Chapter 16 - Administering Network Printers and Print Services

  • Article

As an administrator, you need to do two main things so users throughout a network can access print devices connected to a Microsoft Windows 2000 workstation or server: you need to set up a workstation or server as a print server, and you need to use the print server to share print devices on the network.

This chapter covers the basics of setting up shared printing and accessing it from the network. You'll also find advice on administering printers and troubleshooting printer problems, which is where we'll begin. The chapter doesn't examine Internet printing.

Note: In Windows 2000 the terms used for printers and print devices are slightly different than the conventional ones. In Windows 2000 a print device is the actual hardware device that produces printed output. Print devices attached locally to print servers are known as local print devices. Print devices attached directly to a network are referred to as network interface print devices. A printer, on the other hand, is the software interface between the operating system and the print device. Printers are installed on print servers. Further, it's important to note that in documentation and dialog windows, these terms are sometimes used as if they're interchangeable. If this happens, focus on whether the developers are referring to a physical device (a print device) or a software interface (a printer).

On This Page

Troubleshooting Printer Problems Installing Printers Configuring Printer Properties Configuring Print Server Properties Managing Print Jobs on Local and Remote Printers

Troubleshooting Printer Problems

An understanding of how printing works can go a long way when you're trying to troubleshoot printer problems. When you print documents, many processes, drivers, and devices work together so that the documents are printed. If you use a printer connected to a printer server, the key operations are as follows:

  • Printer driver When you print a document in an application, your computer loads a printer driver. If the print device is attached to your computer physically, the printer driver is loaded from a local disk drive. If the print device is located on a remote computer, the printer driver may be downloaded from the remote computer.

    The availability of printer drivers on the remote computer is configurable by operating system and chip architecture. If the computer can't obtain the latest printer driver, it's probably because an administrator hasn't enabled the driver for the computer's operating system. For more information, see the section of this chapter entitled "Managing Printer Drivers."

  • Local print spool and print processor The application you're printing from uses the printer driver to translate the document into a file format understandable by the selected print device. Then your computer passes the document off to the local print spooler. The local spooler in turn passes the document to a print processor, which creates the raw print data necessary for printing on the print device.

  • Print router and print spooler on the print server The raw data is passed back to the local print spooler. If you're printing to a remote printer, the raw data is then routed to the print spooler on the print server. On Windows 2000 systems, the printer router, WINSPOOL.EXE, handles the tasks of locating the remote printer, routing print jobs, and downloading printer drivers to the local system, if necessary. If any one of these tasks fails, the print router is usually the culprit. See the sections of this chapter entitled "Solving Spooling Problems" and "Setting Printer Access Permissions" to learn possible fixes for this problem. If these procedures don't work, you may want to replace or restore WINSPOOL.EXE.

    The main reason for downloading printer drivers to clients is to provide a single location for installing driver updates. This way, instead of having to install a new driver on all the client systems, you install the driver on the print server and allow clients to download the new driver. For more information on working with printer drivers, see the section of this chapter entitled "Managing Printer Drivers."

  • Printer (print queue) The document goes from the print spooler into the printer stack—which in some operating systems is called the print queue—for the selected print device. Once in the queue, the document is referred to as a print job—a task for the print spooler to handle. The length of time the document waits in the printer stack is based on its priority and position within the printer stack. For more information, see the section of this chapter entitled "Scheduling and Prioritizing Print Jobs."

  • Print monitor When the document reaches the top of the printer stack, the print monitor sends the document to the print device, where it's actually printed. If the printer is configured to notify users that the document has been printed, you see a message confirming this.

    The specific print monitor used by Windows 2000 depends on the print device configuration and type. The default monitor is LOCALMON.DLL. You may also see monitors from the print device manufacturer, such as HPMON.DLL, which is used with most Hewlett-Packard print devices. This DLL (dynamic link-library) is required to print to the print device. If it's corrupted or missing, you may need to reinstall it.

    Print device The print device is the physical device that prints documents on paper. Common print device problems and display errors include

    • Insert Paper Into Tray X Print device is looking for paper in a specific tray. Add paper to it.

    • Low Toner When a laser print device gets low on toner, you may need to remove the toner cartridge, shake it several times, and put it back into the print device. Shaking the cartridge moves the toner around and sometimes allows you to print additional documents.

    • Out Of Paper Print device is out of paper (or thinks it is). Add paper.

    • Out Of Toner; Out Of Ink Print device is out of toner or ink. Replace the toner cartridge or ink cartridge.

