Que.MCSA.MCSE.10070.100270.Exam.Prep.2.Windows.XP.Professional [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Connecting to Local and Network Print Devices

Although limited print server. The installation software includes support for hundreds of printers from a considerable number of printer manufacturers. Windows XP Professional includes a large number of features in support of network printing.

Before you look at the printing process and its management, it is important to clarify the terms associated with printing and the manner in which Microsoft defines them. You should be familiar with the following terms:

print device. The printer controls how print jobs are set up, formatted, and scheduled for printing.

spooler is located at %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers.

Print queue A waiting area where print jobs are stored and sequenced as they await the print device. Jobs are sequenced according to the order in which they are received as well as priority settings that are discussed later in this chapter.

Print server The computer that controls the printers to which it is attached. This computer receives and handles all print jobs requested by client computers.

Print job A document that has been sent to the printer by a client, together with any formatting or other processing commands.

Windows XP Professional supports several different print setups. The following indicates some typical combinations:

print queue, and spooler, and transmits print jobs directly to the print device.

Small peer-to-peer network In this setup, a print device is attached directly to the network cable. Each computer acts as a print server, holding its own print drivers and print queue. Such a setup is practical for only very small networks, and is difficult to manage when a large number of computers each hold printers that contend for the same print device.

Central print server The print device is connected to a dedicated computer, which holds the printer drivers, spooler, and print queue. You can even attach more than one print device to the print server, forming what is called a printing pool.

Remote or Internet printing This type of setup includes a print server running Internet Information Services (IIS) and a print device that are located at a remote site with a connection through the Internet or corporate intranet. This setup is discussed later in this chapter.

Connecting to a Local Print Device

Objective:

Connect to local and network print devices.

Connect to a local print device.

When you attach a Chapter 13, "Configuring, Managing, and Troubleshooting Users and Groups."

To install and share a local printer, follow the steps outlined in Step by Step 6.1.

Step by Step: 6.1 Installing and Sharing a Local Printer

1. Log on as an administrator or another user that has been assigned the Load and Unload Device Drivers user right.

2. Click Start, Printers and Faxes.

3. On the left side of the window that appears, click Add a Printer to start the Add Printer Wizard.

4. Click Next, and on the Local or Network Printer screen, select Local Printer Attached to This Computer, and then click Next.

5. If you have selected the Automatically Detect and Install My Plug and Play Printer, Windows searches for and displays information on any print devices that are attached to the computer. Otherwise, the wizard displays the Select a Printer Port screen (see Figure 6.1).

6. Select the appropriate port from the Use the Following Port list box. If you need to create a different port, select the Create a New Port option, which allows you to add a different local port by name or run the Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard to provide the IP address and port name of a print device on a small peer-to-peer network. When finished, click Next.

7. On the Install Printer Software screen, select the make and model of your print device, and then click Next. If you have an installation disk from the manufacturer, click Have Disk and follow the instructions provided.

8. On the Name Your Printer screen, accept the name provided or type a different name, and then click Next.

9. On the Printer Sharing screen, select Share Name and type a share name for the printer. Click Next.

10. On the Location and Comment screen, type descriptive information for the printer. The information you provide will assist users in locating the print device and deciding whether to use this device. Click Next.

11. On the Print Test p. screen, click Yes if you want to verify that the printer is properly configured by sending a test page to the print device. Otherwise, click No. Click Next.

12. Review the information presented on the completion screen, and then click Finish to complete the wizard. The wizard copies files and places a shortcut to the printer in the Printers and Faxes window.

Managing Printers and Print Jobs

Objective:

Connect to local and network print devices.

Manage printers and print jobs.

Having completed installing a printer, you need to learn how to manage the printer and the jobs users send to it. The task of managing printers and print jobs includes various activities such as sharing the printer, configuring printer and print server properties, configuring TCP/IP printing, performing document management tasks, and so on. This section covers these tasks.

Configuring Printer Sharing

It is easy to share or stop sharing a printer, as Step by Step 6.2 demonstrates.

Step by Step: 6.2 Configuring Printer Sharing

1. In the Printers and Faxes window, right-click the printer and choose Sharing.

2. As shown in Figure 6.2, the Sharing tab of the printer's Properties dialog box provides several choices. Select Share This Printer and provide a share name, or Do Not Share This Printer to stop sharing. If the computer is a member of an Active Directory domain, select the List in the Directory check box to include the share name in Active Directory, which facilitates users looking for the appropriate printer.

3. Click OK. As with shared folders, the printer icon shows a hand beneath it, indicating that the printer is shared.

Suggested Readings and Resources" section of this chapter for more information.

Managing Printers and Print Servers

You can manage a series of properties for printers and print servers from the Printers and Faxes application. Step by Step 6.3 shows you how to manage printer and print server properties.

Step by Step: 6.3 Configuring Printer and Print Server Properties

1. In the File menu of the Printers and Faxes window, select Server Properties to open the Print Server Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.3.

2. Select the appropriate tab of this dialog box to configure the following properties, and then click OK when you are finished:

Forms Enables you to create and manage paper forms of various dimensions.

Ports Enables you to add or delete ports, or configure port properties. You can add a TCP/IP port by clicking Add Port and then Standard TCP/IP Port to start the Add Standard TCP/IP Port Wizard.

