Cabling Printers

This chapter contains general rules and standard specifications for parallel and serial printing. For more specific information on your printer, see the printer's documentation or owner's manual.

The majority of printers use parallel cabling because both installation and operation are fast and trouble-free. Serial printers offer greater cabling distances, but these distances are usually not needed because network printers can attach to any DOS or Windows workstation or NetWare^® server.

The following chart illustrates the basic differences between parallel and serial printers.

Table 19. Parallel Versus Serial Printers

Item	Parallel	Serial
Speed	Potentially much faster than serial	Slower than parallel
Distance	10 feet standard maximum. Some cables guarantee 150 feet	25 feet standard maximum. Some cables guarantee 500 feet or more
Error checking	Limited because relatively error-free	Parity (reduces speed by about 10 percent)
Software	Installer sets interrupt	Installer sets interrupt, XON/XOFF, parity, baud rate, data bits, and stop bits
Hardware	Universally compatible	Installer may need to check and set pin settings

HINT: Novell^® recommends that you use parallel printing instead of serial whenever possible. This greatly reduces your risk of having printing problems.