    • Paper Jam Paper is stuck in the print device. Open the print device, remove the jammed paper, and then put the print device back on line.

    • Printer Off-Line Print device may be warming up or initializing. If so, the print device should come online when finished. Otherwise, you'll need to put the print device back online using the print device control buttons.

Group policy can affect your ability to install and manage printers. If you're having problems and believe they are related to group policy, the key policies you'll want to examine are those in

  • Computer Configuration\Printers

  • User Configuration\Control Panel\Printers

  • User Configuration\Start Menu & Taskbar

Installing Printers

The following sections examine techniques you can use to install printers. Windows 2000 allows you to install and manage printers anywhere on the network. You install and manage printers through the Printers folder. On a local system, you access this folder by clicking Start, choosing Settings, and then selecting Printers. On a remote system, you can access this folder through My Network Places. In My Network Places, access a domain, select a computer whose printer settings you want to manage, and then double-click Printers.

Using Local and Network Printers

Two types of print devices are used on a network:

  • Local print device A print device that's physically attached to the user's computer and employed only by the user who's logged on to that computer.

  • Network print device A print device that is set up for remote access over the network. This can be a print device attached directly to a print server or a print device attached directly to the network through a network adapter card.

You install new network printers on print servers or as separate print devices attached to the network. A print server is a Windows 2000 workstation or server that is configured to share one or more printers. These printers can be physically attached to the computer or the network.

Any Windows 2000 workstation or server can be configured as a print server. The primary job of the print server is to share the print device out to the network and to handle print spooling. The main advantages of print servers are that the printer will have a centrally managed print queue and you don't have to install printer drivers on client systems.

Note: Print servers on Windows 2000 Professional are limited to 10 concurrent connections from other computers and don't support printing from Macintosh or NetWare clients.

You don't have to use a print server, however. You can connect users directly to a network-attached printer. When you do this, the network printer is handled much like a local printer attached directly to the user's computer. The key differences are that multiple users can connect to the printer and that each user will have a different print queue. Each individual print queue is managed separately, which can make administration and problem resolution difficult.

To install or configure a new printer, you must be a member of one of the privileged groups shown in Table 16-1.

Table 16-1 Groups Who Can Configure Printers, According to System Type

Group

Windows 2000 Professional

Windows 2000 Server

Administrators

X

X

Power Users

X

 

Print Operators

 

X

Server Operators

 

X

To connect to and print documents to the printer, you must have the appropriate access permissions. See the section of this chapter entitled "Setting Printer Access Permissions" for details.

Installing Print Devices on a Local or Remote Print Server

You install a print device on a print server by completing the following steps:

  1. Access the Printers folder on the computer you want to configure as a print server. On a local system, you access this folder by clicking Start, choosing Settings, and then selecting Printers. On a remote system, you can access this folder through My Network Places. In My Network Places, access a domain, select a computer whose printer settings you want to manage, and then double-click Printers.

    Figure 16-1: You can configure network print servers remotely, but you'll have to go through a few extra steps.

    Figure 16-1: You can configure network print servers remotely, but you'll have to go through a few extra steps.

  2. Double-click the Add Printer icon to open the Add Printer Wizard. Click Next.

  3. If you're accessing the computer remotely, you'll see a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 16-1. The Remote Print Server option is selected automatically and can't be changed. Click Next.

  4. If you're accessing the computer through a local logon, you'll see a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 16-2. Select Local Printer, and then specify that you want Windows 2000 to try to automatically detect a plug and play printer. Click Next.

  5. During installation of a new network printer, Windows 2000 can automatically detect a new print device that is physically attached to a local or remote print server. But the print device must be plug and play compatible. The way you continue depends on whether the print device is found.

Print Device Found

If Windows 2000 finds the new print device, you see a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 16-3. Windows 2000 will begin installing the device and the necessary drivers. If the necessary drivers aren't found, you may need to insert the Windows 2000 CD into the CD-ROM drive or a driver disk into the floppy disk drive. Complete the installation by following these steps:

  1. After configuring the print device, the Add Printer Wizard will give you the opportunity to print a test. Select Yes to print a test page. Otherwise select No.

    Figure 16-2: You can also configure network print servers through a local logon.

    Figure 16-2: You can also configure network print servers through a local logon.

    Figure 16-3: If you see the Found New Hardware dialog box, a new print device has been detected and Windows 2000 is installing it.

