1( ) NEW SOFTWARE RELEASE Version 1.03 ==================== Product involved: NPS 530, NPS 630, NPS 550r, NPS 650 Specific software: Release date: Oct 07, 1996 Release type: PRODUCTION Software version: 5.22 Software media: NPS530 Prom 4 Mbit, 120ns NPS630 Flash NPS550r Prom Low 2 Mbit, 120ns Prom High 2 Mbit, 120ns NPS650 Prom Low 2 Mbit, 120ns Prom High 2 Mbit, 120ns Software checksum: NPS530 Prom A650 NPS630 Flash NPS550r Prom Low 2800 Prom High 4DD8 NPS650 Prom Low 0E00 Prom High BCF2 Last preceding release: NPS530 5.02 NPS630 5.02 NPS550r 5.20 NPS650 5.20 Upgrade instructions: See UpgrInfo.txt document --------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Before upgrading, see appendix B, software limitations. Easy Release Description: Concerning only NPS 530 and NPS 630: 1. Products with AppleTalk. The problem with that the printer didn't show up in the HP Zoner application for Macintosh is now solved. 2. Products with AppleTalk. When the print job terminated just after start, it could result in hanging of the print server. This problem is now solved. 3. Improved functionality in LLC type II connection-oriented communication to increase the stability of the NetBEUI and SNA protocols. 4. Support for TBCP, binary mode printing, have been added in the AppleTalk application. 5. Memory space used by logical printer is now de-allocated properly. 6. AppleTalk: Using parameter ALOGIC it is now possible to select LPT1, LPT2 or COM1 as printer destinations. 7. Enhanced protection against corrupt Ethernet packets. 8. The default parallel port speed setting of parameters L1_CENTR and L2_CENTR has been changed from STNDRD to HISPEED. 9. User name on NetWare banner page now fits on the page. 10.Changes in timing for FAST mode and HIGHSPEED mode on the parallel port. 11.NetWare. Problems with extra garbage characters at the end of print jobs has been solved. This occurred most frequently when running the print server in RPRINTER mode. 12.T-R MAC: Frequency error detection has been filtered for better interoperability. 13.T-R MAC: A case in token contention (network problem situation) has been corrected. 14.T-R MAC: Where print servers previously operated correctly with other equipment at Early Token Release, they did not themselves use Early Token Release. The print servers now transmit using Early Token Release. This gives a higher ring performance. 15.Reverse Telnet. Problems related to opening and closing of sessions under normal and reset conditions are now solved. 16.When the print session was terminated the print server typically died. This could happen for all protocols and applications. 17.Lost print jobs. General problem in TCP regarding advertised window size has been corrected. This caused probably an abrupt termination during printing, resulting in that the print job was not completed or lost. 18.AppleTalk. When adding an AppleTalk printer with NetPilot, the new printer declared itself two times on the network. Now it is declaring itself only once. 19.IPX, ZAP were previously using packet type 0. This is now changed to type 4. It caused problems with newer routers where packets were lost. 20.Solved problems in LPD. Print jobs where not terminated correctly. Problems were found in UNIXWARE but possibly other lpd environments as well. 21.TCP/IP. The Time To Live (TTL) has been changed from 255 to 64 seconds. 22.Added extra functionality to parameter L1_BSYTM. When set to zero all status reporting is disabled. Concerning all involved products: 23.Apperance of banner page in LPD changed and FF before banner page is removed. The extra blank page after LPD banner page when using PS filter is also removed. 24.Status reporting when using PROSB is changed. Before only fatal errors where reported, now status messages as "printer off line", "paper out" and "busy" are reported as well. 25.Printing using LPD, added support for banner page user name sent with the control file command 'L'. Further more the banner page user name sent with "L" command have priority over user name sent with "P" command. Recommendation: - An update to this release is recommended if there have been any problems. Best regards AXIS COMMUNICATIONS AB Appendix A - DETAILED TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION OF RELEASE App A 1( ) Product involved: NPS 530, NPS 630, NPS 550r, NPS 650 Software version: 5.22 Concerning only NPS 530 and NPS 630: 1. Products with AppleTalk. If the parameters ATYPE_1, ATYPE_2 and ATYPE_3 were all left blank, the printer didn't show up in the HP Zoner application for Macintosh. 2. Products with AppleTalk. If a print job was terminated just after it was started, when printing from a Macintosh, this could result in hanging the print server. 3. Corrected some errors in LLC type II connection-oriented communication. This will increase the stability of the NetBEUI (used by RCONFIG and SMB) and SNA protocols. The corrected errors occurred most frequently at high network loads (many collisions => much resending) and with long client response times (much swapping, doing many things at the same time). In SMB the errors sometimes resulted in session shut-down. Unsolicited F bits are now reported by the correct FRMR flags. 4. Support for TBCP, binary mode printing, have been added in the AppleTalk application. The TBCP support is activated by setting the parameters 'BINARY' to 'YES' and 'BINARY_TYPE' to 'TBCP', which is the default setting. 5. When a new print job is started in logical printer, a structure with filter information is allocated. When the print job terminated the structure (12 byte) was not de allocated. The structure is now properly de-allocated. 6. AppleTalk: Using parameter ALOGIC it is now possible to select LPT1, LPT2 or COM1 as printer destinations. In previous release the selection was possible, but did not work for AppleTalk. 7. This release is more insensitive to corrupt Ethernet packets. This was achieved by minor changes in the Ethernet MAC layer. 8. Changed the default values of L1_CENTR and L2_CENTR from STNDRD to HISPEED. 