Win7 Shared Printer

[Diets]

Hi all

I (still) have a site with WINXP D3 7.2.

Requirement is to print out of D3 to a shared printer on a Win7 PC.

In D3:

dev-make -t ntprinter -n 39 -a "\\Win7PCName\PrinterShareName"
startptr 4,4,0,s39

Printer starts ok, indicating the shares etc. are correct, put "hangs"
the spooler trying to print to it, leaving the printer in an "active"
state. Seems as if the print job never gets to the Win7 PC.

Any help / ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks

Diets

[Douglas Tatelman]

Can't help much, except to say that I've had much better luck with
network printers, rather than those simply attached to a specific
PC.

[Tony Gravagno]

Can you print anything else from the XP to the W7 printer? Maybe using
notepad?

I have about 20% confidence in this statement but there could be a
permissions issue between XP and W7, maybe with the user ID under
which D3 is running not having permissions to write to the W7 device.

Or maybe there is a permission issue with D3 using the "local" printer
definition.

Are you sure the XP is using the correct driver for the printer?

Other than that, no clue. Please let us know what the solution is
when you find it.

Good luck.
T
(Always finding it interesting that people go to CDP first before the
TL/D3 forum or to TL Support...)

[x]

Depending on the printer setup, if the print job is small and fits in
the printer buffer then the printer may wait to get the buffer full or
to get a flush command.
Unless the flush command is something special (check printer manual),
appending CHAR(12), form-feed, to the print job would do the trick.
If doesn't work try also one of the following:
a) CHAR(4) <-- End of transmission
b) CHAR(23) <-- End of transmission block
c) CHAR(25) <-- End of medium
d) CHAR(28) <-- File separator

Lucian

[Ross Ferris]

Apart from permissions & setup issues as others have suggested, other
things I'd check/do

* confirm that this isn't a GDI printer ... if it needs Windows
drivers to work, then you need to add some "complexity" to the
situation

* If you are using Accuterm or similar, AND assuming you can print to
printer normally from XP, can/could you use AUX printing?

* Change pick config/device manager so that you define the printer
there (also change D# service so that it runs as ADMINISTRATOR -->
what type of network are we talking here ... Domain? Workgroup? What
version of Win7 are you running? Is XP and Win7 fully patched?

[Diets]

Hi guys,

Thank you for your comments / suggestions.

After trying everything, the mystery remains, so Tony, I think the
correct answer to this is:

- Install print servers, cheap and effective
- Install latest version of D3
- "Upgrade" to QM (which I think the user will do)

Cheers!

Diets

[Tony Gravagno]

Diets wrote:
>After trying everything, the mystery remains

Everything?

I'm a bit leary of "we don't know what the problem is, therefore we
will make major changes (at the customer's expense) and hope for the
best."

Did a non-D3 print from XP to W7 work?

Have you tried other printer configurations on W7 like LPR to send
output to a file rather than to a physical printer?

Have you called TigerLogic Support or your upline support provider?

Before upgrading the end-user's system (which, yes, should be done at
some point anyway) I recommend you load the latest D3 to some _other_
XP on their network and get a temporary activation to test. If you
can't get that to work then it doesn't make sense to upgrade their
primary system yet.

QM? Sure, but if you can't print from XP to W7 direct from Windows
then another DBMS won't help. If you can print through Windows, then
please let us know what your upline support tells you.

T

[x]

Is this a "windows" printer ?
If so, is it set to "raw" ?
Try changing it to "text".

Printer...
Properties
Advanced
Print processor

[Diets]

Tony, Lucian

Thanks for your continued responses. Part of the solution:

- Remove Win7 PC Home or Work Group membership
- Set the Public Network security Password protection to OFF.

This allows a shared printer to the WIn7 PC, but of course renders the
security in Win7 useless. It will be ok in a closed environment, but
I don't believe this is a permanent solution.

To repeat, the scenario is as follows:

- Win XP Professional runs as the "server", small network, 7 WinXp
PC's, 2 new Win7 PC's, some very old Wyse an HP terminals.
- D3 XP 7.2

My advice is still to upgrade the client.

Diets

[Tony Gravagno]

If I understand correctly, you have XP printing on W7 but not D3 yet.

Now that you have it that far, what does TL say?

Security issues aren't related to the DBMS. Consider contracting with
someone who advertises as a W7 spooler/printer expert. Your client
might do better to pay for an hour of someone else's time rather than
days of your time on this specific matter. I hope this fits with your
business model.

Recommend a new DBMS if you will but what's wrong with trying a new
DBMS in this topology before you do that? Be sure another DBMS
actually works before beginning a real migration effort.

Change the DBMS because of an unknown spooler issue? Sounds extreme
and I disagree with changing anything on that basis. If TL can't
resolve the current issue, I would try D3 v7.5 to see if the spooler
does a better job. TL should give you a temporary activation for use
on a different XP system just to see if it works.

That said, if the client is going to suffer fiscal hardship in
purchasing D3 licenses/support, it's worth it to consider another
DBMS. But be sure to count migration costs in addition to licenses in
the comparison of relative expenses.

I'll probably back out of this thread soon. I trust you're looking at
the various angles here, and just not being too specific in your
responses. But when you're not answering my questions it's difficult
to advise on the next step. Why do you bother presenting a problem to
a group if you're going to ignore the assistance you get and forge
ahead with a pre-determined resolution? Please, you're making it
tough here...

Good luck,
T