    Figure 16-3: If you see the Found New Hardware dialog box, a new print device has been detected and Windows 2000 is installing it.

  2. Click Next , and then click Finish to complete the printer installation. The Add Printer Wizard sets the printer name and sharing automatically. By default, the printer name is set to the printer model. For example, if you install an HP DeskJet 890 C printer, the printer name would be set to HP DeskJet 890 C.

  3. If you configured the printer on a Windows 2000 workstation, the printer is now available for local access but isn't available for network access. You'll need to share the printer. Right-click the printer icon in the Printers folder, and then select Sharing. In the Properties dialog box, select Shared As, and then type a name for the printer share. In a large organization, you'll want the share name to be logical and helpful in locating the printer. For example, you may want to name the printer that points to the print device in the northeast corner of the twelfth floor TwelveNE.

  4. If you configured the printer on a Windows 2000 server, the printer is shared automatically. The share name is set to the first eight characters of the printer name—not including spaces. Any spaces in the printer name are omitted. Thus, the printer name HP DeskJet 890C is set to the printer share HPDeskJet. You may want to rename the printer share. If you do, follow the procedure outlined in step 3.

Print Device Not Found

If Windows 2000 doesn't find the new print device, you see a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 16-4. Click Next. You'll then need to manually install the print device by completing the following steps:

Figure 16-4: If you see the Add Printer Wizard dialog box, Windows 2000 didn't find the new print device. You'll need to manually install the print device.

Figure 16-4: If you see the Add Printer Wizard dialog box, Windows 2000 didn't find the new print device. You'll need to manually install the print device.

  1. You need to configure the port used by the printer (see Figure 16-5).

    • For a print device physically connected to the print server, select the appropriate LPT or COM port. You can also print to a file. If you do, Windows 2000 prompts users for a file name each time they print. Click Next, and then skip steps 2–8.

    • For a print device physically connected to the network, click Create A New Port, and then select Standard TCP/IP Port. Click Next to start the Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard.

  2. In the Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard, type the printer name or IP address for the printer device. A port name is filled in for you automatically. For example, if you type the IP address 192.168.12.8, the port name is entered as IP_192.168.12.8.

    Tip The port name doesn't matter as long as it's unique on the system. If you're configuring multiple printers on the print server, be sure to write down the port to printer mapping.

    Figure 16-5: In the Add Printer Wizard window, select a printer port for a local printer or select the Create A New Port option button for a network-attached printer.

    Figure 16-5: In the Add Printer Wizard window, select a printer port for a local printer or select the Create A New Port option button for a network-attached printer.

    Click Next and the wizard will attempt to automatically detect the print device. If the wizard is unable to detect the print device, make sure that

    • The print device is turned on and connected to the network.

    • The printer is configured properly.

    • You typed the correct IP address or printer name in the previous dialog box.

  3. Click Back if the IP address or printer name is incorrect and then retype this information.

  4. If the information is correct, you may need to identify the device further. In the Device Type area, click Standard, and then select the printer. Or click Custom, and then click Settings to define custom settings for the printer, such as protocol and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) status.

  5. Click Next, and then click Finish. This completes the configuration of the new port. You now need to continue with the printer installation in the Add Printer Wizard.

  6. As shown in Figure 16-6, you must now specify the print device manufacturer and model. This allows Windows 2000 to assign a printer driver to the print device. After you choose a print device manufacturer, choose a printer model. If the print device manufacturer and model you're using isn't displayed in the list, choose Have Disk to install a new driver.

  7. Click Next. If a printer driver is already installed, you can choose to keep the existing driver or replace it. Click Next.

    Figure 16-6: Select a print device manufacturer and printer model with the Add Printer Wizard.

    Figure 16-6: Select a print device manufacturer and printer model with the Add Printer Wizard.

    Note: If a driver for the specific printer model you're using isn't available, you can usually select a generic driver or a driver for a similar print device. Consult the print device documentation for pointers.

  8. Assign a name to the printer. This is the name you'll see in the Printers folder of Control Panel. On a local system you can also set the printer as the local default, if you like.

  9. Specify whether the printer is available to remote users (see Figure 16-7). To create a network printer that's accessible to remote users, select the Share As option button and enter a name for the shared resource. In a large organization, you'll want the share name to be logical and helpful in locating the printer. For example, you may want to name the printer that points to the print device in the northeast corner of the twelfth floor TwelveNE.

