The AS400 sends data to a Windows PC with RPM Remote Print Manager installed. The file is sent from the AS400 via TCP/IP protocol and RPM is the LPD software that receives the spool file from the AS400.

LPD / TCPIP is a much safer, and much easier way to transfer files to the Windows environment than FTP. Transferring files via FTP can be time consuming, resource intensive, can open security holes, and the data integrity is not guaranteed.

RPM’s Filter Queue

The “Filter” queue can accommodate “print to file” data processing and supports many file naming conventions and to any media that the PC has access to. The data passed from the AS/400 is SCS format. The SCS formatted data could be considered encrypted data. RPM can then translate the SCS data to ASCII text and write the data to the PC media.

RPM can also remove any PCL printer codes from the data leaving only the text, new line, and form feed characters. Another option is to pass the incoming data to OctoTools and compress the text to PDF format. The PDF file saves media space and allows easy data viewing or manipulation.

Helpful “Write to Disk” Links

• Saving short filenames to disk
• How to capture a print job to my PC