Standard TCP/IP Port vs. Network Printer

[David Levine]

In setting up systems for a public access lab in an AD domain
with a print queue server ...

What exactly is the difference between configuring a network printer for all
users (via reg hack or Default User modification) and mounting the same
printer to the system using a Standard TCP/IP port?

Would there be any reason not to use the local TCP/IP port in this lab
setting?

thanks, Dave

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I don't understand asking about TCP/IP versus network printer for all
users. Seems like apples versus oranges question to me. In my
experience, most stand-alone printers install via a TCP/IP port (custom
or Microsoft) and are accessed and controlled via a web browser to the
IP address. Most PC-attached shared printers install via the UNC path
install, since Windows is providing the print service and not the
printer itself.

In your case, you are using a print server which I assume is Windows
based, so I would expect you should use the UNC path option to access
it. If you choose the TCP/IP port, you will be bypassing your printer
queue and going directly to the stand-alone printer itself, assuming I
have guessed correctly about your configuration. You would access the
printer from the print queue server using TCP/IP, either HP or Microsoft
version.

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows

"David Levine" <david...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:#64vrxQA...@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

[David Levine]

Hi Kent,

Thanks for your response. Perhaps it is apples and oranges. That's what I'm
trying to figure out. I'm just stupid enough to mix them up (apples and
oranges that is).

I'm the desktop builder, not the network administrator, so I'm a little
ignorant about even the simplest network concepts ...

We do indeed share our workgroup printers on a Win2K server. The difference
I recently noticed is that if I set up a workstation to access a networked
printer via the Standard TCP/IP Port, that printer is immediately available
to all users on the system, including any new ones. However, any networked
printer that I select with the regular Add Printer wizard where the printer
is selected from a browse list or via its UNC path, that printer is only
available to the current user. Of course I have ways to get this printer
available to all users, but they're not as easy as the Standard TCP/IP Port
method.

When I set up lab computers, I need to point them to the printer located in
the lab and it needs to be available to all users (who are very much in a
hurry to print and get to class). I have several labs that have identical HD
images with the exception of the printer. My real goal to is to keep down
the number of images that I have to create and maintain.

If I'm understanding correctly what you wrote about the queue being
bypassed, then I would guess that that would be a bad thing in a student
computer lab, where many people are simultaneously sending jobs to the
printer. To lose the functionality of queuing on the server would not be
good. So I think you've answered my question, but it's not good news.

thanks again, Dave

"Kent W. England [MVP]" <k...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:uP3FhKTA...@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

I think we are together with respect to the difference between using the
print server or going directly to the stand-alone printer. However, your
issue is that the stand-alone printer is immediately accessible to all
users, but the print server is only available to the user that installed
it.

I would ask another question of the windowsxp printing group: "How do
you install the blah-blah print server software once so that all users
are granted access?"

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows

"David Levine" <david...@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:u7EQInTA...@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

[David Levine]

Thanks again, Kent. I had not noticed that group.

Dave

[Kent W. England [MVP]]

for the record, microsoft.public.windowsxp.print_fax

--
Kent W. England, Microsoft MVP for Windows

"David Levine" <david...@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:e8IkIycA...@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...