    Note: If Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS systems will access the printer, be sure the printer name conforms to the standard MS-DOS naming rule. For example, use the name NORTH12.PRT rather than NORTH_PRINTER_ FLOOR12. For more information on MS-DOS naming, see the section of Chapter 12 entitled "Accessing Long File Names Under MS-DOS."

  10. Next, if you want, you can enter a location description and comment. This information can help users find a printer and determine its capabilities.

  11. The final window lets you test the installation by printing a test page to the print device. If you want to do this, select Yes. Otherwise select No. When you're ready to complete the installation, click Finish.

    Figure 16-7: Share the network printer and assign it a name in the Add Printer Wizard.

    Figure 16-7: Share the network printer and assign it a name in the Add Printer Wizard.

When the Add Printer Wizard finishes installing the new printer, the Printers folder in the Control Panel will have an additional icon with the name set the way you specified. You can change the printer properties and status at any time. For more information, see the section of this chapter entitled "Configuring Printer Properties."

Tip If you repeat this process, you can create additional printers for the same print device. All you need to do is change the printer name and share name. Having additional printers for a single print device allows you to set different properties to serve different needs. For example, you could have a high priority printer for print jobs that need to be printed immediately and a low priority printer for print jobs that aren't as urgent.

Installing Local Print Devices

A local print device is physically connected to a user's computer and accessible only on that computer. Installing printing on a local system is much like installing a print device on a print server. The key difference is that the printer isn't shared. Accordingly, follow the steps for creating a printer specified in the section of this chapter entitled "Installing Print Devices on a Local or Remote Print Server." Specify that the printer is not shared.

Note: A local printer can easily be made a network printer. To learn how to do this, see the section of this chapter entitled "Starting and Stopping Printer Sharing."

Connecting to Printers Created on the Network

Once you create a network printer, remote users can connect to it and use it much like any other printer. You'll need to set up a connection on a user-by-user basis or have users do this themselves. To create the connection to the printer on a Windows 2000 system, follow these steps:

  1. With the user logged on, double-click the Printers icon in the Control Panel or in the Start menu, select Settings, and then choose the Printers option. This opens the Printers folder.

  2. Double-click the Add Printer icon to start the Add Printer Wizard shown.

  3. Select the Network Printer option button, and then click Next.

    In the Locate Your Printer dialog box, shown in Figure 16-8, choose a method for finding the network printer. The available options are

    • Find A Printer In The Directory Choose this option if you want to search Active Directory directory service for the printer. All printers configured for sharing on Windows 2000 systems are automatically listed in Active Directory. Printers can be removed from the directory, however.

    • Type The Printer Name, Or Click Next To Browse For A Printer Choose this option if you want to browse the network for shared printers just as you would browse in My Network Places.

    • Connect To A Printer On The Internet Or On Your Intranet Choose this option if you want to enter the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of an Internet printer.

    Figure 16-8: Find the printer on the network or in Active Directory.

    Figure 16-8: Find the printer on the network or in Active Directory.

  4. When the printer is selected, click OK.

  5. Determine whether the printer is the default used by Windows applications. Choose Yes or No, and then click Next.

  6. Choose Finish to complete the operation.

The user can now print to the network printer by selecting the printer in an application. The Printers folder on the user's computer shows the new network printer. You can configure local property settings using this icon. By default, the printer name is set to Printer on Computer, such as HP DeskJet on Zeta.

Solving Spooling Problems

Windows 2000 uses a service to control the spooling of print jobs. If this service isn't running, print jobs can't be spooled. You can check the status of the Print Spooler using the Services utility in Control Panel. Follow these steps to check and restart the Print Spooler service:

  1. Choose Start, then Programs, then Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management. Or select Computer Management in the Administrative Tools folder.

  2. Right-click the Computer Management entry in the console tree and select Connect To Another Computer on the shortcut menu. You can now choose the system whose services you want to manage.

    Figure 16-9: The Print Spooler service handles print spooling.

    Figure 16-9: The Print Spooler service handles print spooling.

  3. Expand the Services And Applications node by clicking the plus sign (+) next to it, and then choose Services.

  4. Select the Print Spooler service, as shown in Figure 16-9. The Status should be "Started." If it isn't, right-click Print Spooler, and then select Start. The Startup Type should be "Automatic." If it isn't, double-click Print Spooler, and then set Startup Type to Automatic.

    If this doesn't resolve the problem, you may want to check other related services, including

    • TCP/IP Print Server

    • Print Server for Macintosh

    • Print Server for Unix

Tip Spoolers can become corrupted. Symptoms include a frozen printer or one that doesn't send jobs to the print device. Sometimes the print device may print pages of garbled data. In most of these cases, stopping and starting the Print Spooler service will resolve the problem.

