Problem connecting to shared printers

[Sam]

When a normal user tries to connect to some of our shared network printers
they get the following message "A policy is in effect on your computer which
prevents you from connecting to this print queue."

There are no such policies (local or AD) in effect. Some machines that were
ghosted at the same time as these problem machines have no problem. Also it
seems to be inconsitent. If you go back to one of these problem machines at
a later time, some of them will connect fine.

If I log on as an administrator and install the drivers first then the
normal user can connect fine. So it seems to be a download issue and not a
policy issue.


It is a very frustrating problem for non-admin users.

Please advise. Searching the web to date has proven worthless.

 

[Sam]

I disabled Point and Print restrictions on these problem machines and was
able to connect to the shared printer. This was a patch but does not answer
the original question since the shared printer is in the same forrest as the
workstations.

 

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

The policy was first introduced in XP SP1. If the DC is NT 4 the forest
trust query would fail, this was addressed in SP2.

When the driver is included in XP or already installed, the client does not
need to download and install software from the server so the connection is
created.

You can configure the policy at the domain level so it applies to all
clients.

You made a comment that you are using ghosted images, how are the machines
joined to the domain? There may be an issue with the machine security ID
that's causing a problem since you made the statement that it will work on
the failing machine at a later time.

I hope I've cleared up some of the mystery regarding the "Don't download the
print driver from the server it I'm not sure about the software" policy.


--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Sam]

The domain is Windows 2003 not NT4. CID's were changed using ghost walker
before joing the domain. Never had this problem in the past.