Drivers Enables you to add, remove, replace, or configure the properties of a print driver. By installing drivers for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP, you can enable client computers running any of these operating systems to download the appropriate drivers automatically. You can also install drivers for Windows 9x/Me computers. However, users of these computers need to run the Add Printer Wizard to manually download drivers to their computers.

Advanced Enables you to configure spooler properties such as the type of events (error, warning, or information) to be logged, the location of the spool folder, and whether users or computers are notified when remote documents are printed.

3. To manage the properties of a specific printer, right-click that printer's icon and choose Properties. Select the appropriate tab to configure the following properties:

General You can modify the printer name, its location, and comment text that you supplied when you installed the printer.

Sharing Enables you to configure printer sharing, as already described in Step by Step 6.2.

Ports Enables you to specify to which port a given print device is connected. You can also enable printer pooling from this tab.

Advanced Enables you to configure additional printer properties as shown in Figure 6.4 and described in Table 6.1.

Table 6.1. Configurable Advanced Printer Properties

Setting

Description

Always Available and Available From

Enables you to specify the hours of the day when the printer is available. For example, you can configure a printer that accepts large jobs to print only between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. so that shorter jobs can be printed rapidly. Jobs submitted outside the available hours are kept in the print queue until the available time.

Priority

Enables you to assign a numerical priority to the printer. This priority ranges from 1 to 99, with higher numbers receiving higher priority. The default priority is 1. For example, you can assign a printer for managers with a priority of 99 so that their print jobs are completed before those of other employees.

Spool Print Documents So Program Finishes Printing Faster

Enables spooling of print documents. Select from the following:

Start Printing After Last Page Is Spooled. Prevents documents from printing until completely spooled. Prevents delays when the print device prints pages faster than the rate at which they are provided.

Start Printing Immediately. The default option, causes documents to be printed as rapidly as possible.

Print Directly to the Printer

Documents are sent to the print device without being spooled first. Recommended only for printers that are not shared.

Hold Mismatched Documents

The spooler holds documents that do not match the available form until this form is loaded. Other documents that match the form can print.

Print Spooled Documents First

Prints documents in the order in which they finish spooling, rather than the order in which they start spooling. Use this option if you have selected the Start Printing Immediately option.

Keep Printed Documents

Retains printed jobs in the print spooler. Enables a user to resubmit a document from the print queue rather than from an application.

Enable Advanced Printing Features

Enables additional options, such as page order and pages per sheet.

Printing Defaults command button

Selects the default orientation and order of pages being printed. Users can modify this from most applications if desired. Additional print device-specific settings may be present.

Print Processor command button

Specifies the available print processor, which processes a document into the appropriate print job.

Separator Page command button

Enables you to specify a separator page file, which is printed at the start of a print job to identify the print job and the user who submitted it. This is useful for identifying printed output when many users access a single print device.

Security Enables you to configure printer permissions. The available printer permissions are described later in this chapter.

Device Settings Enables you to configure printer-specific settings such as assigning specific forms to paper trays in the print device, selecting available fonts, and specifying the amount of memory present on the print device. Available settings depend on the make and model of the print device.

4. When you are finished, click OK or Apply to apply your changes.

Note

Repairing printer incompatibilities You can use the Fixprnsv.exe command-line utility to resolve printer incompatibility issues. Available on the Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 CD-ROMs, this utility manages printer driver issues on print servers running Windows NT 4.0 and later. You can use this utility to perform on-the-fly replacements of problematic drivers. For more information, refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 247196.

Exam Alert

Unreadable output indicates incorrect printer drivers If the printer produces a series of unintelligible characters rather than the expected output, the problem lies in the printer driver. Check with the manufacturer of the print device and ensure that you have installed the correct printer drivers.

Exam Alert

Different printers for different users and purposes You can configure different printers associated with the same print device so that managers' print jobs are printed before those of other users, or so that long print jobs wait until after hours so that a print device isn't tied up for an extended time. To do this, simply assign a priority of 99 to the managers' printer and 1 to the printer used by all other users.

Creating a Printer Pool

If you have more printer pool from the Ports tab of the printer's Properties dialog box. Doing so associates the printer with more than one print device. To client computers, the printer pool appears as though it were a single printer.

When users submit print jobs to the printer pool, the jobs are printed on any available print device. You should position the physical print devices in close proximity to each other so that the user does not have to search for print jobs. Enabling separator pages is a best practice that you should follow so that the users can locate their print jobs rapidly and conveniently.

Controlling Access to Printers by Using Permissions

Objective:

Connect to local and network print devices.

Control access to printers by using permissions.

Just as you can Chapter 5, you can assign permissions to printers. Printers have access control lists (ACLs) that you can modify in the same manner. As described in Step by Step 6.4, you can configure a printer's permissions from the Security tab of its Properties dialog box:

Step by Step: 6.4 Configuring Printer Permissions

1. In the Printers and Faxes window, right-click a printer and choose Properties. The printer's Properties dialog box opens.

2. Select the Security tab (see Figure 6.5).

3. If you need to add users or groups to the ACL, click the Add button to open the Select Users or Groups dialog box.

4. Click Advanced, and then click Find Now to locate the required users or groups, as shown in Figure 6.6. You may also use the fields in the Common Queries area of the dialog box to narrow the search for the appropriate object.

http://server_name/printer_name

http://server_name/printers