Other spooling problems may be related to permissions. See the section of this chapter entitled "Setting Printer Access Permissions" for details.

Configuring Printer Properties

Once you install network printing, you can use the Properties dialog box to set its properties. You access the Properties dialog box by doing the following:

  1. Access the Printers folder on the computer you want to configure as a print server. On a local system, you access this folder by clicking Start, choosing Settings, and then selecting Printers. On a remote system, you can access this folder through My Network Places. In My Network Places, access a domain, select a computer whose printer settings you want to manage, and then double-click Printers.

  2. Right-click the icon of the printer you want to configure and then from the pop-up menu, select Properties.

  3. This opens the dialog box shown in Figure 16-10. You can now set the printer properties.

The sections that follow explain how to set commonly used printer properties.

Adding Comments and Location Information

To make it easier to determine which printer to use when, you can add comments and location information to printers. Comments provide general information about the printer, such as the type of print device and who is responsible for it. Location describes the actual site of the print device. Once set, applications can display these fields. For example, Microsoft Word displays this information when you select Print from the File menu in the Comment and Where fields, respectively.

Figure 16-10: Set printer properties with the dialog box for the printer you want to configure.

Figure 16-10: Set printer properties with the dialog box for the printer you want to configure.

You can add comments and location information to a printer by using the fields in the General tab of the printer's Properties dialog box. Type your comments in the Comment field. Type the printer location in the Location field.

Managing Printer Drivers

In a Windows 2000 domain, you should configure and update printer drivers only on your print servers. You don't need to update printer drivers on Windows clients. Instead, you configure the network printer to provide the drivers to client systems, as necessary.

Updating a Printer Driver

You can update a printer's driver by doing the following:

  1. Open the printer's Properties dialog box and select the Advanced tab.

  2. The Driver field lets you select the driver from a list of currently installed drivers. Use the Driver drop-down list to select a new driver from a list of known drivers.

  3. If the driver you need isn't listed or if you obtained a new driver, click New Driver. This starts the Add Printer Driver Wizard. Click Next. Choose Have Disk to install the new driver from a file or disk.

  4. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Configuring Drivers for Network Clients

After you install a printer or change drivers, you may want to select the operating systems that should download the driver from the print server. By allowing clients to download the printer driver, you provide a single location for installing driver updates. This way, instead of having to install a new driver on all the client systems, you install the driver on the print server and allow clients to download the new driver.

You can allow clients to download the new driver by doing the following:

  1. Right-click the icon of the printer you want to configure, and then select Properties.

  2. Click the Sharing tab, and then click Additional Drivers.

  3. Use the Additional Drivers dialog box to select operating systems that can download the printer driver. As necessary, insert the Windows 2000 distribution CD or printer driver disks, or both, for the selected operating systems. The Windows 2000 distribution CD-ROM has drivers for most Windows operating systems and chip architectures.

Setting a Separator Page and Changing Print Device Mode

Separator pages have two uses on Windows 2000 systems:

  • They can be used at the beginning of a print job to make it easier to find a document on a busy print device.

  • They can be used to change the print device mode, such as whether the print device uses PostScript or Printer Control Language (PCL).

To set a separator page for a print device, follow these steps:

  1. Access the Advanced tab of the printer's Properties dialog box, and then click Separator Page.

    In the Separator Page dialog box, click Browse, and then select one of the available separator pages, including:

    • PCL.SEP Switches the print device to PCL mode and prints a separator page before each document.

    • PSCRIPT.SEP Sets the print device to PostScript mode but doesn't print a separator page.

    • SYSPRINT.SEP Sets the print device to PostScript mode and prints a separator page before each document.

To stop using the separator page, access the Separator Page dialog box and remove the file name.

Changing the Printer Port

You can change the port used by a print device at any time by using the Properties dialog box for the printer you're configuring. Open the Properties dialog box, and then click the Ports tab. You can now either add a port for printing by selecting its check box or remove a port by clearing its check box. To add a new port type, click Add Port and then follow the instructions on what to do when a print device isn't found, given in the "Installing Print Devices on a Local or Remote Print Server" section of this chapter. To remove a port permanently, select it and then click Delete Port.

