Users losing "Net use lpt1:". Why?

[Tony Girgenti]

Hello,

We have SBS2000 server and many users that share various printers. We use
the command "NET USE LPT1: \\SHARON\INVOICES /PERSISTENT:YES" at each of the
workstations that need to print invoices to sharon's printer. It seems to
work for a while(several days sometimes), but sometimes they can't print and
when i look at the NET USE, the printer is not captured anymore. We then
recapture it and we are fine for a while.

Why do we have to keep doing the NET USE command ? Shouldn't the capture
stay ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tony

 

[Net/Com]

Have you tried making a batch file with "NET USE LPT1: \\SHARON\INVOICES
/PERSISTENT:YES" and place it in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup. I have found this work on our network.
Another alternative is to create a new "Local Port" using \\SHARON\INVOICES
as the port name.

Dennis

 

[Chuck]

Hello,

We have SBS2000 server and many users that share various printers. We use
the command "NET USE LPT1: \\SHARON\INVOICES /PERSISTENT:YES" at each of the
workstations that need to print invoices to sharon's printer. It seems to
work for a while(several days sometimes), but sometimes they can't print and
when i look at the NET USE, the printer is not captured anymore. We then
recapture it and we are fine for a while.

Why do we have to keep doing the NET USE command ? Shouldn't the capture
stay ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tony

Tony,

Is SHARON a server? If not, it probably provides a limited amount of
connections. If SHARON were, for instance, running XP Pro, a limit of 10 users
could connect to the printer (or any other resource she shares). If everybody
connects, prints once, then stays connected (but doesn't print), no more than 10
people would ever be able to print.

Windows has an allowance for this - it lets you setup persistent connections
that expire after a while, when not used. This lets others connect and print.
Obviously, with a print job, no more than 1 job will be active at a time, so why
have 10 people connected and doing nothing?

One answer is to setup a print server, running a server OS. The queues go on
the server, which then can redirect the output to SHARON. Just setup print
server PRINTQUEUES with queue INVOICES, have users "NET USE LPT1:
\\PRINTQUEUES\INVOICES /PERSISTENT:YES", and have \\PRINTQUEUES\INVOICES
redirect to \\SHARON\INVOICES.

Dernnis's idea of printing directly to \\SHARON\INVOICES makes sense, too,
assuming that your invoices application supports printing to network queues
(\\SHARON\INVOICES is a network queue, as opposed to LPT1:, which is a local
(mapped) queue).

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.