hpsutil 1.04

hpsutil is a Hawking print server configuration utility.

For a customer project, we had to perform configuration of one of serveral ethernet print servers from Hawking Technology, and the result is a too that we document here. This small perl utility can query the local network for these printservers and plug in a few of the key TCP/IP parameters. This replaces the vendor-provided PSAdmin tool that runs only on Windows.

We've tested this program with the H-PS1U Ethernet-to-USB printserver, and the PN7127P Ethernet-to-Parallel printserver, and for all we know there are others in the product line for which it works as well. We did all of our development with Perl 5.6.1 on a Red Hat Linux 6.2 system, but hpsutil seems to work fine under Windows with ActivePerl 5.6.1. We also have a report from Chip Warden that it run well on Darwin 6.6/Mac OS X 10.2.6 with Perl 5.6.

Much more information about the techniques involved in configuring these printers can be found in our Tech Tip on the subject.

Examples

When first running the program on the local network, always do so with no parameters: this allows it to query multiple times for as many printservers are found. It also shows the password required for telnet access ("unixwiz"), which is blank by default but can be changed by the user.

$ hpsutil
Sending magic packet to 255.255.255.255:20560/udp
--> got 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}

Now that we've identified the unit in question (including noting that there is only one on the network in spite of multiple queries), we're ready to set the IP address on the unit. In this case, the DHCP server on our network has programmed in most of the IP parameters, but we'll set them this way nevertheless for illustration. After setting the parameters, we'll query only again just to verify:

$ 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 new reply from 00:40:01:20:66:CF

[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}
Setting unit 1 (00:40:01:20:66:CF)

$ hpsutil --nomulti
Sending magic packet to 255.255.255.255:20560/udp
--> got new reply from 00:40:01:20:66:CF

[UNIT 1]
EnableDHCP = {Yes}
Firmware = {5.61.13E}
Gateway = {10.1.1.254}
IPAddress = {10.1.1.220}

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