Re: new workstation lacking parallel port poses printing challenge

[John B]

There is one available PCI expansion slot. I suppose I could buy a parallel
printer port card (assuming they are still available), and plug it in there.
That would provide a printer port...which nobody will connect to.

Is there some software way to do this?

[John B]

I'm supporting a Netware 4.11 + sp9 small business network, which long ago
had a custom DOS-like database application written to manage rental
activities. The app allows the user to print out lists of things rented,
etc. It has been working very well for years. There are several
workstations, some DOS, some Windows XP, etc., and they all share the rental
database resident in the Netware 4.11 file server.

I have had various networked printers, starting with parallel-port lasers.
More recently I have had a large Canon printer that connects directly via
our Ethernet_802.2 IPX (as well as IP) intranet. In other words, this
printer works both for Windows programs, which use IP, and for our rental
program, which uses IPX.

What's the problem, then?

An important Windows 2000 Pro workstation died, and I replaced it with a new
Windows XP Pro workstation. This new Dell computer HAS NO PRINTER PORT. I
have YET to tinker with this, as I am hoping to get this request for help
posted as soon as possible.

All my workstation computers "CAPTURE" print jobs that the rental program
"thinks" are going to LPT ports. Once these jobs get into various queues, I
have no problem getting them into printed hard copy. The problem NOW is to
fool the DOS-like rental program, which will be running on the new Dell
computer, into seeing some kind of a parallel port that doesn't exist.

I suppose I could launch a major effort into modifying the BIOS of a Dell
computer, but I am hoping there must be a better way!

Can "net use" be of any assistance?
Can Unix "lpt" printing be of any assistance?
It is not likely this rental application can be chanaged. I am not the
author.

I read another thread regarding an "opposite" predicament. It won't help
me, then, to buy a USB->LPT adapter box, because what's important here is
NOT to actually connect a printer to this workstation computer, but to
supply something (a faux LPT port) that can be captured inside this
workstation.

Any ideas most welcome.

Thank you.

John B

[Barry Schnur]

Ebay is your friend:

http://cgi.ebay.com/High-Speed-Parallel-Port-PCI-Printer-I-O-
Card_W0QQitemZ230095734914QQihZ013QQcategoryZ41993QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrd
Z1QQcmdZViewItem

--
Barry Schnur
Novell Support Connection Volunteer Sysop

[John B]

Well, Dell lied. And that is a good thing, I guess.

Despite their telling me there would be no printer port, there IS, in fact,
a printer port. In BIOS, it was configured for PS/2, so I changed that spec
to EPP.

I called two local stores, and found no available expansion cards for
parallel printers. This notion is disappearing rapidly. I did find supply
available by mail order. I wonder how long it will be before no such cards
are available?

So any tips on "faux LPT ports" are still of interest.

Thanks.
John

"John B" <j...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:1VkFh.2673$ra4....@prv-forum2.provo.novell.com...

[Davide Guolo]

John,

> I wonder how long it will be before no such cards
> are available?
>
> So any tips on "faux LPT ports" are still of interest.

you may want to have a look at Printfil, which can capture LPT output
and forward it to file or directly to a Windows printer, even if no
LPT ports are physically available on the Windows machine.

You can find more info and a free trial version to download at
http://www.printfil.com

Regards,
Davide
aSwIt s.r.l.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Printfil - Windows Printing System for Applications
http://www.printfil.com
Odbc4All - Connection to ODBC Data Sources for any Application
http://www.aswit.com/odbc4all
@Kill - Batch Close Windows Applications - Freeware
http://www.aswit.com/akill
--------------------------------------------------------------

[John B]

This is neat. But I think the all-important DOS-like custom application
rigidly prints only to LPT1.
In the absence of a real LPT1, I need to find a "faux LPT1."

Over the weekend, I'll look at this utility..."printfil."

Thanks very much!

"Davide Guolo" <gu...@guolo.com> wrote in message
news:1172709078....@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...

[John B]

I'm admittedly rusty on all this, and I never mastered NDPS printing. I
have read that it was invented mainly to streamline administration; the
older method, queue printing, is supposedly messy to administer for large
networks.

