Capture LPT1 to a USB printer

[Bill Meyer]

Anyone have a way to make a USB printer capture the LPT1 port? I have a DOS
program that will only print to a parallel port. With some of the new
printers that only have USB connections a DOS program can't print to them.
There is no replacement for this program and it still runs fine on XP and
Vista. Just this printer problem. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Why not try a USB-to-parallel adapter.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Anyone have a way to make a USB printer capture the LPT1 port? I have a DOS
program that will only print to a parallel port. With some of the new
printers that only have USB connections a DOS program can't print to them.
There is no replacement for this program and it still runs fine on XP and
Vista. Just this printer problem. Thanks in advance for any help.

Set up the printer as a shared printer
Issue the command
NET USE LPT1: \\computername\sharedprintername

 

[Claymore]

Anyone have a way to make a USB printer capture the LPT1 port? I have a DOS
program that will only print to a parallel port. With some of the new
printers that only have USB connections a DOS program can't print to them.
There is no replacement for this program and it still runs fine on XP and
Vista. Just this printer problem. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hello Bill,

As you know, you can't normally print from DOS to a USB printer. With
an adapter, you can print from a USB port to a serial printer, but not
vice-versa.
Until recently, I was printing to a file from within the program
(creates a .prn file), then importing the .prn file to a word
processor, and then printing to the USB printer from there. All too
laborious. Then I discovered this, which expands on Mr. Blake's
solution:

http://geekswithblogs.net/dtotzke/articles/26204.aspx

 

[Bill Meyer]

Hi Ken & Claymore
Thank You both for your Quick and helpful response! I will let you know
which way works the best and easiest.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi Ken & Claymore
Thank You both for your Quick and helpful response! I will let you know
which way works the best and easiest.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Claymore]

Hi Ken & Claymore
    Thank You both for your Quick and helpful response! I will let youknow
which way works the best and easiest.

Hello again Bill,

If you don't mind spending a few bucks, there's these:

http://www.dos2usb.com/?gclid=CPfNyayj1JICFQsrswodQDcFAA
$20US

http://www.printfil.com/english.htm?gclid=CIaE096j1JICFQezsgod8yt9-Q
79 euros

 

[Bill Meyer]

Hi Claymore
Thanks for the extras.

 

[Stan Brown]

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:40:10 -0700 from Ken Blake, MVP

Set up the printer as a shared printer
Issue the command
NET USE LPT1: \\computername\sharedprintername

Ken,

I tried this command:
net use lpt1: "\\TALLEYRAND\Brother HL5250-DN duplex"
and the response was
System error 67 has occurred.
The network name cannot be found.

What am I doing wrong? I got the computer name from the
%COMPUTERNAME% environment variable, and the printer name from the
Printer Properties dialog. I don't imagine the names are case
sensitive, but I matched the case exactly anyway.

I tried this both with the printer not connected and with the printer
connected.

 

[Rich/rerat]

Stan Brown,
Try renaming the printer in the Printer folder to less than 13 characters
without a space.
Brother HL5250-DN duplex gets changed to something like this:
BroHL5250
So the command becomes:
NET USE LPT1: \\computername\BroHL5250

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Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:40:10 -0700 from Ken Blake, MVP

Set up the printer as a shared printer
Issue the command
NET USE LPT1: \\computername\sharedprintername

Ken,

I tried this command:
net use lpt1: "\\TALLEYRAND\Brother HL5250-DN duplex"
and the response was
System error 67 has occurred.
The network name cannot be found.

What am I doing wrong? I got the computer name from the
%COMPUTERNAME% environment variable, and the printer name from the
Printer Properties dialog. I don't imagine the names are case
sensitive, but I matched the case exactly anyway.

I tried this both with the printer not connected and with the printer
connected.

 

[Stan Brown]

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:40:10 -0700 from Ken Blake, MVP

I tried this command:
net use lpt1: "\\TALLEYRAND\Brother HL5250-DN duplex"
and the response was
System error 67 has occurred.
The network name cannot be found.

What am I doing wrong? I got the computer name from the
%COMPUTERNAME% environment variable, and the printer name from the
Printer Properties dialog. I don't imagine the names are case
sensitive, but I matched the case exactly anyway.

I tried this both with the printer not connected and with the printer
connected.

Try renaming the printer in the Printer folder to less than 13
characters without a space.
Brother HL5250-DN duplex gets changed to something like this:
BroHL5250
So the command becomes:
NET USE LPT1: \\computername\BroHL5250

Is there any form of aliasing or nicknaming available? If I change
the name of my printer that's going to screw up several programs that
have different settings for different printers.

The "Printers and Faxes" dialog doesn't allow a copy/paste, and "Add
New Printer" has the "local printer" option grayed out for some
reason.

 

[Swifty]

Is there any form of aliasing or nicknaming available? If I change

the name of my printer that's going to screw up several programs that
have different settings for different printers.

I opened a command prompt and entered the command "net view". This
listed my PC and my laptop.

I took the PC's name (it has my printer) and entered:
"net view \\IBM-4ADGB085204"

Amongst the stuff listed:

Share name Type Used as Comment

 

[Stan Brown]

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:12:30 +0100 from Swifty

I opened a command prompt and entered the command "net view". This
listed my PC and my laptop.

Thanks for this. I think you've put your finger on the problem,
because with "net view" I get

System error 1060 has occurred.
The specified service does not exist as an installed service.

My printer is physically attached to my computer. Do I nevertheless
have to create some sort of pseudo network?

 

[Bill Meyer]

Hi Stan
Why not just add another printer to your system and make that one the
one you use. This would leave the other users being able to print to the old
one. I am the one that asked this original question and the net use command
solved the problem for me. Being from the old DOS programs I have many many
uses for these commands and try to keep my naming to no more than 8 letters
for naming devices just in case.
After everyone gave me the answer to my question I remembered that I
have a system that doesn't have a parallel port and I checked it, I was
using the same command that I had asked the question about. Out of sight,
out of mind. Remember to add that printer you might need administrator
rights on your system.

 

[Klaus Jorgensen]

Stan Brown wrote :

I tried this command:
net use lpt1: "\\TALLEYRAND\Brother HL5250-DN duplex"

To me, this looks like you are trying to reach the printer by its
driver name, and not the name defined in the sharing tab.


/klaus