Jetdirect cards for HP4M - all the same?

[Muse]

There are apparently a number of Jetdirect cards that will work in my HP4M printer. I want to connect it to a router (my current one is ethernet, but I plan to get a wireless router shortly) and connect two desktops and a laptop. Right now I just print from one desktop through the parallel port.

Will I get faster printing using a network card?

I see a lot of J2550 cards for sale at ebay, of various kinds. Are they all essentially the same?

I see J2550-60013, J2550-60003, and some unspecified J2550's. Can I just use any of them interchangably without issues? Thanks for any guidance.

 

[Arcanedeath]

They are not, depending on the model it will det. if its token ring if it is 10/100 just base t or if it has BNC inputs as well. you have to be careful you don't get one that won't work w/ a modern network.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
They are not, depending on the model it will det. if its token ring if it is 10/100 just base t or if it has BNC inputs as well. you have to be careful you don't get one that won't work w/ a modern network.

Any ideas on how I can research this? What are the specs I'm looking for? Thanks!

 

[Viper GTS]

A 4M is pretty old these days, there are no MIO cards currently in production.

From Google, it looks like the J2550-60013 will suit your needs well (10baseT Ethernet).

100 meg MIO cards are available (J4100A) but from the looks of it they command a serious premium and would almost certainly be overkill for your needs.

I seriously doubt there are any wireless MIO cards.

No, you won't see any increase in print speed. Parallel actually isn't that slow (faster than USB 1), & the limiting factor (by far) is the engine speed of the printer.

Viper GTS

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
A 4M is pretty old these days, there are no MIO cards currently in production.

From Google, it looks like the J2550-60013 will suit your needs well (10baseT Ethernet).

100 meg MIO cards are available (J4100A) but from the looks of it they command a serious premium and would almost certainly be overkill for your needs.

I seriously doubt there are any wireless MIO cards.

No, you won't see any increase in print speed. Parallel actually isn't that slow (faster than USB 1), & the limiting factor (by far) is the engine speed of the printer.

Viper GTS

Thanks. Do you think this one is adequate? They only specify that it's a J2550 Jetdirect and that it's 10-BaseT: HP JetDirect 10Base-T internal print server LAN J2550

I see J2550-60003 cards also on ebay. I suppose there's some difference between them.

The reason I asked about the speed is because one of the J2550 listings says this:

"HP JetDirect network interfaces eliminate the PC parallel port bottleneck so you can take advantage of full network speed to maximize print throughput. Your printers switch automatically between network protocols. That's not all. With HP JetDirect network interfaces and standard network cabling, you can place printers anywhere on the LAN."

I figured it might be BS.

Anyway, I think you are right. I think the bottleneck with the HP4(M) is the speed of the processor, which is very slow by today's standards. Also, it has 6 MB RAM, but I guess the processor speed is probably the greater limiting factor.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Muse

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
A 4M is pretty old these days, there are no MIO cards currently in production.

From Google, it looks like the J2550-60013 will suit your needs well (10baseT Ethernet).

100 meg MIO cards are available (J4100A) but from the looks of it they command a serious premium and would almost certainly be overkill for your needs.

I seriously doubt there are any wireless MIO cards.

No, you won't see any increase in print speed. Parallel actually isn't that slow (faster than USB 1), & the limiting factor (by far) is the engine speed of the printer.

Viper GTS

Thanks. Do you think this one is adequate? They only specify that it's a J2550 Jetdirect and that it's 10-BaseT: HP JetDirect 10Base-T internal print server LAN J2550

I see J2550-60003 cards also on ebay. I suppose there's some difference between them.

The reason I asked about the speed is because one of the J2550 listings says this:

"HP JetDirect network interfaces eliminate the PC parallel port bottleneck so you can take advantage of full network speed to maximize print throughput. Your printers switch automatically between network protocols. That's not all. With HP JetDirect network interfaces and standard network cabling, you can place printers anywhere on the LAN."

I figured it might be BS.

Anyway, I think you are right. I think the bottleneck with the HP4(M) is the speed of the processor, which is very slow by today's standards. Also, it has 6 MB RAM, but I guess the processor speed is probably the greater limiting factor.

That card should be fine. The big thing is that it must be MIO, not the newer EIO.

By "engine speed" I meant the physical print engine - The printer is only going to print at its rated speed no matter how fast you can hose it with data.

The only difference you MIGHT see is a very slight reduction in first page out, and we're talking VERY slight reduction. After that it's going to print at engine speed so the fraction of a second you saved becomes meaningless.

Viper GTS

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

That card should be fine. The big thing is that it must be MIO, not the newer EIO.

By "engine speed" I meant the physical print engine - The printer is only going to print at its rated speed no matter how fast you can hose it with data.

The only difference you MIGHT see is a very slight reduction in first page out, and we're talking VERY slight reduction. After that it's going to print at engine speed so the fraction of a second you saved becomes meaningless.

Viper GTS

Thanks. I realize that this printer will never exceed 8 ppm and that's what it would print if the pages are blank! Well, hopefully! My thought was just that many times it prints very slow indeed. For instance, many times I have to wait a couple of minutes between pages and I figure it's because a whole lot of data is being sucked slowly into the printer's RAM. Maybe it has to do with the data being processed. I don't know. It seems to happen more with pages that have images, I believe. Often with PDF's. Could that speed be improved if I have the printer on the network (by virtue of the Jetdirect card) instead of a local printer?