Printing

[sLiDeR]

How u guys got urs set up.

Im gonna do mine with AD GPO's but wondering if this is the best way. :idea:

[DaveP]

We have 2 domains and the stations on both get their printers using scripts. It has been a royal pain and I would like to know of a better way of doing it [unless of course there are errors in my scripts...]

[netadmin]

I use psPrint as a logon script.
It works great, it auto installs printers depending on the machine name, and even sets the default printer.

[Michael]

Windows Server 2003 R2 has a Print Management tool which allows you to distribute printers using Group Policy in minutes. It will also be available in Windows Server 2008 as standard.

Take a look at this guide using 2003 R2 and XP clients.

[maniac]

I use a VB script that maps printers according to the OU of the workstation. Find this the most convenient, as move the machine account into a different OU and the printers are changed with no other interaction.

This is particulalry handy if we loan laptops out to different areas of the school to cope with big groups, or as temporary machines to cover for ones in for repair etc. just put the machine accounts in the correct OU for that room.

Mike

[iatkinson]

We map the printers a logon using kixxscript. Very rarely have any issues with them mapping.

[dhicks]

We have PDF Creator installed as the only printer, this takes generates PDF documents and passes them to a Perl script that decides where to send them - maybe a physical printer, or email straight to a teacher, or passed to Moodle.

--
David Hicks

[Geoff]

We have a Linux based print server running Samba/Cups/Ghostscript/Pykota (there's a sticky in the *nix forum about this style of setup). This does all the grunt work. The windows machines are loaded with a generic postscript print driver (so no crazy driver problems). This driver is loaded on the machines with a startup script. The correct printers for each user are configured in a login script (again, these scripts are posted in the Scripting forum).

[cookie_monster]

We use a vbscript that reads the first 3 characters of the PC's name and then maps the appropriate printer for that room.

[Halfmad]

I use a VB script that maps printers according to the OU of the workstation. Find this the most convenient, as move the machine account into a different OU and the printers are changed with no other interaction.

This is particulalry handy if we loan laptops out to different areas of the school to cope with big groups, or as temporary machines to cover for ones in for repair etc. just put the machine accounts in the correct OU for that room.

Mike

Same, frankly it works like a dream.