Would someone kindly explain HP Printer WinXP Home shareing syntax(printers & faxes dialog)?

[Danny D]

Can someone who knows HP printers on Windows XP Home explain?

I am trying to share an old printer across the wireless network.
This printer is an HP LaserJet 3200m and it's connected directly to a
Windows XP Home desktop PC.

All I want to do is share that printer across the home wireless network
(Linux and Windows laptops) using a simple name (for Linux especially) of
something like "printer".

Much to my chagrin, every time I rename my HP 3200m laserprinter in the
WinXP home printers-and-faxes dialog box to something normal, like
"printer", it keeps getting renamed on Windows XP Home to one or more of
the following after a reboot. This renaming is frustrating!
http://www1.picturepush.com/photo/a/13235679/img/13235679.gif

HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL6
HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL

Now, I'm all for brand names and the like, but nobody on the planet is
going to remember that, or want to call a printer those names. Especially
on Linux, where spaces and long useless stuff is considered bad form.

Plus, I don't even know what PCL means and I can't fathom why I'd care if
I had PCL6 versus PCL (and wish it would just go away and stay away).

I only have one printer in the entire house. All I want is for it to be
called "printer".

So, I guess my question is multifold (borne out of ignorance):
a. Why does "printer" keep being changed to "HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL6"?
b. What the heck is a PCL (and why should I care about PCL vs PCL6 anyway)?
c. Who put this stuff here anyway? (I simply plugged in the printer!)

Note: I'm the admin and the kids don't know how to add printers, so, if
it's all done wrong, blame me and me alone.

QUESTION:
Can someone who knows HP culture please explain what is going on?

Thanks!

 

[Danny D]

I only have one printer in the entire house.
All I want is for it to be called "printer".

Just to reiterate what I'm trying to accomplish:
a) I have only one printer (the HP 3200m)
b) It's hooked to only one PC (WinXP Home)
c) The house is on a wireless network (MSHOME)
d) All I want is for the printer to be called "printer".

Nothing more than that!
1. I don't want anything called "PCL".
2. I don't want TWO printers (which HP insists on installing!)
3. I don't want spaces in the name

On Linux, I simply want the printer to have a short path:
\\MSHOME\OFFICE\printer (i.e.,workgroup,machine-name,printer-name)

Is there any way to disable whatever it is on the HP printer driver setup
that insists on renaming the printer in the WinXP Home dialog box and
that insists on creating multiple printer entries on WinXP Home, and
which is preventing me from using very simple naming conventions?

http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/3235798/img/13235798.gif

 

[Danny D]

I simply want the printer to have a short path:
\\MSHOME\OFFICE\printer (i.e.,workgroup,machine-name,printer-name)

I just checked on another Windows XP Home machine, and the path is
horrible.

Start->Settings->Printers and Faxes
HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL6 on OFFICE

Why is it so miserable to simply call the thing "printer"?
The HP naming convention keeps coming back like a bad dream.

To be sure, it's probably all my fault - and - it's probably half
Windows' fault too - so I can't blame HP - but it's the HP printer that I
simply want to call "printer" and I want that to stay called "printer".

Should that be so difficult to accomplish?
Sigh. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Danny D.]

As for PCL6 that is the HP Printer Control Language level 6 (as compared
to say PCL5 or PCL level 5) it is the language that tells a computer how
to communucate and control printing on HP printers.

Thanks for the PCL explanation. I realize you don't have to help, and I
apologize, in advance, if my naming frustration leaks into my text.

I really just want *one* printer in the Windows main PC, and I just want
it to be called "printer".

Every time I delete the second printer, and rename the first, what comes
back are the two names, plus the first - and - worse yet - it kills the
remote printing setup.

So, in a way, I'm not sure if it's Windows or if it's the HP driver, but
*something* is forcing those two names (i.e., PCL & PCL6), by making it
miserable to simply have a single printer, called (duh) "printer".

 

[Danny D.]

If the printer hangs off a Windows XP PC and you want to share it, it
isn't a HP culture issue. Its a windows NT Share issue.
To access the printer from another computer it is
\\WinXP_Computer_Name\HP3200

Thanks for that advice. I don't disagree with your assessment that it's
Windows that the *other* machines on the network need to deal with.

I did try your suggestion and it worked fine, because I had selected one
of the HP printer entries (HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL6) to be shared as
"printer".

