NT Administration Notes Introduction Users Groups Admin Shares NTFS Printing 1 Printing 2 Auditing Monitoring Backup

Introduction to Windows NT Printing

Windows NT Printing Requires:

• Print Server running Windows NT Server or WS. The printer is installed on the print server.

In Windows NT, a printer is the software interface between the application and the print device. A Print device is the actual hardware device that produces printed output.

• Local print device = print device attached locally to the print server.
• Network interface print device = print device plus network card directly attached to the network.

Users can print from computers in NT network that are running the following operating systems:
 

Windows NT Windows 95 Windows for Workgroups Windows 3.1 MS DOS

LAN Manager 2.x OS/2 Netware Unix Macintosh

• No Access
• Print (default)
• Manage Documents
• Full Control

• Verify that print device is on the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
• Log on as a user with Administrator privileges.
• Members of these groups can add or share a printer
• They have also Full Control print permission and can administer printers.

 Add a printer -- this installs the printer driver on the print server

• Share a printer

By default the permission assigned is EVERYONE   PRINT
 

Options which must be defined during setup:

My computer	The computer designated as the print server
Available ports	specify the local part attached to the print device
Manufacturers/Printers	install correct print drivers
Printer name	name printer
Default printer	designate default so user doesn't have to. This is automatic if it is the first printer on the print server
Shared	makes it possible to connect over the network
Share name	name users see in nethood
Operating Systems	identify types of clients that will use printer; then appropriate print devices will be installed on print server
Test page	prints test page

 

• Printer properties 6 tabs, which are:

1. General
2. Ports
3. Scheduling (Permissions, Auditing, Ownership)
4. Sharing
5. Security
6. Device settings

Again, by default the group Everyone is assigned the Print permission.
 

This is the dialog box seen by default when you click the Print Processor button:

This is the dialog box seen by default when you click the Permissions button: 

There are 3 classes of network clients:

• Windows 95 and Windows NT based clients.
• Once you shared a printer you don't need to do anything further. The user only needs to connect to the printer.
• Other Microsoft based clients
• a driver needs to be installed locally on the client computer

1. MS-DOS
2. OS/2 (with LAN Manager Client 2.2 c installed)
3. LAN Manager 2.x
4. Windows 3.1
5. Windows for Workgroups

• Non Microsoft-based clients

You have to you 2 things:

• Install a service
• Install the printer driver on the client computer

• The print server must have a service installed on it:

• Then a printer driver must be locally installed on the client computer

Clients running Windows NT and Windows 95

• Each time a Windows NT based client reconnects, if driver is not current, a copy of the new driver is downloaded. This automatically keeps the driver current.

• Printer driver in Windows 95 based clients is not automatically kept current. It must be manually installed every time the print device is updated on the server.

• A printer pool is one printer connected to multiple print devices through multiple ports of the print server.
• A printer pool decreases the time that documents wait in the print queue. They are also easier to manage because there is one printer, not multiple printers for multiple print devices
• The user prints a document without having to find out which print device is available because the printer checks for an available port.

1. Set available printing times. -- Large documents print after hours
2. Set priorities between printers.-- Critical documents print first
3. Change how the printer processes documents -- Larger documents start printing before print process is completely finished

Lowest Priority -  1....................................Highest Priority -  99

This makes it possible for you to set priorities between groups of documents. This requires that you do the following:

• Connect two or more printers to the same print device. These printers must:
• Be on the same printer.
• Use the same port to connect to the print device (port can be either a physical port on the print server or the UNC name of a network printer)

Set a different priority for each printer connected to the print device. Then, for example, executives can print to the higher priority printer.

NOTE: in Windows NT printing, there is a SPOOLER on the print server. The spooler processes and schedules documents. Spooling is the process of storing documents on the hard disk, and then sending them to the printer.
 

• If a print device has multiple trays that hold different types of forms, you can assign a form to a paper tray.
• "Form" refers to the paper size and type
• the default form setting for a paper tray is NOT AVAILABLE

• To access dialog box, click Separator Page on the General Tab

1. To identify and separate printed documents.
2. To switch print devices between the different print modes, as shown in the following table. Print modes process documents into a format that the print device understands.

Windows NT includes three separator page files (LOCATED IN: Winnt\System32):

1. Sysprint.sep: prints a page before each document. Compatible with PostScript printing devices.
2. Pcl.sep: Switches the printing mode to PCL for HP-series printing devices and prints a page before each document.
3. Pscript.sep: Switches the printing mode to PostScript for HP-series printing devices, but doesn't print a page before each document.

Top of page

Comments and suggestions? E-mail me at grantwilson21@yahoo.com I'm sorry, but I can't answer specific network-related, or exam-related questions.
Last Updated: August 6, 2001	Grant Wilson, Edmonton, AB Canada