Printing to USB from DOS 2

[mssi]

I am trying to print from DOS to a USB printer, following the tips I found of sharing the printer and doing:

NET USE LPT1: \\machinename\printer

This returns a SYSTEM ERROR 1231.
The network location cannot be reached.

This is on an XP & I have done this successfully on other XPs, but can't get it to work on this one.
Any suggestions??

 

[gbaughma]

Actually, there's a sneaky way to do this.

It can be done with printer pooling. You tell your software to print to LPT1, but don't have a printer on your LPT1 port, and set up printer pooling with your USB printer. Windows will see that the printer isn't available on LPT1, and instead pool it over to your USB printer.

--Greg


Just my $0.02

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[dbMark]

thread779-853436 - Turn on PRINTER POOLING with both the LPT1 and the USB ports checked

thread96-769442 - see Feb 6 post by vbrocks:
Have both printers connected to same server (network or local)
Go to the ports tab of the printer's properties dialog box.
Check the enable pooling checkbox.
Then select or create the ports of the print devices that will be part of the pool.

thread96-742080 - see Jan 6 post by GuyThomas for his link to:

http://computerperformance.co.uk/Litmus/printer_pools.htm

Printer Pools
The best practice is to have several printers or print queues leading to one physical print device. The advantage is that you can set different priorities for different users. For example: high priority for mangers low priority for secretaries (or would that be better the other way around!).
How to Setup Printer Pools
To create a Printer Pool: Start Menu, Settings, Printer folder, add printer.
The trick is to create multiple printers, each with a different priority.
To adjust the priority, go to the Advanced Tab and look for the Priority box. Finally give different permissions to the various printers.

Also search Microsoft's site for printer pooling. Here are a few articles:

http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?st=b&na=88&View=en-us&qu=printer+pooling

Microsoft Windows XP - Printer Pooling
A printer pool associates two or more identical printers with one set of printer software. To set up a printer pool, add a printer by using the Add Printer wizard, and then assign an output port to all printers that are identical to the original printer.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prdl_pif_ifxf.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prdl_pif_ifxf.asp

Printer Pooling
A printer pool associates two or more identical printers with one set of printer software. To set up such a pool, add a printer using the Add Printer wizard and assign that printer as many output ports as there are

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...0/server/reskit/en-us/prork/prdl_pif_flqn.asp

dbMark

 

[gbaughma]

Wasn't this what I said????


Just my $0.02

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[dbMark]

gbaughma, I found your printer pooling suggestion intriguing, so I just did some keyword searching and put together a list of helpful links into one post, as a followup or expansion to your reply. Greg, really, I liked your post.

 

[gbaughma]

Thank you... <lol> Sorry... I live for stars... <lol>


Just my $0.02

"In order to start solving a problem, one must first identify its owner." --Me
--Greg

 

[mssi]

Still having problems printing from DOS to a USB port. I set up printer pooling, pooling LPT1 & USB ports. When I try to send to LPT1 it shows up in the print queue, status "printing" but nothing prints. I have to restart the computer to get the document out of the queue. Have uninstalled & reinstalled the driver. Any suggestions?