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We have an old FoxPro 2.6 application, that cannot print to a networked printer. Knows nothing about domains, etc, and uses it's own built-in drivers instead of Windows drivers, and can only print to lpt ports. Our normal setup to allow network users to print is for a printer to be attached to one computer, share that printer, then use a net use command from another computer to connect to the the shared printer and redirect it to lpt1. Works great, no issues, except that the computer the printer is attached to has to be on at all times. We want to get away from that, and have the printer's setup on the Active Directory server, shared from that like all of our other printers, and then do the net use command to redirect to lpt1, so that our outdated application can print to it.

Setup:

  • Domain, swtechinc, with AD server as swkcdc01. IP address of 192.168.1.10
  • Domain users have standard user permissions
  • LaserJet 5n printer, networked with IP of 192.168.1.207
  • The printer is setup and shared on the AD server as LJShip

If I do a net use lpt1: \\swkcdc01\LJShip as domain admin, I have to enter in the AD Administrator username and password, but then it completes successfully. Go into the user account, and do a net use, and the mapping is gone.

Do the same command from the user account, and it again asks for user name and password. BUT, it will not complete, says System Error 5, Access is denied.

I have tried adding his user account on the AD to the security tab of the printer on the AD server, and still get the same results.

I am hoping someone here can help me out, because I am at a loss.

squillman
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jdelliott
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    Are you ok with doing a lot of manual setup on the workstations? – lsmooth Nov 21 '13 at 21:42
  • Do your users have local admin privileges? I would guess mapping to parallel port requires local admin. – Grant Nov 21 '13 at 22:36
  • If it's on the network as 192.168.1.207 why not map directly to it instead of through a shared printer off the server? Are you wanting to restrict access or log printing? – TheCleaner Nov 21 '13 at 22:49
  • Also, which version of Windows is the server running ? – lsmooth Nov 21 '13 at 23:12
  • lsmooth - I figured manual setup was going to be required. Out of about 30 PCs here, only about 5 or so need this, as the others either connect directly to the printer or do not use the application at all. In reply to your second question, it is Server 2003 32-bit – jdelliott Nov 22 '13 at 13:13
  • @Grant - no local admin priveleges, and we try to limit that at all times. this same setup of mapping to lpt1 works, if I am connecting to another domain computer. 'net use lpt1: \\cmoyer\hplj' allows me to set up a client to print directly to her printer, but requires her computer to be on at all times, even though the printer itself is connected to the network, and she is connected to it through a printer share from the domain controller for all of her windows printing. For the FoxPro printing, she is connected to it through the parallel port – jdelliott Nov 22 '13 at 13:15

2 Answers2

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I did find out the answer - took me a bit to realize it.

The standard users do not have access to make changes to the hardware. Due to their being a physical LPT port on the computer, and it being enabled in the BIOS, that is why I was getting the error I was getting. When I tried lpt2 or lpt3, I did not get the error.

So, disabling the lpt port in the BIOS solves my issue, since their is not a physical port there anymore, the standard users can NET USE to add the shared printer. I was thinking it was on the Active Directory side, but it wasn't.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

jdelliott
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What you should be able to do, is install the printer twice on each PC that needs it. For one as a local printer on LPT1: and the other should be the server's shared printer. Now go to the properties of one of the two printers and activate printer pooling and then additionally select the port that is not already used by this printer.

The purpose of printer pooling is to divide print jobs on two or more of the same printers. This also has the nice side-effect that when one of the printers is offline windows automatically using a printer that is online, regardless on which printer and port the job was originally printed.

Another way would be using a Group Policy Object to install a network shared printer on the workstations in question. You can then also map the printer to a local port. But that will probably only work up to Windows XP.

lsmooth
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