Scheduling and Prioritizing Print Jobs

You use the Properties dialog box for the printer you're configuring to set default settings for print job priority and scheduling. Open the dialog box, and then click the Advanced tab. You can now set the default schedule and priority settings using the fields shown in Figure 16-11. Each of these fields is discussed in the sections that follow.

Figure 16-11: Configure print job scheduling and priority using the Advanced tab.

Figure 16-11: Configure print job scheduling and priority using the Advanced tab.

Scheduling Printer Availability

Printers are either always available or available only during the hours specified. You set printer availability using the Advanced tab. Access the Advanced tab, and then select Always Available to make the printer available at all times or select Available From to set specific hours of operation.

Setting Printer Priority

Use the Priority box of the Advanced tab to set the default priority for print jobs. Print jobs always print in order of priority. Jobs with higher priority print before jobs with lower priority.

Configuring Print Spooling

For print devices attached to the network, you'll usually want the printer to spool files rather than print files directly. Print spooling makes it possible to use a printer to manage print jobs.

Enabling spooling To enable spooling, use one of the following options:

  • Spool Print Documents So Program Finishes Printing Faster Select this option to spool print jobs.

  • Start Printing After Last Page Is Spooled Select this option if you want the entire document to be spooled before printing begins. This option ensures that the entire document makes it into the print queue before printing. If for some reason printing is canceled or not completed, the job won't be printed.

  • Start Printing Immediately Select this option if you want printing to begin immediately when the print device isn't already in use. This option is preferable when you want print jobs to be completed faster or when you want to ensure that the application returns control to users as soon as possible.

Other spooling options You can disable spooling by selecting the Print Directly To The Printer option button. Additional check boxes let you configure other spooling options. These check boxes are used as follows:

  • Hold Mismatched Documents If selected, the spooler holds print jobs that don't match the setup for the print device. Selecting this option is a good idea if you frequently have to change printer form or tray assignments.

  • Print Spooled Documents First If selected, jobs that have completed spooling will print before jobs in the process of spooling—regardless of whether the spooling jobs have higher priority.

  • Keep Printed Documents Normally documents are deleted from the queue after they're printed. To keep a copy of documents in the printer, select this option. Use this option if you're printing files that can't easily be recreated. In this way you can reprint the document without having to recreate it. For details, see the section of this chapter entitled "Pausing, Resuming, and Restarting Individual Document Printing."

  • Enable Advanced Printing Features When this option is enabled, you can use advanced printing options (if available), such as Page Order and Pages Per Sheet. If you note compatibility problems when using advanced options, you should disable the advanced printing features by clearing this checkbox.

Starting and Stopping Printer Sharing

You use the Properties dialog box of the printer you're configuring to set printer sharing. Right-click the icon of the printer you want to configure, and then select Sharing. You can use this tab to change the name of a network printer as well as to start sharing or stop sharing a printer. Printer sharing tasks that you can perform include

  • Sharing a local printer (thus making it a network printer) To share a printer, select Share As and specify a name for the shared resource. If Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS systems will access the printer, be sure the printer name conforms to the standard 8.3 naming rule, such as SOUTHEAS.PRT rather than SOUTHEAST_PRINTER. Click OK when you're finished.

  • Changing the shared name of a printer To change the shared name, simply type a new name in the Share As field and click OK.

  • Stopping the sharing of a printer To quit sharing a printer, select the Not Shared option button. Click OK when you're finished.

Setting Printer Access Permissions

Network printers are a shared resource, and as such, you can set access permissions for them. You use the Properties dialog box of the printer you're configuring to set access permissions. Open the dialog box, and then click the Security tab. Next, open the Printer Permissions dialog box by clicking Permissions.

Permissions that can be granted or denied for printers are Print, Manage Documents, and Manage Printers. Table 16-2 summarizes the capabilities of these permissions.

Table 16-2 Printer Permissions Used by Windows 2000

Permission

Print

Manage Documents

Manage Printers

Print documents

X

X

X

Pause, restart, resume, and cancel own documents

X

X

X

Connect to printers

X

X

X

Control settings for print jobs

 

X

X

Pause, restart, and delete print jobs

 

X

X

Share printers

 

 

X

Change printer properties

 

 

X

Change printer permissions

 

 

X

Delete printers

 

 

X

The default settings of the Printer Permissions dialog box are used for any new network printer you create. These settings are as follows:

  • Administrators, Print Operators, and Server Operators have full control over printers by default. This allows you to administer a printer and its print jobs.

  • Creator or Owner of the document can manage his or her own document. This allows the person who printed a document to change its settings and to delete it.

