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A rchive Date
[ 12-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Information Technologies ]
sub-Categoy
[ Microsoft ]
      [http://www.zdjournals.com/w9p/9907/w9p9971.htm

      Network printing is as easy as Point and Print
      July 1999

      Installing a new printer on your network can be a nightmare. Once you have the printer installed, you can safely plan on spending the rest of your day installing it on each workstation on the network. Fortunately, Microsoft has provided an easy way to automate the process so network printers can virtually install themselves. This method is called Point and Print. In this article, we'll demonstrate how you can set up Point and Print on your Windows 95 and Windows NT print servers and save your users a phone call in the process.

      The Point and Print concept
      With Windows 95's Point and Print feature, you can print to a remote printer that's not currently installed on your computer. When you attempt to do so, Windows identifies the printer you want to print to, installs the printer, and copies the correct driver, plus any printer-specific information from the server (or the computer the printer is connected to), to your computer. In Windows 95, network printers aren't mapped to a specific port, such as LPT1 or LPT2. Therefore, it's no longer necessary to connect and disconnect from a network printer. Instead, Windows 95 sees printers as virtual resources and uses the UNC name and Point and Print information to keep track of printer locations, making them available when the user makes a print request.
      Point and Print capabilities enable you to install and use a remote printer by any of the following methods:
      • Find the desired printer object in Network Neighborhood. Drag the printer object from the Network Neighborhood window to your Printers folder.
      • Select Start | Run and enter the UNC path for the remote printer in the Open dropdown list.
      • Use the Add Printer Wizard and specify the UNC path to the remote printer, or browse to find its location on the network.
      • Drag a printer from the Network Neighborhood onto your desktop.

      For each method, Windows 95 copies the necessary print driver files to your machine. Point and Print also retrieves print server information, such as the name of the server where the print driver files are stored and printer model information.

      The technique
      You can store the Point and Print information on Windows 95 or Windows NT machines so that they function as print servers for other Windows 95 machines. NetWare print servers can also be configured to provide Point and Print information to Windows 95 machines by storing print driver files in the NetWare bindery (for NetWare 3.x) or in the NDS database for NetWare 4.x servers. To fully support Point and Print, a print server needs to provide the following printer-specific information to client workstations:
      • Names of the necessary print driver files.
      • The location in which the print driver files are stored.
      • Printer model information, name, and configuration.

      Configuring a Windows 95 print server
      To support Point and Print on a Windows 95 print server, you must install the printer locally on the print server and then share the printer. In order to share a local printer with other Windows 95 machines, you must be running the 32-bit protected-mode Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks or the 32-bit protected-mode Microsoft Client for Microsoft Networks. You also must have the corresponding File and Printer Sharing service installed. To begin installing File and Printer Sharing on a Windows 95 computer running the Microsoft Client for Microsoft Networks, right-click on Network Neighborhood and select Properties from the shortcut menu. Then, on the Configuration sheet of the Network dialog box, click the File And Print Sharing button. In the File And Print Sharing dialog box, shown in Figure A, select the I Want To Be Able To Allow Others To Print To My Printer(s) check box and click OK. On the Configuration sheet, File And Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks should now appear in the list of installed network components, as shown in Figure B.
      Figure A: In order to share your printer, you must first install File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks.
      [ Figure A ]

      Figure B: The File and Printer Sharing component should appear in the installed components list box.
      [ Figure B ]

      Once you install File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks, you can secure all of your shared resources with either share-level or user-level access. To choose your level of access, click the Access Control tab in the Network dialog box. For example, we selected Share-level Access Control so that each shared resource can have a password connected to it. Once you've determined your access control, click the OK button to close the Network dialog box and restart your computer to apply the changes you've made.

      The next step is to share the local printer. When you share a printer on a Windows 95 computer, the computer automatically creates a hidden read-only share called PRINTER$ that shares the necessary information stored in its System directory. To create a shared printer, click Start | Settings | Printers, right-click on the printer's icon, and select Sharing from the shortcut menu. On the Sharing sheet, shown in Figure C, select the Shared As option and enter a name for the printer in the Share Name text box. We recommend using a name that will easily identify the location of the printer, such as the last name of the user whose computer the printer's connected to, or the department the printer belongs to.

      Figure C: Share the local printer so that other users have access to it.
      [ Figure C ]

      If you selected share-level access control, you'll also have to enter a password in the Password text box. Click Apply to apply the changes you've made and to confirm the printer password. Then, click OK to close the printer's Properties dialog box. Now, when Windows 95 users attempt to connect to the KNIGHT printer using any of the Point and Print methods we mentioned earlier, the appropriate driver files will be copied from the PRINTER$ share to the local computer. Little or no user input is required.

      Configuring Windows NT for Point and Print
      Although the Point and Print technique works best between clients and print servers running Windows 95, it can also be implemented on print servers running either Windows NT or NetWare. To support Point and Print on a Windows NT print server, it's best to make sure that the printer model name on the Windows NT print server matches the model name for the printer that's listed in the Windows 95 files. If the names are the same, the print driver is installed from the location that you indicate contains the Windows 95 drivers. If the names differ, you'll have to specify the printer model. In either case, you'll have to specify printer settings, such as paper size.

      To begin configuring either your Windows NT 4.0 Server or Workstation print server for Windows 95 Point and Print, you must first log on using an account with administrative privileges. Then, create a folder on the print server that contains the Windows 95 print drivers. In order to do so, you'll need to extract the drivers from the CAB files on your Windows 95 CD-ROM. Place your Windows 95 CD-ROM in the drive and open a command prompt. Type the following, pressing [Enter] after each line:
        Cd\
        Md W95print
        Cd W95print
        D:\win95\extract.exe /e d:\win95\precopy2.cab *.*
        D:\win95\extract.exe /e d:\win95\win95_09.cab *.*
        D:\win95\extract.exe /e d:\win95\win95_10.cab *.*

      Note that the pathnames for the last three lines will differ depending upon your CD-ROM drive letter and the version of Windows 95 you're running. The pathnames shown here are for earlier versions of Windows 95. If you're running Windows 95 OSR2, all the necessary files are located in win95_15.cab.

      Now that you have the W95print folder created, close the Command Prompt and select Start | Settings | Printers. Right-click on the appropriate printer's icon and select Sharing on the shortcut menu. On the Sharing sheet, shown in Figure D, select Shared and enter a printer name in the Share Name text box. In the Alternate Drivers list box select Windows 95 and click OK. When the Printer Drivers For Windows 95 dialog box, shown in Figure E appears, enter C:\w95print in the Copy Files From text box and click OK. The appropriate drivers are now copied from the w95print folder to the \Winnt\System32\Spool\Drivers\Win40 folder. Your users can now connect to and install this printer from their Windows 95 workstations using any of the Point and Print methods we mentioned earlier.
      Figure D: Share the printer and select the alternate drivers you want installed.
      [ Figure D ]

      Figure E: You must copy the Windows 95 print drivers to
      the \Winnt\System32\Spool\Drivers\Win40 folder on the Windows NT print server.
      [ Figure E ]

      Conclusion
      Installing a new printer on your network can be a major headache. It's usually a task that involves numerous phone calls from your users and a lot of wear and tear on your shoes. In this article we've shown you how to take some of the stress and time out of this tiresome task by configuring Point and Print on your print servers.

      Copyright © 2000, ZD Inc. All rights reserved. ZD Journals and the ZD Journals logo are trademarks of ZD Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of ZD Inc. is prohibited. All other product names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners]


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