9. The module generating PostScript banner page now calculates the length of the user name and adjusts the font, so that the name fits on the page. 10.The parallel port speed FAST now follows the IBM/Lexmark specification for Fast Byte protocol. This requires that the printers support Fast Byte. An advantage, is that printers supporting Fast Byte will print much faster than before. The maximum burst data speed is now about 700kB/s with the Lexmark Optra printer. The port speed HIGH is also upgraded to conform to the latest IEEE specification. If you used FAST before use the new HIGH speed setting instead, it is faster than the old FAST mode and should work with all printers that worked with the old FAST mode. 11.NetWare. Problems with extra garbage characters. If an IPX packet is smaller than the minimum size it is padded. Before we used the padded size as the actual data size. Therefore extra bytes where sometimes added at the end of print jobs. This is now corrected and the correct data size is always used resulting in no more garbage characters. 12.T-R MAC: Frequency error detection has been filtered for better interoperability. When the product is active monitor, it has responsibility to monitor the used frequency. Previously, the product implemented a more sensitive level of frequency monitoring. In environments using e.g. fiber repeaters, this caused unexpected frequency error reports. Both the old and the new level of frequency error detection correctly conforms to the 802.5 standard. 13.T-R MAC: A case in token contention, where the ordinality of the station address, compared to the source of the received packet has been corrected. This would never cause any operational problems. 14.T-R MAC: Where print servers previously operated correctly with other equipment at Early Token Release, they did not themselves use Early Token Release. The print servers now transmit using Early Token Release. This would neither cause operational problems, nor any performance problems. 15.Several bugs in reverse telnet was corrected related mainly to opening and closing of sessions. Normally most problems occurred in busy networks or networks with poor signal quality. Problem areas where mainly when reset was received by the print server. Sometimes the print server didn't disconnect, when UNIX AIX systems rebooted, sometimes the print server died in between or during print jobs. 16.Bug in logical printer affecting all applications is removed. The print server typically died or stopped receiving data on a specific connection when the a print session was terminated. This affected all protocols and applications 17.Problem in TCP regarding advertised window size has been corrected. Previously when the window decreased below 1kByte it was deflated to zero by the print server. This is generally not good practice and caused probably an abrupt termination during printing, resulting in that the print job was not completed or lost. 18.When adding an AppleTalk printer with NetPilot, the new printer declared itself two times on the network. This implied name collision and multiple printers showed up in the chooser on the Macintosh. The problem is now solved. 19.IPX, ZAP packets where previously sent with packet type 0, undefined packet type, causing problems with newer routers that refused to pass these packets. The packets are now sent with packet type 4. 20.Solved problem with LPD in UNIXWARE and possibly other lpd environments. Print jobs where not terminated and removed from the print queue on the host. The box also sent TCP packets with incorrect sequence numbers to the host, causing an infinite lockup in the communication between the host and the print server. 21.The Time To Live (TTL) for an IP packet has been changed to 64 seconds, which is the number of seconds used by most UNIX systems. 22.Added extra functionality to parameter L1_BSYTM. Before the parameter had a span of 0-255, meaning that when set to zero, busy and only busy and not paper out or other printer status messages, where reported without any delay. Now when set to zero all status reporting is disabled on all protocols. Concerning all involved products: 23.The apperance of the banner page in LPD is uppdated to look a lot nicer than before. The extra blank page before the banner page is also removed. Finally the extra blank page after the banner page, when printing with the postscript filter in logical printers, is removed. 24.Status reporting using PROSB is changed. Before only fatal errors where reported, now status messages as "printer off line", "paper out" and "busy" are reported as well. 25.Printing using LPD, added support for banner page user name sent with the control file command "L". Further more the banner page user name sent with "L" command have priority over user name sent with "P" command. If the "L" command user name string is empty, it's ignored and the "P" command string is used. If both strings are present the "L" coomand string is used. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Appendix B - SOFTWARE LIMITATIONS App B 1( ) 1. When upgrading the print server software from 4.xx, 5.02, 5.20 or 5.21 (5.21 only used for a limited number of customers) the print server will perform factory defaults. To avoid loosing any parameter settings when upgrading, follow the instructions below: 1. Log on as using AXCFG or FTP. 2. Get the parameter list and save it as a file. 3. Upgrade the print server. 4. Log on as using AXCFG or FTP. 5. Download the parameter list saved in step 2 and make the settings permanent. 2. When downgrading the print server software from 5.xx to 4.xx the serial number may be lost. To restore the serial number follow the instructions below: 1. Log on as by using AXCFG configuration tool. 2. If using AXCFG, upload the parameter list in advanced mode. 3. Change the ETH_ADDR (Ethernet products) or NODE_ADDR (Token Ring products) to F0 00 0F XX XX XX where XX XX XX are the last six digits in the serial number. 4. From AXCFG download the setting. 5. Make factory default settings according to the User's Manual. 3. Secondary printer function doesn't work when printing from AXPUW. Product involved: NPS 530, NPS 630, NPS 550r, NPS 650 Software version: 5.22