  4. Frequently the printer will cut the FTP connection and reboot itself after installing the update. This is normal behavior.

To check whether a patch has been installed on the printer, telnet into the printer and type

more /etc/updates [enter]
The reply returned by the printer is a list of patches currently installed on the printer. If there is no updates file, there are no patches applied to the printer.