So, this worked (sort of) on a remote WinXP Home PC:
Start->Run->\\WinXP_Computer_Name\printer

That brought up the printer menu; but, due to Windows' culture, the
printer is actually named the horrific name below:

Start->Settings->Printers and Faxes
HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL6 on WinXP_Computer_Name

Oh well. Despite the unnecessarily complex names, at least the remote
printing worked!

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Danny D.]

Whether or not Linux can access a Windows Print Share I don't know.

If I connect the printer directly to RHEL6 Linux, I see the printer with
a crazy name in the "System->Administration->Printing" dialog box:
usb://HP/LaserJet%203200M
Where Linux automagically loaded the drivers named:
"HP LaserJet 3200m Postscript (recommended)"
And, where printing directly to the wired printer worked just fine.

Disconnecting the USB wire, wireless is a bit more effort on Linux,
as you need to use the remote address of:
smb://[WORKGROUP/]server[ort]/printer
Which, in my case, simplifies to:
smb://WORKGROUP/MACHINE-NAME/PRINTER-NAME
So, in my case, hopefully this turns into:
smb://MSHOME/OFFICE/printer

Of course, I opened up the default RHEL6 firewall:
System->Administration->Firewall
Where I needed to enable the "Samba Client" as a trusted service.

It's not working yet from Linux, but in time, it will.
The frustrating thing is that I can get it to work as "printer" but then
the minute I reboot the Windows XP Home machine, the HP drivers kick in
to add the PCL and PCL6 names, and then remote printing fails on Linux
again.

So it's a vicious loop between Windows, HP, and Linux.

 

[Danny D.]

Which, in my case, simplifies to:
smb://WORKGROUP/MACHINE-NAME/PRINTER-NAME
So, in my case, hopefully this turns into:
smb://MSHOME/OFFICE/printer
It's not working yet from Linux, but in time, it will.

OK. I got it to print from Linux to the printer over the air.

One key correction is that the SAMBA syntax is not:
smb://WORKGROUP-NAME/MACHINE-NAME/PRINTER-NAME
But, actually:
smb://WORKGROUP-NAME/MACHINE-NAME/SHARE-NAME
Where, in my case, the variables on WinXP Home are:
WORKGROUP-NAME = MSHOME
MACHINE-NAME = OFFICE
SHARE-NAME = printer
And:
PRINTER-NAME = HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL 6

I'm deathly afraid of touching anything at this point, so, I'll leave the
crazy HP names in the Windows world of:
HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL 6 --> shared simply as "printer"
HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL --> who knows why this keeps coming back?

 

[DJT]

Thanks for the PCL explanation. I realize you don't have to help, and I
apologize, in advance, if my naming frustration leaks into my text.

I really just want *one* printer in the Windows main PC, and I just want
it to be called "printer".

Every time I delete the second printer, and rename the first, what comes
back are the two names, plus the first - and - worse yet - it kills the
remote printing setup.

So, in a way, I'm not sure if it's Windows or if it's the HP driver, but
*something* is forcing those two names (i.e., PCL & PCL6), by making it
miserable to simply have a single printer, called (duh) "printer".

It is highly likely that you cannot use the name printer as it is a
protected word. What you need to do use a short name with no spaces eg
hp3200.

In some circumstances you can have a space but it is safer with one
word

Djt

 

[Danny D]

It is highly likely that you cannot use the name printer as it is a
protected word. What you need to do use a short name with no spaces eg
hp3200.

Thanks for sticking with me. That advice may be why every time I switch
the name that shows up on Windows XP Home from "HP LaserJet 3200 Series
PCL 6" to "printer", after rebooting, I end up with a *third* printer,
named, you guessed it, "HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL 6".

I will try to switch it to "hp3200m" because something is really
desperate to see "HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL 6", but it's not me.

you can have a space but it is safer with one word

I'm all about short lower-case single-word names!

If I had my way, it would work like this:
a. There would be only one printer listed in WinXP Home.
b. That printer would show up as "printer" (or "hp3200m").
c. It would be shared as "printer" (or "hp3200m").

It would be *that simple* if I had my way.

On networked Windows machines, it would show up as:
\\machine\printer (or \\machine\hp3200m)
On Linux, it would show up as:
smb://workgroup/machine/printer (or smb://workgroup/machine/hp3200m)

But, it doesn't seem like I'm running the show here:
1. Windows keeps renaming my printer to "HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL 6"
2. HP keeps adding a useless 2nd printer "HP LaserJet 3200 Series PCL"