Server and Controller Solutions - FAQs
For answers to frequently asked questions please select your product:
Printer Controllers (General)
What is Color Gamut?
Color gamut is the range of color that a particular color system can reproduce. It is sometimes called a “footprint” in the printer world. For example, a color monitor has a larger gamut than a CMYK printer. This means that there are some colors that a color monitor can reproduce that a CMYK printer simply cannot.
What is a densitometer?
It is a device or instrument used to calibrate color printers by reading the amount of light reflected by a color swatch. Reflection densitometers are used to read the density of CMYK values as well as process color inks on various printing mediums.
What is a spectrophotometer?
A photometric device for the measurement of spectral reflectance, transmittance or emission (monitors). The measured values are reported graphically (e.g., the spectral curve of the measured object) and numerically (e.g., at intervals across the visible spectrum). A spectrophotometer is a more accurate measuring device than a densitometer. EFI has available the ES-1000 Spectrophotometer for some of its print servers. It can be used for calibrating and creating ICC color profiles. For more information about the EFI spectrophotometer, go to the EFI Color Profiler Suite page.
What is a Duotone?
It is a two-color printed image, usually a photograph. This image type is created by combining two colors with a grayscale image, resulting in a color-tinted photo.
What is GCR or Gray Component Replacement?
In process color work, this technique means subtracting as much cyan, magenta, and yellow ink or toner as possible in equal proportions from the process colors in dark areas and replacing the deficit with process black. This technique adds to the density of the black, which is usually already present in dark areas. The advantage of doing this technique is it reduces the total area coverage of ink or toner transferred to the printing medium (e.g., paper, transparency, etc.) and decreases the muddiness in dark areas. The advantages are better output at a lower cost since black ink and toner is cheaper, improved dot gain, and lower overall ink and toner usage.
Fiery Security Q&A
Server Availability
What antivirus solution will EFI authorize for use with Windows-based Fierys?
Testing is being performed on the retail version of McAfee Virus Scan. If EFI determines that there are no major technical problems, EFI plans to authorize customer installation of McAfee in accordance with EFI instructions on upcoming Fiery® server products, as specified by EFI.
What is EFI’s response to SNMP vulnerabilities such as those reported in CERT® Advisory CA-2002-03?
EFI has prepared an update to the SNMP service on Fiery controllers that addresses the advisory. Contact your service technician or customer support representative regarding availability for your product. For customers who are concerned about other SNMP vulnerabilities, EFI has prepared a downloadable updater, which can disable SNMP on the Fiery. When the update is installed, certain Fiery and third party utilities may have reduced functionality. Contact your service technician or customer support representative for more information.
What is Port Filtering?
Port Filtering enables a Fiery administrator to direct the Fiery to close certain unnecessary ports. Port Filtering enables the following ports to be closed: SMPT 25, SNMP 161-162, LPD 515, EFI SDK 8021-8022. All other major ports are closed on the Fiery by design. In addition, EFI SDK and RQM ports may also be disabled. Disabling ports may cause remote clients (such as Fiery Driver, EFI Command WorkStation® 3 and 4, Fiery Remote Scan (FRS) and other EFI SDK-dependent clients) not to function. Local clients should retain most functionality. Port Filtering is available only on selected Fierys. Please check your Fiery documentation or contact your sales representative to check on the availability of Port Filtering for your device.
Data Confidentiality
When is job data written to/stored on the Fiery Hard Disk Drive (“HDD”) and the Fiery Random Access Memory (“RAM”)?
Fierys offer three print queue choices: Direct, Hold, and Print. When a job is printed to the Direct Queue, the job data is most secure. Direct Queue printing is explained in detail in the next question. When a job is printed to the Hold or Print queue, it is spooled to the Fiery HDD (in its pre-rasterized form). After a job is RIPped, its rasterized form can be held and saved on the Fiery HDD for printing later, or may be “waiting” for engine availability and is saved in RAM while doing so. After a job is finished printing, it may remain on the HDD (in case of reprinting) in its pre-rasterized state.
Do Fierys have a Bypass HDD feature?
No, but Fierys do have a Direct Queue feature. These jobs are processed as soon as the current job finishes, skipping over other waiting jobs and in many cases do not write to the HDD. PDF, TIFF and variable data jobs as well as jobs sent via SMB and LPR are routed, in most cases, directly to the Print Queue when sent to the Direct Queue. However, jobs sent via the Direct Queue may also be written to the HDD in certain cases, including the following:
- The job is instructed to collate or use reverse order printing, and it exceeds the available printer memory.
- On Windows and Linux based systems, the Fiery software may overflow the available RAM and use the HDD as a memory buffer.
What is Secure Print?
The Secure Print function is available on select newer Fierys and requires the user to enter a job-specific password at the Fiery to allow the job to print. This function is available only on selected Fierys. Please check your Fiery documentation or contact your sales representative to check on availability of Secure Print for your device.
