Hello mark.

14 Oct 04 17:01, you wrote to Tom Walker:

 ml> ->> i've installed quite a bit longer in extreme cases...
 ml> ->> yes, parallel... i believe the longest was 50 feet...
 ml> ->> in an office, up over the ceiling tiles and down to
 ml> ->> the laser printer... granted, it was "special"
 ml> ->> cable... "special" in that it was of very high grade,
 ml> ->> extremely well shielded, and very heavy...

 TW>>  I suspect you were Very Lucky. That is far beyond the
 TW>> "Suggested length" for a Parallel cable.

 ml> i've done some more research and have found that it was longer than
 ml> 50feet long but nothing, yet, indicating how long it actually was...
 ml> recollection says 75feet or 100feet...

I've seen a printer on what looked lika a 15m ribbon cable with a blue IDC
centronics plug on one end tho other end was not where I could see it.
The centronics plug has every second conductor ground so crosstalk is not a problem.

the printer's handshaking method, should work cables of any length as long
as the cable propogates all the signals at the same rate, and resistance
doesn;t attenuate the signal down to nothing. As the clocking of the
channel relies on signals propogating from one end to the other and back
longer cables will result in slower data rates.

 ml> as for luck... i say not... once again, the cable was ordered from a
 ml> catalog after speaking with a representative... it was not a specially
 ml> built cable for us... it came in and we spent a few hours running it
 ml> through the ceiling area... once connected between the printserver and
 ml> the laser printer, everything worked as desired and designed... we
 ml> took the same care in routing the cable as we took for all cabling...
 ml> cross electrical at 90 degrees and stay at least 3 feet from
 ml> flourscents plus all the other cabling rules...

this one was tacked, or tied to the wall somehow - as this was the top
floor the only wiring up there would be for lights and would probably not
be running parallel to the wall.

 ml> now, whether or not there were boosters in the headends of the cable
 ml> i cannot say as i was not about to discect the moulded rubber/plastic
 ml> ends to find out... there was no indication that there were...

I also have (well had) a 10m printer cable with a centroinics plug on each
end, and 18 twisted pairs inside the round cable, as mine cost me $3 at a
recycling depot I did.

Jasen

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