HP (Hewlett Packard) has a long history with Laser Printers, and Laser Printer technology. Going back to the first commercial laser printer released way back in 1984, HP has generally lead the way in commercial quality Laser Printers and their associated technology.

With the first network printer being released in 1991 being the Laserjet IIIsi, HP took over offices worldwide. The Jetdirect network card gave companies the freedom to put a printer on a separate location and link it to a lot of computers via the office network, instead of having the printer attached to and using the resources of a computer.

The Jetdirect interface has undergone many revisions in it's long life, starting with the original XIO cards that contained one protocol such as TCP/IP or ipx/spx up to the current production set of the EIO product line that contains 5 protocol stacks and also auto-switchable 10/100/1000 network speeds.

As of May 1, 2007 HP is rolling out three new products that will again sweep the world with innovation.

Jetdirect 630n EIO Print Server MSRP $389.99

IPv4 (standard TCP/IP) compliancy IPv6 compliancy - The new networking protocol coming into force in the US Federal government. This network system allows for vastly more IP addresses and an enhanced communication and security network Fully Compliant with Windows Vista, Mac OS X, Linux, and most flavours of Unix, Novell 5.1 or higher, Solaris 2.5, IBM AiX, Citrix Metaframe, and Windows Terminal Services Easy to use web-based configuration interface Security enabled using SNMP v1, v2, and v3 protocols Connectivity to 10base-T, 100 base-T, and 1000 Base-T Gigabit networks

Jetdirect en1700 External USB Print Server MSRP $149.99

IPv4 (standard TCP/IP) compliancy IPv6 compliancy - The new networking protocol coming into force in the US Federal government. This network system allows for vastly more IP addresses and an enhanced communication and security network USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 backwards connectivity - allows for connection to most HP and some 3rd party printers and All-In-Ones by USB connection Fully Compliant with windows Vista, Mac OS x, Linux, and most flavours of Unix Easy to use web-based configuration interface Security enabled using SNMP v1, v2, and v3 protocols Connectivity to 10base-T or 100base-T networks

Web Jetadmin version 10

Printer administration utility Runs using .net 2.0 framework Requires 1gb ram, 500mb HD space, and a 2ghz processor for server Workstations can connect remotely to Web Jetadmin to allow users to communicate and monitor/control printers remotely through the central interface SQL database using Microsoft SQL 2005 Express database connection User role policies much like Windows Server 2003 to enable limited user control over functions of printers Ability to predict supplies needs and generate order requests for HP printer supplies before they run out Can run reports on printers such as page count, user page count, color pages vs black and white pages, and many more.

Of these products, the Web Jetadmin software is perhaps the most dynamic. Before this release, the package at current revision 8.1, was web browser based. Using the Sun Java Runtime Environment, and was very slow to perform any actions needed.

The new package was built from the ground up using the .net 2.0 framework and Microsoft's ClickOnce application development path. It installs smoothly, and the Beta 2 release we tested was very clean to run and to use. Everything has been rebuilt from the ground up to allow for ease of use and fast response. Right-clicking the mouse now gives access to many layers of menus that control all aspects of the software.

The program can be almost entirely customized to give just the reports and information needed. Be it page counts right down to predictive reports such as when the print engine will need a maintenance overhaul. Using XML datafiles, the Web Jetadmin application is fully customizable and user controllable.

The database is proprietary and at this release is not available for opening up in an external application, only Web Jetadmin can access the database itself.

Future releases will include plug-ins that allow for IPv6 and IPsec configuration on compatible printers, as well as better reports control over the compliant printers that Web Jetadmin can communicate with.

One thing we did note was the lack of plug-ins for non-HP printers. Previous releases had the ability to talk to other printers such as Xerox and Ricoh. This release does not. HP has reported that an outside developer will hold the API for Web Jetadmin and will control licensing of the product to the 3rd party developers for hem to develop plug-ins. We do not know the name of this developer at this point, but will release that information when it is known.

Compared to the older releases of Web Jetadmin - this version is very slick. The Beta copy we had did crash when you pushed it a bit hard, but unlike the older version - when this one failed, it simply dies. You just restart it, and it loads up remembering precisely where the settings were so you had your workspace available just as you left it. HP has assured us that the full release version will have the fixes implemented that caused our copy to crash.

We very much like this version - it is very clean and will be a vast improvement over the 8.1 version that is still tied to both Java and the web browser.