Remote desktop printing over VPN

  • Thread starter Thread starter chad
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chad

I am using Remote Desktop to work on my office computer
from my home computer. I am running this over VPN Tunnel.
I have created a special VPN_Group in my PIX that will
allow me to have the same IP address every time I
connect. I also have an hp 4300 printer at home that I
want to be able to print to from my office computer. So I
shared the HP 4300 and I connected to my office computer
with Remote Desktop. I then installed the printer on my
office computer and sent a test page with no problem.

I know what you are thinking! Why didn't he just edit the
Remote Desktop connection, click on the Local Resources
Tab and select printers? Well I tried that but it never
added my printer so I decided to just install it as a
network printer. If I could fix this part I would't need
the next part.

So now for the hard part!

On my office computer I have a cannon printer as my
default printer and I now have my HP 4300 as a secondary
printer. I would like to somehow make my HP 4300 the
default as soon as I connect using Remote Desktop. Is
there any way to make this happen?
 
Since you added the printer manually have you tried
clicking the Local Printer option in the Remote Desktop
settings? Now that you have added it remotely maybe it
will recognize it when you connect, and by default with
that Printer option checked in the remote desktop settings
it makes your local printer the default printer while you
are logged on.
 
I like anonymous' suggestion. If the driver wasn't available when you first
tried this, and is now, it may just work.

OTOH, do a google search for an MSKB article using the keys DOT4 and XP and
RDP.

I'm unclear whether the regedit in this article will allow networked
printers to be redirected or not. Can you try it out (you must reboot after
making the registry change) and let us know?
 
Sorry to hear that.

I do see peer-to-peer shared printers redirected, but I haven't tested from
a location with a direct IP-connected printer to see what works or doesn't.

I don't think I know of any way to do your original request via simple batch
scripts. I would think that resetting the default printer would be within
the grasp of Windows Scripting Host, but don't know how to get that
information--you might try a newsgroup devoted to scripting. Once you have
a script, you could set a button on the desktop to do it manually (by visual
prompt) when you connect, or you may be able to figure out a way to set it
to execute as you connect and disconnect.
 
It is my experience that printer redirection is a hit or miss affair. It may
depend on whether your remote computer is behind a firewall or not, and it
may depend on the printer driver manufacturere. Generally speaking, I have
heard that a great number of printer synchronization issues are resolved when
the server is updated to Windows Server 2003 so that none of the registry
hacking has to be done.
 
Chad--I've been asleep at the switch on this one.

See this KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q264/0/39.asp&NoWebContent=1

If I read this correctly, your solution is to pick a local LPT port which
isn't in use. Do a Net Use to that port to connect the networked printer
via a local LPT name. Install a driver to use that port. Then RDP should
redirect that port to the host and it should all work.

Let me know--this seems like a simple solution.
 
I don't think it is too arcane, and I don't believe updating the host to
Server 2003 changes which port types are redirected at the client end, which
is the issue here, I think.

However, I have heard folks say that it started working when they updated
printer drivers at the client end, which is confusing. I suspect this means
that the driver description string then matched the one available at the
host, so it all worked. The unmatching situation should be diagnosable via
System event log messages at the host, but not many folks know to look for
those.
 
That is exactly the article I found. Somehow I even managed to use the net
use command on lpt3 and assigned the server name as the "hostname" of the
print server installed in my Brother DCP 8025D. For the printer share name I
used an IP address...I think. Anyway, I had it working; but after installing
SP2, I seem to have lost my way of setting it up again. The IP address is no
longer being accepted as a recieve a message:

"The network resource type is not correct."

I'm scratching my head now on how I managed to get the lpt3 to assign to a
printer where the print server is attached (and the DHCP server is my MS
MN-500 base station.)
 
I figured it out...but I thought I retried this already. Here is the command
I used to make it work.

"net send lpt3 \\brn_375fab\binary_p1 /persistent:yes"

where "brn_375fab" is the hostname of the print server (which I can go to
the LAN options of the printer's console and modify the hostname if I want)

and where "binary_p1" is the default printer share name found by the print
server.

After wards, I go to Properties on the printer and change the Port to
"LPT3". For some reason the "binary_p1" printer does not appear as assigned
to LPT3 while searching for ports to assign to any printer. Wierd.

But, hey, it works!
 
Glad you got the syntax right in the end.

Ralph Howarth said:
I figured it out...but I thought I retried this already. Here is the
command
I used to make it work.

"net send lpt3 \\brn_375fab\binary_p1 /persistent:yes"

where "brn_375fab" is the hostname of the print server (which I can go to
the LAN options of the printer's console and modify the hostname if I
want)

and where "binary_p1" is the default printer share name found by the print
server.

After wards, I go to Properties on the printer and change the Port to
"LPT3". For some reason the "binary_p1" printer does not appear as
assigned
to LPT3 while searching for ports to assign to any printer. Wierd.

But, hey, it works!
Click to expand...
 
This seems to be a good solution for recovering a printer redirection
capability after SP2, for some reason, chokes the redirection to a networked
printer of the client computer.

1) Start, Printer and Faxes to reach the Printer and Faxes console, and
Delete your printer from Printer and Faxes. (click and hit Delete, or
right-click and click Delete from the pop menu.)
2) Start, Run, type cmd, OK.
3) Type "net use <target_localport> /delete" and hit Enter
where <target_localport> is an available LPT port not in use by a physical
or logical printer.
4) Type "net use <target_localport> \\servername\printername
/persistent:yes" and hit Enter.
5) Add Printer from the Printer and Faxes console and choose Next, and then
choose "Local printer attached to this computer".
6) Clear the "Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer"
check box and choose Next.
7) "Use the following port:" should be already checked and select your
<target_localport> among the LPTs in the drop down list and choose Next.
8) Choose Manfuacturer and Printer in the Install Printer Software step and
Choose Next.
9) "Keep existing driver (recommended) should already be selected and choose
Next.
10) Assign a Printer Name or accept the name given. Keep "Yes" on "Do you
want to use this printer as the default printer?" if printer redirection is
desired to always print to that printer. If not, else choose "No" and choose
Next.

***Note that, the next time you RDP on a server, it will instead use any
default LPT printer on you client computer first, and if there is none that
it can redirect to, then it will use the default printer set up on the
terminal server, which will likely be a remote printer, so be careful in
choosing a default printer that uses an LPT port to ensure you do not
accidently send a print job to a remote printer / wrong printer.

11) Under Printer Sharing, generally just choose Next to keep "Do not share
this printer" since it is a printer on the network and not your local machine.
12) Choose Next to accept "Yes" to print a test page and then choose Finish.

Upon test page completed, your next terminal services session will perfrom
printer redirection to your default LTP assigned network printer locally from
the remote server as long as the terminal server has the same driver
installed remotely.

Knowldeg Base pages used to formulate this solution:

<parent page>
Printer Redirection Architecture in Windows Server Terminal Services
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;294429

<child pages>
Windows 2000 Terminal Services does not redirect network printers
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;264039

How To Manually Add a Redirected Client Printer Using Terminal Services
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;243552
 
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