[conspire] corrected to HP LaserJet4M Plus Re: HP LaserJet4 - CUPS lists printer twice

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben at mrbrklyn.com):

> It used to be at NYU when I was trying to keep track of 400 devices and
> my crack tech support guys would decide on their own to give static IP
> addresses to printers and MS boxes in the deans office.

Oh, I've lived the headache of dimwits badly handling IP assignments.
(Don't get me started.)  However, that doesn't change the fact that
competently assigning static IPs to network-service-providing hosts --
which includes printers -- reduces hassles on balance by decomplicating
your network and reducing the number of failure modes to worry about
(as cited upthread).  Yes, you do need to keep track -- though there are
also not-difficult ways to find statically-assigned hosts you've
forgotten about or aren't aware of.

> I forgot about that.  

Glad to help.  ;->

I forgot to mention:  If you are using switches rather than hubs, the
MAC addresses in any single machine's ARP cache will be limited to what
the switch allows it to see.  Of course, if you're just trying to find
out a single device's MAC, then a crossover[1] ethernet cable with _no_
hub or switch does the trick.

> Why is RARP dead?  

Because DHCP obsoleted it.

[1] In fact, with most machines' ethernet ports these days being
autoswitching, a regular straight-through cable will be fine, too.
However, personally, I like to keep an old hub around, specifically
because it's too dumb and simple to cause problems when I'm doing
network exploration and diagnosis.