  Third-party hardware? (Printer) 
 The Question is:
 
The netowrk environment is PC Client with Vax emulator(SYSTRAM) (The PC has
 Windows OS) conected to the server.
The printer is Panasonic printer(model FP-D350) which emulates PCL5e and/or PS2
 connecting via parallel port to the Open VMS Vax ALPHA system.
 
Panasonic printer does not have printer driver for Alpha system. How do I get
 to make printing under this situation?
 
I found DECprint Supervisor for Open VMS area and found many printers, but I
 can not find the Panasonic printers.
 
Please advise any ways to make the printer work with Open VMS system.
 
 
 The Answer is :
 
  Unless there is some very special feature of the particular printer,
  the easiest, cheapest and fastest approach is to acquire a supported
  printer.  And most often, a supported printer with a NIC will be the
  best choice.
 
  There are NIC adapters available for various printers, and this may
  be an option here -- these adapters permit you to configure the printer
  from multiple systems, and to use IP protocols such as telnet or LPR/LPD
  to access the printer.  (See topic (1020) for general details on this.)
 
  There exist enough permutations of the parallel port signaling interface
  that there is no simple mechanism to describe how to connect an arbitrary
  printer.  The OpenVMS LRDRIVER provides support only for output, and thus
  does not support parallel printers requiring bi-directional communications.
 
  For information on setting up print queues and on using the parallel port
  device driver (LRDRIVER), please see the OpenVMS System Manager's Manual:
  Essentials, part of the OpenVMS documentation.  Depending on the printer,
  you may or may not need to use SET PRINTER/POLLED; you may need to control
  when the output is written to the printer.  (SET PRINTER/POLLED is available
  in OpenVMS Alpha V7.1 and later.  Specific OpenVMS versions -- you have not
  specified a version -- also have an ECO kit available for LRDRIVER.)
 
 Answer written or last revised on  8-AUG-2001 
