Selecting the direct sockets protocol

In an IP PrintWay™ printer definition, you can select the transmission protocol that IP PrintWay uses to transmit output data sets from the JES spool to the printer, print server, or email destination. IP PrintWay supports these transmission protocols: LPR, direct sockets, IPP, VTAM®, and email.

Select the IP PrintWay direct sockets protocol if you want IP PrintWay to use the TCP/IP direct sockets printing protocol to transmit data sets directly to a designated port on a printer or print server. When you select this protocol, the printer or print server must support direct sockets printing.

Tips:

• Some printers support the direct sockets printing protocol as well as other protocols, such as the LPR protocol. For large data sets, the direct sockets printing protocol can provide better performance. However, you might want to select the LPR protocol to take advantage of the formatting options that IP PrintWay can specify in the LPD control file. For example, printing a banner page.
• When you select the direct sockets protocol, IP PrintWay extended mode can record the number of printed pages in the SMF type 6 record and can restart printing after the last page that printed successfully. For information, see Tracking the number of printed pages (extended mode).

When you select the direct sockets protocol, IP PrintWay transmits data to the printer or print server at the IP address (or host name) and port number that you specify in the printer definition. A job submitter can override the IP address and port number specified in the printer definition by specifying the IP address in the DEST=IP: parameter and the port number in the PORTNO parameter on the OUTPUT JCL statement.

Because the job submitter can override the IP address and port number, you can create one printer definition for several printers that share the same attributes. To use this printer definition, the job submitter must specify the name of the printer definition, the IP address, and the port number on the OUTPUT JCL statement. If the job submitter does not specify the name of the printer definition on the OUTPUT JCL statement, IP PrintWay uses printer attributes specified in the default IP PrintWay printer definition described in Creating an IP PrintWay default printer definition. For more information about job submission, see z/OS Infoprint Server User’s Guide.

IP PrintWay prints multiple copies by transmitting the data set to the printer the requested number of times. This is because the direct sockets printing protocol cannot print multiple copies of a single data set.

Related customization tasks: These IP PrintWay customization tasks are related to the direct sockets protocol. For information about how to do these tasks and other customization tasks related to the direct sockets protocol, see z/OS Infoprint Server Customization.

• Customize the TCP/IP component of z/OS Communications Server.
• When more than one copy is requested, IP PrintWay extended mode writes temporary files to the /var/Printsrv/printway directory. If necessary, increase the amount of space available to this directory.
• When you specify a value in the Maximum document size field, or select the Delete form feed option, IP PrintWay basic mode writes temporary files to hiperspace. If necessary, increase the amount of available hiperspace in the IP PrintWay FSS definition.