Printing from AIX to Windows 2000 Professional

[Guest]

I am trying to print from an AIX machine to a plotter directly attached to a
Windows 2000 professional PC. I installed client services for unix (not sure
if this helps). On the AIX side, when I create a new queue, my options for
the queue are AIX ver 3 or 4, System V, AIX version 2 and LPR.

Can anyone please provide guidance if this is possible, any white papers
that show how this can be done.

I installed client services for Unix on a 2000 Server and had a AIX port
which i was able to map to the plotter, and am able to print. No such luck
with 2k pro.

Thanks in advance for your help.

DR

 

[Guest]

Just to clarify, there is no LPR option, BSD, System V, AIX under the print
queue options on the AIX box.

 

[Bruce Sanderson]

Sorry to take so long to respond, but I'm a bit confused.

If you install Print Services for Unix on a Windows computer, the "service"
called "TCP/IP Print Server" is installed. This service implements the LPD
capability, which will accept requests from an LPR client using the standard
lpr/lpd protocol.

So, if you have a UNIX computer (AIX is a UNIX variant as I understand
things), you should be able to use the lpr command to send print to any
printer defined on the Windows computer that has Print Service for Unix
installed. In the lpr command, specify the Name of the Printer, (not the
Share Name of the printer) as it is known on the Windows computer. This may
mean you have to change the Name of the Printer on the Windows computer so
it does not have any embedded spaces.

If the AIX computer can define a print queue to use LPR, you should be able
to use that to send print to the printer connected to the Windows computer.
The printer does not have to be "Shared" for this to work.

We've used this service for many years to send print (using lpr/lpd) from an
IBM mainframe (MVS) to printers connected to Windows computers and it works
quite well.

--
Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders

It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.