Printer pooling for printing from DOS programs?

[Steven Latus]

I use one old DOS accounting program (One-Write Plus 4.6 - I need to run
it to access files that some clients provide to me) and I wish to print
reports from this program to my HP PSC 950 multifunction printer that is
connected to the USB port on my PC. I am running Windows XP Home on a
Dell Dimension 4400 (P4 at 1.7 GHz & 512 MB DDR SDRAM).

The program allows printer output to go only to a parallel or serial
printer port. My printer has a connection for USB only. I have LPT1
selected in the DOS program so when I go to print, the program freezes
and I have to bring up the Task Manager and end the program. No print
job is ever received by the printer (natch).

From all that I have seen on MS's site and others, the only options I
have are to enable printer-sharing or to use a third-party utility. I
experimented with my printer settings and found that if I enable printer
pooling from the Ports tab and select LPT1 in addition to the port
already there for USB, I can print from the DOS program as well as
Windows programs.

Since this seems like much too simple a solution <G> and since I have
not seen this approach mentioned anywhere as a way to allow printing for
DOS programs to a USB printer, I am curious as to any drawbacks or
cautions that printer pooling may entail. I have only the one printer.

Any comments or suggestions would be gratefully acknowledged.

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

Very interesting; thanks for posting this information.

Printer pooling is normally used when there are two or more identical
printers in a "pool". When a print request arrives at the "printer" that
has pooling enabled, it is sent to which ever printer happens to be idle.

If you have a printer connected to the parallel port (LPT1), share it, then
map it to LPT1 (using net use lpt1: \\computer\printer), and send something
to the printer, the print spooler goes into a loop adding the document to
the "printer" over and over without actually ever printing anything.

Perhaps what you are seeing is a variation of the above behaviour, whether
intended or not.

I currently do not have access to a USB connected printer, so I can't
experiment with this process directly.

I'll add the "pooling" concept to my DOS printing page at
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/printfromdos.htm and see what kind of
feedback we get in this newsgroup.