  • Everyone can print to the printer. This makes the printer accessible to all users on the network.

As with other permission sets, you create the basic permissions for printers by combining special permissions into logical groups. Table 16-3 shows special permissions used to create the basic permissions for printers. Using Advanced permission settings, you can assign these special permissions individually, if necessary.

Table 16-3 Special Permissions for Printers

Permission

Print

Manage Documents

Manage Printers

Print

X

 

X

Manage Documents

 

X

 

Manage Printers

 

 

X

Read Permissions

X

X

X

Change Permissions

 

X

X

Take Ownership

 

X

X

Auditing Print Jobs

Windows 2000 lets you audit common printer tasks. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Open the printer's Properties dialog box, then click the Security tab. Open the Access Control Settings dialog box by clicking Advanced.

    Note: Actions aren't audited by default. You must first enable auditing by establishing a group policy to audit the printer.

  2. In the Auditing tab, add the names of users or groups you want to audit with the Add button and remove names of users or groups with the Remove button.

  3. Select the events you want to audit by selecting the check boxes under the Successful and Failed headings, as appropriate.

  4. Click OK when you're finished.

Setting Document Defaults

Document default settings are only used when you print from non-Windows applications, such as when you print from the MS-DOS prompt. You can set document defaults by doing the following:

  1. In the Printers folder, double-click the printer's icon.

  2. In the Printer Management window, from the Printer menu, select Printing Preferences.

  3. Use the fields in the Layout tab and the Paper/Quality tab to configure the default settings.

Configuring Print Server Properties

Windows 2000 allows you to control global settings for print servers by using the Print Server Properties dialog box. Access this dialog box by doing the following:

  1. Access the Printers folder on the print server you want to configure. On a local system, you access this folder by clicking Start, choosing Settings, and then selecting Printers. On a remote system, you can access this folder through My Network Places. In My Network Places, access a domain, select a computer whose printer settings you want to manage, and then double-click Printers.

  2. In the Printers window, select Server Properties from the File menu or right-click in an empty area and select Server Properties from the shortcut menu.

Viewing and Creating Printer Forms

The print server uses forms to define the standard sizes for paper, envelopes, and transparencies. To view the current settings for a printer form, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Print Server Properties dialog box, and then click the Forms tab, shown in Figure 16-12.

    Figure 16-12: Use the Forms tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box to view printer forms.

    Figure 16-12: Use the Forms tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box to view printer forms.

  2. Use the Forms On list box to select the form you want to view.

  3. The form settings are shown in the Measurements area. You can't change or delete the default system forms.

To create a new form, follow these steps:

  1. Access the Forms tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box.

  2. Use the Forms On list box to select the existing form on which you want to base the new form.

  3. Select the Create A New Form check box.

  4. Type a new name for the form in the Form Description For field.

  5. Use the fields in the Measurements area to set the paper size and margins.

  6. Click Save Form to save the form.

Locating the Spool Folder and Enabling Printing on NTFS

The Spool folder holds a copy of all documents in the printer spool. By default, this folder is located at %SystemRoot%\system32\spool\PRINTERS. On Windows NT file system (NTFS), all users who access the printer must have Change permission on this directory. If they don't, they won't be able to print documents. To check the permission on this directory if you're experiencing problems, follow these steps:

  1. Access the Printers folder on the print server you want to configure. On a local system, you access this folder by clicking Start, choosing Settings, and then selecting Printers. On a remote system, you can access this folder through My Network Places. In My Network Places, access a domain, select a computer whose printer settings you want to manage, and then double-click Printers.

  2. In the Printers window, from the File menu, select Server Properties.

  3. Select the Advanced tab. The location of the Spool folder is shown in the Spool Folder field. Note this location.

  4. Right-click the Spool folder in Microsoft Windows 2000 Explorer, and then from the pop-up menu, select Properties.

  5. Select the Security tab. Now you can verify that the permissions are set appropriately.

Managing High Volume Printing

Printers used in corporate environments can print hundreds or thousands of documents daily. This heavy load puts a high burden on print servers, which can cause printing delays, document corruption, and other problems. To alleviate some of this burden, you should

  • Use network-attached printers rather than printers attached through serial, parallel, or infrared ports. Network-attached printers use less system resources (namely CPU time) than other printers do.

  • Dedicate the print server to handle print services only. If the print server is handling other network duties, it may not be very responsive to print requests and management. To increase responsiveness, you can move other network duties to other servers.

