Managing a Shared Printer




	NOTE: Read this section only if a shared printer is attached to your workstation. If you have a printer attached to your workstation, but are unsure if it is a shared printer, ask your administrator.

If a shared printer is attached to your workstation, follow the guidelines in the next section when using the printer. These guidelines not only ensure that you get the most out of your printer but also ensure that it is accessible to users at other workstations on the network. In addition to following these guidelines, you and your administrator often share responsibility for managing the shared printer.

This section describes the following:

Information on troubleshooting shared printers is provided in Appendix D, "Troubleshooting."

Guidelines for using a shared printer attached to your workstation
Your administrator's responsibilities for managing a shared printer
Your responsibilities for managing a shared printer
Maintaining a link to the server
Disabling and enabling the printer

Recommendations for Using a Shared Printer

Follow these recommendations when using your shared printer:

Access your printer as a shared resource rather than a local resource. Accessing the printer as a shared resource enables you to:
- Hold print jobs.
- Supply reset sequences for the printer.
- Print banner pages.
- Use the server as a personal print spooler, queueing jobs before printing.
Always use an unused port ID when you link to the printer queue on the server. Using the port ID that connects your printer to your workstation will prevent your job and other jobs from printing. For example, if you have a shared printer at tached to the LPT1 (or PRN) port on your workstation, link to the printer queue (or to other shared printer queues) using LPT2 or another port ID.
If you must use your printer locally, use the MS-DOS print command, or disable the printer as a network resource and use it locally. For more information about the MS-DOS print command, see your MS-DOS manual. For information on disabling the printer, see "Disabling and Enabling the Printer," later in this sec tion.

Administrator's Responsibilities

Your administrator is often responsible for connecting the shared printer to your computer and ensuring that the appropriate LAN Manager Spooler Agent software is automatically loaded on your workstation. LAN Manager supports three workstation print spooling programs:

The LAN Manager Print Station utility (printsta command) shares a worksta tion's printer with one other workstation at a time, without involvement of a serv er.
The LAN Manager Clispool program (the clispool command) supports the print spooler (the print command) that comes with MS-DOS. This program is only available if you have a LAN Manager for UNIX Systems server on your network.
The LAN Manager Clipcach program (the clipcach command) supports the print spooler that comes with LaserTools™ PrintCache™ version 2.4a. This program is only available if you have a LAN Manager for UNIX Systems server on your network.
NOTE: LaserTools PrintCache must be purchased separately.

The Clispool and Clipcach programs receive print jobs sent through the server from workstations and pass them to the appropriate print spooling program for printing. For more information about the clispool and clipcach commands, see Chapter 5, "Enhanced Reference." For more information about the LaserTools PrintCache software, see the LaserTools PrintCache manual.

With clispool and clipcach your administrator is also responsible for maintaining the printer queue (including such tasks as deleting jobs from other users) and for setting printer parameters.

For more information about the printsta command, see Chapter 5, "Enhanced Reference."




	NOTE: The Print Station utility cannot be added simultaneously with clispool or clipcach; they are mutually exclusive.

Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for the following tasks:

Maintaining the printer's link to the server (for clispool or clipcach)
Disabling the printer when necessary

When you use the LAN Manager Print Station utility, you are fully responsible for the printer; print jobs come directly to your workstation and not through an intermediary server.

The remainder of this section provides information for maintaining the printer as a shared resource. Of course, the printer also requires the same routine maintenance any printer requires, such as maintaining the paper supply and replacing the ribbon or toner. For information about routine printer maintenance, see the guide packaged with your printer.

Maintaining the Link to the Server for Clispool or Clipcach

When a user sends a print job to the shared printer connected to your workstation, the server automatically establishes a link between itself and your workstation. This link uses the drive identification specified by your administrator. You do not need to establish this link yourself.

When you boot your workstation and automatically load the printing programs, the drive identification used for shared printing is displayed, along with a copyright notice. Do not use this drive identification for another link, because you might disrupt a print job.

Disabling and Enabling the Printer

You can disable the printer by turning it off or by using the clispool or clipcach command, depending on which print spooler you use. You may need to turn your printer off if it needs to be serviced. You may want to disable your printer using the clispool or clipcach command if you need exclusive use of the printer or if you must use the printer locally. The printer queue continues to accept jobs, but the jobs will not print until you re-enable the printer.




	NOTE: If you want to use your printer locally without disabling it, use the print command. For example, type `print myfile`. At most, one print job from the server may print before your job is printed.

Turning Off the Power

If you turn off your workstation or printer, any print jobs sent to the printer will accumulate in the printer queue on the server. These jobs will start printing when your workstation and printer are turned on again.

To disable the printer

Type clispool /d or clipcach /d and press ENTER.

To enable the printer

Type clispool /e or clipcach /e and press ENTER.

Using the Print Station Utility

When the LAN Manager Print Station utility is started on a workstation, the workstation appears as a server to the network. This allows other users to connect to the printer, as they would to any other network printer. However, you cannot view the queue with the net view command.

In the default implementation of LAN Manager Print Station, print jobs are written to a file on the host computer (the one running printsta) and then sent to the printer. This process, called spooling, allows the person sending the print job to regain control of his or her computer without waiting for the job to print. If the disk space for temporary print files is not available, you can load LAN Manager Print Station with spooling disabled.

Printing takes place as a background task on the host computer; the person using that workstation will not be interrupted by print jobs from other users.

The Netpopup or Winpopup utility sends messages to the host workstation when the LAN Manager Print Station encounters errors such as "printer out of paper."

If you load Print Station in nonspooling mode, or if print jobs will be spooled from workstations running OS/2, you should not have messages sent to the host workstation. Loading Print Station in nonspooling mode automatically disables Netpopup or Winpopup. If jobs will be spooled from workstations running OS/2, disable Netpopup or Winpopup manually.

Disabling and Enabling the Printer

You can disable the printer by turning it off or by using the printsta command. You may need to turn your printer off if it needs to be serviced. You may want to disable your printer using the printsta /d command if you need exclusive use of the printer or if you must use the printer locally. The printer queue continues to accept jobs, but the jobs will not print until you re-enable the printer.

For more information, see Chapter 5, "Enhanced Reference," or Chapter 7, "Basic Reference."

Managing a Shared Printer

Technical documentation

» Table of Contents

» Glossary

» Index

Recommendations for Using a Shared Printer

Administrator's Responsibilities

Your Responsibilities

Maintaining the Link to the Server for Clispool or Clipcach

Using the Print Station Utility