What is Job Log Protect?
Job Log Protect enables only the system administrator/operator to view password-protected job logs on the server. This feature is available only on selected Fierys. Please check your Fiery documentation or contact your sales representative to check on the availability of Job Log Protection for your device.
User Authentication
What is IP Filtering?
IP Filtering enables a Fiery administrator to direct the Fiery to receive packets solely from specified IP addresses. An IP address or a range of IP addresses can be specified. This feature is available only on selected newer Fierys. Please check your Fiery documentation or contact your sales representative to check on the availability of User Authentication for your device.
What is Member Print?
Member Printing requires the user to enter a valid account name and password match for the job to start printing. (Note: Entry of the account name and password requires the Notes field from the print driver or the job management utilities.) This is available only on selected newer Fierys. Please check your Fiery documentation or contact your sales representative to check on the availability of Member Print for your device.
Security Alerts
How does EFI handle publicly available security warnings and alerts?
EFI has established a Security, Threat, and Response Team (e.g., AKA STAR Team) that monitors, tracks, and assesses current security alerts and warnings published by CERT and Microsoft. Please see “EFI Security Strategy for Fiery Products” for more information.
Is the Fiery directly impacted by the PHP vulnerability reported by CERT® CA-2002-21?
The Fiery is not directly impacted by this PHP vulnerability. The Fiery does not run PHP by default and the Fiery WebTools does not use this script.
Is the Fiery directly impacted by the OpenSSL issue with regards to CWS4 legacy support?
This threat does not directly impact Fierys that have no built-in EFI PrintMe® support, since the Fiery network components do not use SSL. The Fierys that do support built-in PrintMe functionality use OpenSSL 0.9.6e and also are not directly impacted by this vulnerability.
Will the buffer overflow vulnerability in CDE ToolTalk (CERT® CA-2002-26) on Mac OS X directly impact the Fiery?
No, the Fiery does not use CDE.
Will the Fiery’s CWS legacy support be directly impacted by the Trojan Horse in Sendmail distribution?
No, the Fiery does not use Sendmail packages.
How is EFI handling the Apache Web Server vulnerability (Apache Software Foundation issued a bulletin regarding these security threats)?
EFI offers a standard patch to update the Apache Web Server included in certain shipping Fiery systems to v1.3.26 or later. This version of the Apache Web Server has been modified to close the known security holes.
Is a detailed “security white paper” available that describes the security capabilities and limitations of Fierys shipping today?
EFI’s official security whitepaper is now available through our OEM partners.
Fiery Q&A
Why do I get “Error…Output Device is busy, turned off, or has an incompatible system version. Check Status and network and try again.” when opening the ColorWise Pro Tools application from the Command WorkStation version 3.x?
You may be able to connect Command Workstation 3.x but will receive an error message when you try to connect to ColorWise® Pro Tools. An incorrect device name was entered when configuring the Command WorkStation server connection. To resolve this issue, the correct device name must be used.
The device name can be found in the user manuals or on the Fiery Configuration Page. The device name is the first word in bold letters right below Printer Setup. The device name is case sensitive and must be entered exactly as displayed on the Fiery Configuration page. Some examples of device names for specific Fiery models include 20C-M, DC12, and 900-950.
My EFI Command WorkStation is successfully connecting to the Fiery. When attempting to use ColorWise Pro Tools, I can't connect and get an error message.
You may occasionally be able to connect to the Command WorkStation but get an error message when trying to connect to ColorWise Pro Tools (CWPT). When you configure the CWPT connection you must use the correct device name for the Fiery you are connecting to.
Most of the Fiery utilities, such as Command WorkStation and CWPT, require the Fiery controller’s IP address and device name. Both of these items are listed on the Configuration page. To print this useful document, choose the Menu button on the Fiery controller or copier LCD, then Print Pages, then Configuration to print the Configuration Page. The IP address is listed under Protocol Setup and the Device Name is the first word in bold letters right below Printer Setup. The Device Name must be entered in the same case-sensitive manner that is printed on the Configuration Page. Some examples of Device names for specific Fiery models are 20C-M, DC12, and 900-950.
Why can’t I connect to my Fiery when attempting to use the Fiery utilities from my Mac or Windows® PC?
Most of the utilities require the Fiery controller’s IP address and device name. Both of these items are listed on the Configuration page. Choose the Menu button on the Fiery Controller or Copier LCD, then Print Pages, then Configuration to print the Configuration Page. The IP address is listed under Protocol Setup, and the device name is the first word in bold letters right below Printer Setup. The device name must be entered in the same case sensitive manner that is printed on the Configuration Page. Some examples of device names for specific Fiery models are 20C-M, DC12, and 900-950.
