Windows 2000 server having hard time serving printers

[Fran]

I have two networks where I have a low use Windows 2000 servers
working as centralized print servers. In some cases these servers hand
off jobs to small appliance printservers (e.g. Linksys EPS3 or LinkSys
PS-101)

While they work from the server the client computers get errors that
they cannot communicate with the server and an investigation on the
client side shows the printer unavailable and "cannot connect" yet
they have full network access and I can print from the server.

I'm not sure what else to look for on this. I want to have a low use
server take care of these print jobs but I need reliability.

Any thoughts on what I can do to stabilize my printers?

-Fran-

 

[Felix Maxa [MSFT]]

Is this in a domain?
Has your scenario stopped working as a result of an SP upgrade or QFE
install?
Can the clients access files on the W2k servers?
What OS/version do you have on your client machines?

 

[Fran]

Is this in a domain?

Yes, it is on a domain but it is not the domain controller

Has your scenario stopped working as a result of an SP upgrade or QFE install?

I don't think so. We moved the entire server room to a new floor but
other than venue, nothing for this server has changed.

Can the clients access files on the W2k servers?

Yes, clients can access files on this Win2K server without a problem.
And I can print FROM this server to any printer that it is hosting.

What OS/version do you have on your client machines?

All of the client machines are Windows 2000 Pro with SP4 and latest
(automated) updates from MS.

At one point it said that the print service was unavailable so I
restarted the server and that cleared things up (I have NO idea why
all of a sudden the print service became unavailable. Nothing in the
log file indicated a problem.)

Your help is appreciated, thanks!

<Fran>

 

[Felix Maxa [MSFT]]

This is very hard to troubleshoot without access to a debugger. I'd like to
know the error returned by the spooler when the clients call OpenPrinter.
But you'd need to attach the debugger to the spooler for that.

Stopping and starting the spooler doesn't help, right?

 

[Fran]

I haven't tried that yet. I did notice that certain spool jobs seem to
get stuck and I have no way to delete them. Perhaps if I stop and
restart the spool service that may release them?

How can I debug this type of issue?

 

[Felix Maxa [MSFT]]

A stuck job will not prevent you from accessing the print server remotely.
But restarting the spooler might. Let me know if it doesn't and we can look
into other ways to troubleshoot.