Local Networked Printers

[caledai]

Hi All.

I work on several networks, and maintaining which printer exists where is a pain when they have similar names.

Before I formated my laptop, I had all my network printers setup as a local queue - similiar to how windows xp auto detects them

This meant that I could name them as I wished, assign Locations to them and group them by location. It also meant that I did not have 15 printers attempting to check their status, when at least 10 of them were not on the current network. They existed on other networks.

The steps used to do this are.

Add Printer
Local Printer - Deselect Autodetect Printer
Create a Local Port
Enter in the IP of the server followed by the share - \\IP\PRINTERSHARE
Choose the Driver.
Give it a name etc.

The problem I have now is that I cannot get past creating a local port. I attempted to create one at \\192.168.1.10\hpdeskjet - which is my printer at home. This returned an error

"The specified port cannot be added. The Port already exists"

No matter what network I am on, I get this error - so its related to my computer. I have changed several settings in the computer. I also do not have any printer ports setup other than the standard LPT, COM, File and the port installed by microsoft for the document imaging.

I have disabled several services, but I restarted what I could remember disabling, rebooted to no effect.

Does anyone have any ideas on why this happens?

 

[dphantom]

Look at the PORTS tab on the properties settings of printers. Sounds like you may already have a port with that address setup in which case you would need to either delete it so you can create a new one or select a different IP address.

 

[Kelemvor]

Or when trying to add a new printers, instead of choosing New Port, go scroll down in the lsit of existing ports and you should see it in there and can just select it.

 

[caledai]

Firstly - There are no existing ports apart from the standard LPT/Com/File and 1 which is installed by office 2003.

Second. - For a network printer to work with a local queue - and not direct TCP/IP printing because I still go through the server, I need to be able to create a local port. As a result I cannot just scroll down and select a port.

Third. - Because I have admin privilages on 2 of these networks, if I change the name of a printer added normally, I end up breaking network shares, and changing printers if I attempt to change things so I don't have 3x Library Printers

 

[vi edit]

Second. - For a network printer to work with a local queue - and not direct TCP/IP printing because I still go through the server, I need to be able to create a local port. As a result I cannot just scroll down and select a port.

Ever use the "net use" command to assign LPT ports. Since you are already grabbing printers off a server share it will work perfect. The net use will allow you to easily add and remove the printers you set up.

1 In Windows, click Start\Settings\Printers
2 Click Install New Printer
3 Install the printer to a virtual LPT port (like LPT2) -- DO NOT INSTALL IT TO ITS ACTUAL PATH NAME!!
4 Open Notepad and create a text file called CAPTURE.TXT. Type one line in the file that looks like this: NET USE LPT2 \\OURNETWORKSERVER\HP5000 (use the actual network path to the printer).
5 Save this file into the WINNT (or Windows) STARTUP folder (so that the text file runs every time you start Windows)

 

[caledai]

I have used the net use command to capture printer ports before, when using dos programs, and to what it does.

But its not an economical way of doing this.

In one network I have 6 Printers
In another I have another 6 Printers
In the third network - No Admin Here - I setup at least 2 printers per floor of the building that I use, plus whatever rooms I use, so around another 6-8 printers.
Plus 2 Printers at home

All of these do not count any printers I have setup locally - to work from LPT1.]

And yes, I could have a batch script that I run when I get to a new location, but before I formatted, I was able to have all 20 network printers functioning the way I described. My question, is this. What controlls the addition/modification of printer ports. If I can track this down, I would have an idea as to the cause.

I have changed many settings on my laptop, and in an effort to fix this, disabled any settings in the gpedit.msc via the properties. Reset the services states according to black ice's defaults list for xp pro sp2. Disabled any firewall, antivirus, spyware programs that were resident and still have no luck.

Here is more information that I have repeated on other forums.

No Ports Currently created.
No IP/Name Overlaps.
Authenticated to the server that hosts the printers.
Administrator Privilages on local computer.

And I can add these printers via other means. Add Wizard. Drag and Drop, and double clicking while on the server. All of these add the printers - but these register to the server, and I cannot rename them etc.

 

[caledai]

*FIXED*

Thanks All for your help.

For some reason - despite everything else I did, I fixed the problem by loging in under the administrators account - even though I am an administrator - and created a single port. From there I logged out of admin, and back into my account and I was able to create ports like I should be able to.

Again, Thanks.