Windows 2000 workstation printer problem on NT4 server 1

[mrobinson]

I have a workstation running windows 2000 that i want to print through a NT 4.0 server to a HP color laserjet 4500. For some reason it will not load the printer drivers (which are the correct drivers). Dose anyone have any ideas??

Thanks

 

[pytchley]

If you install the printer on the 2000 workstation then NT will see it - but you don't want to know that do you. The only answer I know is to upgrade the server to 2000.

 

[zoeythecat]

The correct answer is to:

(1) From the Windows2000 Pro workstation download and
install the Windows2000 driver (I.E - download the
driver to a directory, double click on this to extract
and just note what directory the driver files extracted
to
(2) From the Windows2000 Pro workstation you want to add
a printer. Make sure you select Local printer (not
(network printer)
(3) When the screen "Select a Printer Port" appears
you want to choose "Create a new port" at the bottom
of screen and choose "Standard TCP/IP Port"
(4) Click on "Next" and then when the screen,
"Add Port Appears" the first line you want to enter
the IP Address of the Network printer you want to
print to. The next line is the Port name. You can
name this whatever you want.
(5) Click "next" and eventually you will get a screen
to install the driver. You want to click "have disk"
and then browse to the directory (from step1) you
copied the windows2000 files to.
(6) Click "next" and you will see the files being copied
and then you can name the printer.

* Now you should be able to print. And guess what? You don't to upgrade your server to Windows2000 Server as ==>PYTCHLEY< suggested.

Good luck

 

[pytchley]

Agreed if the network printer has an IPm address - but what if the printer is connected to the parallel port ?

 

[zoeythecat]

The printer is sitting on an NT Server. I doubt very much the printer is attached via Parallel port. That would make no sense. The whole idea of printer on a server is to serve clients trying to print. So I strongly suspect it has an IP address and a sharename. He states he is attempting to connect to this from a Windows2000 workstation to a printer that sits on an NT4 server. There is no mention of a parallel port here. Even if it was on a parallel port there is a way you can share the printer so clients can print to it just as long as you have the correct driver installed and you are connecting to the correct share name on the network.

 

[mrobinson]

Thanks Zoey, i have just tried this and it worked straight away. Just to clear it up the printer was on the server.
Thanks again

 

[zoeythecat]

No problem Mrobinson. Happy to hear you are printing okay. I have the same type of setup in my environment where I have an NT 4 Server with Windows2000 workstations so this is why I was able to offer something to this subject.

 

[stevenh]

I have the same problem and have successfully used the suggestion by 'zoeythecat'. However, does that not mean that users are not actually using the print queue on the NT server, but are in fact bypassing this and printing directly to the printer? I thought that in a LAN environment it was preferable to print to a shared print queue.

 

[TonyGroves]

If you want the server to control the print queue, then you must install the driver on the server, share the printer, and the clients can then connect to that. If NT hasn't got a driver for the printer, you can surely get one from HP.

This is the best method for a network of any size.

 

[stevenh]

Thanks Tony. That's what I thought. So how do you install and share Windows 2000 Pro (or XP Pro) printer drivers on an NT4 server? If this was possible, it would be easier than installing the NT drivers initially then replacing them with 2000/XP drivers. There is apparently an MS article explaining how to do this but I've been unable to find it (and MS article 154291 isn't it).

 

[TonyGroves]

You would use a Windows NT driver on the NT machine, and then you don't need to worry about drivers on the clients.

 

[stevenh]

Okay Tony. I'll just use the NT drivers on my 2000 / XP clients initially. If I have any problems I'll then just change the local drivers to the 2000 / XP versions.

Thanks again.

 

[TonyGroves]

Just to clarify - you use the NT driver on the NT server. You don't use any drivers on the clients, you just connect to the printer on the server.