  • Move the Spool folder to a drive dedicated to printing. By default, the Spool folder is on the same file system as the operating system. To further improve disk input/output (I/O), use a drive that has a separate controller.

Logging Printer Events

You can use the Print Server Properties dialog box to configure the logging of printer events. Access this dialog box, and then click the Advanced tab. Use the check boxes provided to determine which spooler events are logged.

Removing Print Job Completion and Notification

Print servers can notify users when a document has finished printing. By default, this feature is turned off, since it can become annoying. If you want to activate or remove notification, access the Advanced tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box. Then select or clear the check box labeled Notify When Remote Documents Are Printed. You may also want to select or clear the check box labeled Notify Computer, Not User, When Remote Documents Are Printed.

Managing Print Jobs on Local and Remote Printers

You manage print jobs and printers using the print management window.

If the printer is configured on your system, you can access the print management window by completing the following steps:

  1. Double-click the Printers icon in the Control Panel or in the Start menu, select Settings, and then choose the Printers option.

  2. Double-click the icon of the printer you want to work with.

If the printer isn't configured on your system, you can manage the printer remotely by doing the following:

  1. Start Windows 2000 Explorer, and then use My Network Places to access the print server.

  2. Access the Printers folder on the print server and then double-click the icon of the printer you want to work with.

Using the Print Management Window

You can now manage print jobs and printers using the print management window shown in Figure 16-13. The print management window shows information about documents in the printers. This information tells you

  • Document Name The document file name, which can include the name of the application that printed it.

  • Status The status of the print job, which can include the status of the document as well as the status of the printer. Document status entries you'll see include Printing, Spooling, Paused, Deleting, and Restarting. Document status can be preceded by the printer status, such as Printer Off-Line.

  • Owner The document's owner.

  • Pages The number of pages in the document.

  • Size The document size in kilobytes or megabytes.

  • Submitted The time and date the print job was submitted.

  • Port The port used for printing, such as LPT1, COM3, or File (if applicable).

    Figure 16-13: Manage print jobs and printers using the print management window.

    Figure 16-13: Manage print jobs and printers using the print management window.

Pausing the Printer and Resuming Printing

Sometimes you need to pause a printer. Using the print management window, you do this by selecting the Pause Printing option on the Printer menu (a check mark indicates that the option is selected). When you pause printing, the printer completes the current job and then puts all other jobs on hold.

To resume printing, select the Pause Printing option a second time. This should remove the check mark next to the option.

Emptying the Print Queue

You can use the print management window to empty the print queue and delete all of its contents. To do this, on the Printer menu select the Cancel All Documents option.

Pausing, Resuming, and Restarting Individual Document Printing

You set the status of individual documents using the Document menu in the print management window. To change the status of a document, follow these steps:

  1. Select the document in the print management window.

    Use the Pause, Resume, and Restart options on the Document menu to change the status of the print job.

    • Pause Puts the document on hold and lets other documents print.

    • Resume Tells the printer to resume printing the document from where it left off.

    • Restart Tells the printer to start printing the document again from the beginning.

Removing a Document and Canceling a Print Job

To remove a document from the printer or cancel a print job, follow these steps:

  1. Select the document in the print management window.

  2. Select Cancel from the Document menu or press Del.

Note: When you cancel a print job that's currently printing, the print device may continue to print part or all of the document. This is because most print devices cache documents in an internal buffer, and the print device may continue to print the contents of this cache.

Checking the Properties of Documents in the Printer

Document properties can tell you many things about documents that are in the printer, such as the page source, orientation, and size. You can check the properties of a document in the printer by doing either of the following:

  • Select the document in the print management window and then, from the Document menu, select Properties.

  • Double-click the document name in the print management window.

Setting the Priority of Individual Documents

Scheduling priority determines when documents print. Documents with higher priority print before documents with lower priority. You can set the priority of individual documents in the printer by doing the following:

  1. Select the document in the print management window and then, from the Document menu, select Properties.

  2. In the General tab, use the Priority slider to change the priority of the document. The lowest priority is 1 and the highest is 99.

Scheduling the Printing of Individual Documents

In a busy printing environment, you may need to schedule the printing of documents in the printer. For example, you may want large print jobs of low priority to print at night. To set the printing schedule, follow these steps:

  1. Select the document in the print management window and then, from the Document menu, select Properties.

  2. In the General tab, select the Only From option button and then specify a time interval. The time interval you set determines when the job is allowed to print. For example, you can specify that the job can print only between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m.

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