Also, make sure that TCP/IP protocol is loaded and configured on you client computer. Please refer to your Fiery documentation for more information about properly configuring your Fiery print server and client computers.
How do I set up printing via my parallel port to my Fiery print controller?
It is important to note that not all Fiery controllers support this capability. Please check first with your Fiery documentation. Refer to the Configuration Guide's index. If there is no entry there for Parallel port printing, your model does not support this feature.
- Enter your Fiery controller’s Setup Menu. You can do this through WebSetup or via the Fiery's front panel.
- In Network Setup – Port tab, you enable to parallel port by selecting the checkbox. There you will see two other settings; ignore EOF Character and Parallel Port Timeout. Generally, you can leave these at the default setting. Then click “Save Settings.”
- In Printer Setup, you can select the Fiery queue to which you wish to send the job, then Save Settings.
How do I install “Print Services for UNIX” on my Windows® 2000 computer?
- Open the Start>Settings>Network and Dial-up Connections dialogue
- In this window, click on the “Add Network Components” link
- With your Windows® 2000 installation CD in the drive, checkmark “Other Network File and Print Services;” Next
- The “Print Services for UNIX” should then install. You will now be able to set up a LPR connection to your Fiery controller.
Will the latest Mac OS 9.x PPD work in pre-Jaguar OS X? If yes, are there any known issues?
The current Mac OS 9.x PPD does work, with limitations, in pre-Jaguar versions of OS X (e.g. in Jaguar v10.2 and newer). If the printer has a lot of options, the last tab of options will not be available to the user (e.g., a PPD that contains eight options will only display up to seven). It is highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest version of OS X and use a native Fiery OS X PPD to obtain full functionality.
In the EFI Command WorkStation 3.x, what is the “View in Helper Application” option and what does it do?
This option allows the user to view Command WorkStation logs in other than the EFI proprietary format. For example, you can view the queue's logs in Excel format if you setup Excel as your Helper Application. To setup the “Helper Application” of your choice,
- Go to File->Preferences.
- Click Browse in the Helper Application box to browse to the desire application.
- Now, when you want to view the log in whatever application that you selected in Preferences, you would go to the Window pull-down menu in Command Workstation and select “View in Helper Application.”
When I install the driver, I am asked for a file called Pscript.dl_ or Pscript5.dl_. Where do I find these files?
The files are located in the I386 directory of the Windows® Operating System CD. You might be able to find it on your system by using the Windows® Find or Search utility.
How do I set up a LPR port on a Windows® 2000 computer, in order to print to my Fiery?
- Go to the Add Printer Wizard found in the Printer control panel.
- Select “Local Printer,” then Next.
- Select the “Create a New Port” radio button. Select “LPR Port” in the drop down list (if LPR is not listed you will need to install Print services for UNIX from your Windows® 2000 CD. For additional information click here).
- In the top box enter the IP address of your Fiery controller, you can determine the IP address by referring to the Configuration Page printed from your Fiery controller.
- In the bottom box, enter the Fiery controller’s queue name. This name must not be just any name the user chooses to put in. Fiery controllers typically have three print queues named Print, Direct and Hold. With most newer Fiery controllers, you would type in "print," "hold," or "direct," depending to which Fiery queue you want to print. They must be typed in lowercase. Some older Fiery controllers require the queue name and the device name. The device name can usually be found by printing a Configuration Page. On the Configuration Page, look at the first line of text below "Printer Setup." For example, if you see "20C-M Setup," the device name in this case would be "20C-M." So, in this instance in the lower box you would enter queue name, underscore character, and the device name: "print_20C-M." Again, the queue name must be in lower case, and the device name must match exactly what is on the Configuration Page, as far as case sensitivity.
- The next screen asks you what printer model you have. Generally, select the “Have disk” button next.
- Browse to the area on your system where you have copied the driver for your Fiery controller, or browse to the folder on your User CD that has the Fiery driver you need. After you have located the Windows® 2000 driver, select OK.
- Select model.
- Select “Replace existing driver” radio button.
- Type in a name that you desire to identify your printer and indicate whether you want this printer to be the default printer.
- Select whether or not you want to share the printer.
- Select whether or not you want to print a test page. Now Finish.
- Disregard the “Digital Signature not found” dialog by answering, “Yes.”
- Your printer is now set up. Don’t forget to go to the new printer’s Properties in the Printer Control panel. Select the Configuration tab and install any options that may be installed on the copier itself (e.g., duplexer, sorter, etc.)
Splash Q&As
Can I copy Secure Access accounts, user names and passwords from one G630 to another?
These files are interchangeable among G630s. You can create all of your accounts on one G630 server and copy the files to the other.
These are the necessary files:
- AccountsDB
- UsersDB
These files are located in the Splash Folder>SupportPS Folder.
All accounts may be created on one G630 server then copied to the other.
