Printer Availability in TS (2k3)

Hello there,

We have a network of XP Pro machines over three sites (linked with a
Cisco VPN), all connecting into a Windows 2003 Standard Edition
Terminal Server. We have around 20 users, 20 workstations, and 30
printers. All printers are available under the Administrator account
on the server, and are connected via various means: TCP/IP for some
and Windows shares for others, and by Ethernet, USB and parallel
cables. We're not using active directory; just a workgroup.

Our printers are currently in a mess though: every user seems to get a
completely random (and large) selection of printers on the network.
I've just created a test account now, for example, which (without any
changes from myself) has eight printers available, including printers
from all three sites, both from Windows shares and TCP/IP connections,
and both in the Ready and "Printer not found on server,..." status.

This is confusing our users no end, as most of them only need 1-2
printers, and don't have any interest in printing to a building in a
different town.

Could anyone point me out to a document which will explain how exactly
Windows is deciding which printers are available to different users -
and, more to the point, how I can intervene and tell it, for each
user, which printer(s) we want to be available to them?

Also, is there any way to rename shared printers so that they're
called something other than the <share> on <computer> format that
Windows sets automatically? I can remember this being an option under
NT 4.0 (i.e. that there is no rename entry in the context menu for the
printer), but it looks like it still hasn't been fixed for 2003.

Just a pointer to any doc that'll explain either/both of the above two
questions would be fantastic.

Many thanks,

Andrew King
Preston, UK

The printers available to EVERY user will be
Any printer physically connected to the Terminal Serve
Any TCPIP Printer setup on the Terminal Serve
You can control who can print to these printers in the same way that you do for any other Windows Printer

The printers available to individual users when they logon will be
Local Printers connected to the client's compute
Network Printers defined in the user's profile of their client compute
Both types of client printers require an EXACT match between the driver installed on the client and that exists on the Terminal Server
Errors will be logged in the system event log each time there is a mismatch in drivers and the user's client printer can't be auto-created. In this case you'll se an Event ID 1111 for which you'll either need to make a mapping to a built-in driver (on the terminal server) via user defined inf file, or install that driver on the terminal server (not recommended)

Please read some of the white papers on my website, as they give much more in-depth detail of the process. Brian Madden's printing chapter from his (and Ken Oglesby's) Terminal Services for Windows 2003 Advanced Technical Design Guide is available on this site, and is the best description of the printing process that I've read

http://www.workthin.com/tsp.ht

Other excellent references
http://www.printingsupport.com/matrix.ht
http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT/TS_printing.ht
http://www.brianmadden.co

Patrick Rous
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Serve
http://www.workthin.co

"Patrick Rouse [MVP]" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:<3753ADAB-0344-4E65-BFA4-445BFC0AFC66@microsoft.com>...

<snip message>

> Patrick Rouse
> Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
> http://www.workthin.com

Thanks - most helpful - you've given me plenty to through at here.

--
Andrew King
Preston, UK