hpsutil

Hpsutil is a print server configuration utility from Hawking Technology that we had the opportunity to use for one of our customer projects. This tool is a small perl utility that can be used to configure one of several ethernet print servers. It can also query the local network for these printservers and modify some of the key TCP/IP parameters.

This utility is specifically designed to replace the vendor-provided PSAdmin tool that only runs on Windows. We tested this program with the H-PS1U Ethernet-to-USB printserver and the PN7127P Ethernet-to-Parallel printserver. We also believe that it could work perfectly for other products in the same line.

We performed all our development with Perl 5.6.1 on a Red Hat Linux 6.2 system. However, we noticed that hpsutil works well under Windows with ActivePerl 5.6.1. Moreover, we received feedback from Chip Warden that it runs well on Darwin 6.6/Mac OS X 10.2.6 with Perl 5.6.

For comprehensive information on the techniques involved in configuring these printers, you can always check out our Tech Tip on the subject.

When running the program for the first time, we recommend that you do it on the local network without any parameters. Doing this will allow the program to query several times for as many printservers as possible. Additionally, it will show you the password required for telnet access, which is "unixwiz" by default but can be changed by the user.

Here's an example of what the output looks like when the program is run for the first time:

$ hpsutil
Sending magic packet to 255.255.255.255:20560/udp
--> got a new reply from 00:40:01:20:66:CF
Sending magic packet to 255.255.255.255:20560/udp
Read 1030 bytes from sender
Sending magic packet to 255.255.255.255:20560/udp
Read 1030 bytes from sender

[UNIT 1]
EnableDHCP = {Yes}
Firmware = {5.61.13E}
Gateway = {10.1.1.254}
IPAddress = {10.1.1.106}
MACAddress = {00:40:01:20:66:CF}
Netmask = {255.255.255.0}
Password = {unixwiz}
PrinterName = {1P_PrintServ2066CF}

Once we have identified the unit we want to use, we need to set the IP address on that unit. Even if the DHCP server on our network has programmed most of the IP parameters, we'll still set them manually for illustration purposes. After setting the parameters, we'll run the program one more time to verify the changes.

Here's an example of what the output looks like when setting the IP address:

$ hpsutil --nomulti --ip=10.1.1.220 --gw=10.1.1.254 --mask=255.255.255.0
Sending magic packet to 255.255.255.255:20560/udp
--> got a new reply from 00:40:01:20:66:CF

[UNIT 1]
Enable