I seem to recall that absent an "NPRINT" command of some text file, directly
to a queue (or perhaps printer), the only way to get a DOS print job into a
queue is to "capture" a parallel (or legacy serial) port. Can you confirm
this supposition?

So if a computer has no parallel port, I suppose I could capture a legacy
serial port?

What features in Netware must one adopt, at a minimum, to circumvent the
whole idea of capture? I remember that, under Windows, printer icons exist,
to which a user might direct a print job. But those are all essentially
parallel (or legacy serial) port targets, aren't they...(tantamount to
capture)?

Does NDPS mitigate this dependency on parallel and legacy serial ports?

Does any version of Netware honor USB printing? Of DOS-like programs?

Thanks,
John

[Steve Urbach]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 20:23:14 GMT, "John B" <j...@nospam.com> wrote:

>Well, Dell lied. And that is a good thing, I guess.
>
>Despite their telling me there would be no printer port, there IS, in fact,
>a printer port. In BIOS, it was configured for PS/2, so I changed that spec
>to EPP.
>
>I called two local stores, and found no available expansion cards for
>parallel printers. This notion is disappearing rapidly. I did find supply
>available by mail order. I wonder how long it will be before no such cards
>are available?
>
>So any tips on "faux LPT ports" are still of interest.

Capture works on "virtual" LPT ports under Windows.
DOS applications usually only understand LPT1-3.
I have been using DOS applications (Paradox DOS 4.5) with networked
printers (rprinter mode) serviced by Print Queues on everything from
MSDOS6 to XPpro. Networked Printers include HP Jetdirect connected
Brother Network connected under NW 4.2 (IPX). Both Brothers and HP's
management tools work.

Steve U

[Peter Kuo]

You looked at this? http://www.dos2usb.com/

--

Peter
eDirectory Rules!
(ssAegis powering up to 65% ...)

[Barry Schnur]

OK wait, my bad on this -- you have NW 4.11 -- NDPS is NW 5.0 and up.
With NetWare 4.11 there was a transition from Queue based printing to
NDS printing -- but that won't do what you are looking to do.

Given that the constraint is the DOS rental program, I'm thinking that
unless you have a real parallel port you won't be able to get what you
need. Hence the suggestion regarding purchase of a PCI parallel
printer card (and the pointer to an ebay offering for it).

The other problem here is on the OS side -- the nprinter utility got a
basically non-supported tweak to handle offering it the NetWare network
under Windows NT. I think it worked for some folks under Win2K. I
don't think it worked for anyone under Windows XP.

The workaround on that side would be to share the printer out via a
Windows shared printer (net use) approach - but keeping that DOS
program happy is going to entail having a parallel port for it to work
with.

[Barry Schnur]

Wait, if the DOS program needs an LPT1 -- is there another printer on
the Novell network which is available? If there is, you can capture to
LPT1 from any workstation on the network.

[John B]

Intriguing. "Virtual LPT."
I must be gone for two days, then I will look into this further.
My DOS-like application rigidly demands the presence of LPT1 on any given
workstation where this application is being run, for all print jobs.
Suppose said workstation's BIOS is changed to "blind" the OS of the presence
of said computer's motherboard-resident printer port. Can you visualize a
way to trick my application into thinking that an LPT1 is present?

"Steve Urbach" <drago...@NOTmindspring.com> wrote in message
news:8gdcu2hp2fc81oj98...@4ax.com...

[John B]

I gave up on rprinter and nprinter years ago. I have been using external
print servers, connected to the intranet, ever since. These servers
accommodate both IPX and IP printing, flawlessly, until they fail. It
typically takes a couple of years before failure...

I'm with you in thinking a physical LPT1 must be present, for my antiquated
application. But a couple of others (Kuo and Urbach) in this posting, have
introduced some ideas worth exploring.
"Barry Schnur" <BSc...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:MPG.20500e51f...@support-forums.novell.com...

[John B]

Exciting! Will look into this...
Thanks!

"Peter Kuo" <Pe...@Novell.Product.Support.Forums> wrote in message
news:xn0f3084...@support-forums.novell.com...

[Peter Kuo]

And I wouldn't expect it to as it is really an 'adaptor' rather than a
"converter" ... much like those external harddisk enclosures that allows
you to "plug" an IDE drive into a USB port (which doesn't give you an IDE
controller per se).