Product Reviews

Printers

InterCon IC105-FastPocket-TX [PC Pro]
COMPANY: SEH	PRICE: Ł125 (exc VAT)
RATING:	ISSUE: 79 DATE: Mar 01

Verdict: A compact external print server whose modest dimensions hide a wealth of features and management tools. It's simple to install and supports a huge range of network protocols and virtually all operating systems.

The external print server is an ideal solution for sharing parallel port printers over a network. It's far superior to sharing a locally attached printer as there are no workstation overheads, and a print server offers better network protocol support. SEH Computertechnik specialises in print servers and the latest product to join the InterCon family is the aptly named FastPocket-TX. This palm-sized slab of white plastic plugs directly into the printer's parallel port and comes with a 10/100BaseTX Ethernet port that also supports full-duplex mode.

Installation is simple - you connect the FastPocket to your chosen printer, add power, link it to the network and print a diagnostics page by pressing

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a small status button to one side. Next you run the InterCon NetTool Windows utility which searches the network for print servers and displays them ready for configuration. I networked an Epson Stylus Color 850 using the FastPocket-TX and saw that the print server had automatically identified the printer it was attached to. However, although Epson's Status Monitor is supported, I couldn't get this to work with the FastPocket-TX. Even so, for such a compact device, the FastPocket-TX offers a wealth of features. Along with NetTool, it can be accessed using HP's JetAdmin or WebJetAdmin utilities, or managed using a standard Web browser.

The choices for network printing are just as good. For Windows peer-to-peer printing via NetBIOS, select the print server from the Network Neighborhood and you'll find eight logical printers to play with. Once SEH's Print Monitor has been installed, Windows 95 and 98 users can print directly over IP, while Windows 2000 can take advantage of support for IPP that only requires the print server's URL to be entered during installation. NetWare, bindery, NDS, print server and remote printer modes are fully supported. In all cases, entering the IP addresses of authorised users can control printing privileges, or wildcards can be used to specify subnetworks.

By Dave Mitchell

SPECIFICATIONS:
External print server, Type B parallel port, 10/100BaseTX Ethernet port, external power supply, 1Mbyte/sec data rates, supports TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, WINS, SNMP, SMTP, EtherTalk Phase 2, HTTP/HTML. InterCon NetTool for Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT 4, and Print Monitor for Windows 95 and 98 supplied.