Windows 95 Printing Thoughts

This is a brief document exploring printing issues under windows 95 in the CK:P environment. This is not official documentation but just a presentation of information regarding what I discovered.

Assumptions:

• The Win95 box is on the local IP network
• The printer has a unique IP address which is known
• There is access to the Win95 installation disks

SAMBA

The current model for printing from Windows 95 is using SAMBA to create a network connection to the print server on the unix server. This design does work but has a couple of inherent problems:

• More expertise is required on the part of the user admin.
• There are a number of added levels of complexity.
• The system does not appear to be as stable under a multiplatform system.

SAMBA does have a number of distinct advantages though:

• Its is a widely used system and support is available on many web pages and usenet groups.
• It offloads the processor burden from the client machine to the, presumably, more powerful server.
• It is free.

Win95 Local Spooling

The most direct way around the above problems is to eliminate the need to use the unix server as an intermediary for printing services. This can be accomplished by using a print spool on the local machine which can directly access the IP networked printer. The problem is that the various flavors of Windows do not support this natively. Specifically under Windows 95 the native print spooler can capture information sent to a port and redirect to a network address but only under Netware. Until this is addressed by Microsoft it is necessary to use 3rd party IP aware print spoolers.

The advantages to using a local print spooler are:

• It reduces the load on busy servers
• It does not require the unix box or SAMBA daemon to be functioning properly
• It reduces the level of complexity inherent in printing
• It easy, relatively speaking, easier to install and maintain than SAMBA.

The disadvantages are:

• It is relatively unknown technology to most of the ckp-staff
• It is not widely supported
• It is not free

Windows Print Spooler 4.1

As a test bed I installed a shareware program called Windows Print Spooler 4.1 on a Windows 95 box at Woolslair. Downloading, installing and testing the program took less than ten minutes. It uses a GUI interface for setup and maintainance. It also interacts directly with the native Windows 95 print manager so its use is basically transparent.

You can test this yourself by clicking here to download the file WLPRS41.ZIP (802k)

After you have downloaded it, unzip it into a temporary directory and run setup.

It will ask two questions:

1. The location of your print spool directory (you can use temp or make a directory called spool or watever)
2. The name of the print spool file. This can be anything but I just used the default.

After you have answered these questions a window will come up entitled Windows LPR Spooler 4.1. One of the choices on the menu bar is setup. Click on this and then choose Queues and then Define New Queue. A new window will come up and will ask for the following information:

• Local Spool Files Name: Use any valid 8.3 filename you like. I used SCRIPTO.SPL so i knew what the file was.
• Remote Printer Name: This is a one word name for the printer. I used LaserJet5MP.
• Remote Host Name: This is the IP address of the printer. For example 198.119.11.19
• Queue Description: This can be anything or just left blank.
• Protocol to be Used: If the printer is using the JetDirect card (most likely) use the HP JetDirect Protocol. If it is not using a JetDirect card or you are not sure try the BSD LPR/LPD protocol.

After you have entered all of the information click on OK.

You'll then need to add a new printer. Click on Start|Settings|Printers and then click on the Add Printer icon. Go through the Setup Wizard and be sure to choose Local Printer (if you try and use network printer this will not work). After you have chosen the make and model of the printer it will ask what port you want to print to. Make sure you choose the port corresponds with your local spool file. For eaxmple: If you local spool file was SCRIPTO.SPL you would want to choose the port labeled C:\SPOOL\SCRIPTO.SPL. You can then just follow the Setup Wizard the rest of the way through the installation.

If everything goes well everytime you print to that printer the Windows LPR Spooler will send it to the printer you have specified over the IP network. Also, in order to print the Windows LPR Spooler software must be running.

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Revision 1.0:June 20, 1996:CJR