Network Printing

[witch]

We have several network printers, and across the school, various 'groups' of computers can print to various printers: This is achieved by identifying the computers in the approprate bit of the print.ini file. For example all printers in IT SUITE 'CRA' which are numbered CRA1-CRA30 are identified by CRA*.

However, the naming convention for the staff laptops is the other way around - their initials followed by the word 'laptop'

I am trying to set things up so that the staff laptops can see all the network printers. In the print.ini I have identified them as *LAPTOP but they still cannot see any of the network printers.

Hope this makes sense- -can anyone help and tell me what I haven't done?

[contink]

What system are you hosting the printers on?

 

I've not heard of a "print.ini" for deploying or connecting printers... Is this a Pykota, CUPS type arrangement?

[matt40k]

It's prob a (vbs) script that read the ini file.

 

@Witch:

I would guess we would need to see the ini and the script to be able to help. ideally it should turn the computer name into a string then search for a part of the computer name. For example each line would have, for example, CRA rather then CRA*

 

 

I've never used a seperate file with a list of computer names, always defined it within the script, but it seems a good idea. Less possible mistakes.

[Michael]

It does sound like a script. What about if you just used * on its own? That would cover every machine I would of thought? Alternatively, simply list all the machines in the script without using * at all.

[witch]

I knew I would miss somethng out - yes, it's a script

You can't list all the machines individually as for some reason, if the thing is too long it doesn't work properly.

I don't want everyone to be able to see every printer as the students will pick the wrong one without fail.

I am in the wrong school now but, from memory, the entries look like this:

[CRA*]

p1=\\ntserver1\epson1/d

 

for each area where ntserver1 is the name of the server and epson1 is the share name of the printer in question.

The one for the staff laptops was:

[*LAPTOP]

p1=\\ntserver\epson1/d

 

etc etc

Don't know if this is enough - if not, tell me what you want and I will sort it out when I get back to the other school

[gbaylis0]

we call a second script from our laptop users logon script - called printer.bat.

 

examples below for logging on to a laptop called "gbaylis-laptop"

 

Logon script points to "printer.bat"

 

~Printer.bat~

If exist "%LogonServer%\Netlogon\printers\%ComputerName%.REG" regedit /S "%LogonServer%\Netlogon\printers\%ComputerName%.REG"

 

This file sits in "%LogonServer%\Netlogon\printers\"

 

~GBaylis-LAPTOP.reg~

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]

"Device"="\\\\SERVER_NAME_HERE\\PRINTER_SHARE_HERE,winspool,Ne01:"

 

Hope this helps - let me know if you need any more info...

Greg

[contink]

Don't know if this is enough - if not, tell me what you want and I will sort it out when I get back to the other school

 

I think the whole script and any related files would probably be best... That way it's easier to see the problem in greatest context rather than just spots here and there.

[Bruce123]

Christ, the amount of trouble I had logging on just so I could write a reply! I obviously can't remember the password I chose of every website I happen to register an account with

 

We've setup a VBScript logon script for dealing with the issue of printing from wireless laptops. When a users logs on it first checks that they are logging onto a laptop (checks if the name of the computer contains *lap").

 

It then presents the user with a pop-up box where it asks the user to enter the classroom room number (from a list), and it then maps a network printer to the printer in the room and sets it as the default. Note: all network printers are actually managed by just the one server.

 

At logoff it unmaps the printer (all of the network printers actually).

 

Bruce.

[EduTech]

Christ, the amount of trouble I had logging on just so I could write a reply! I obviously can't remember the password I chose of every website I happen to register an account with .

 

Sorry had to just say this..

 

Use the same password for every forum

 

back to topic..

 

[Michael]

I don't want everyone to be able to see every printer as the students will pick the wrong one without fail

.

 

I presume you know you can set permissions on printers as you would folders/shares? By default Everyone can print, but removing this entry and specifying security groups you can control access to printers. You can also remove it from being automatically Listed in the Directory preventing users browsing/searching for printers.

 

I've been deploying printers using 2003 R2 Print Management for quite sometime now which I can highly recommend. Scripting printers are a thing of the past for me