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Some applications don't see network printers



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 10th 04, 03:13 PM
Greg
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Default Some applications don't see network printers

We have a network with 10 printers and 30 workstations. On the few workstations that are XP, in certain applications, we can't access the netwrked Widnows printers. For instance, if I'm in Word or Excel and I want to print a document, I can choose any of
the 10 printers. However, if I want to print from Access or Acrobat, my only choices are Netware printers and some printers that are shared off of workstations. In Access and Acrobat, I can't see the choices for the printers that are shared from our Win
dows 2000 server.

Any ideas? By the way, I have noticed one unique factor about the printers that don't show up. When I open the print dialog in Word or Excel and look at the list of available printers, some display as UNC paths and others display as more English like nam
es. It is the UNC formatted ones that don't show up at all in the other applications.

Any ideas?

Greg
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  #2  
Old March 11th 04, 04:04 AM
Bruce Sanderson
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Default Some applications don't see network printers

The MS Office suite does not use the standard, Windows XP, print dialogs,
whereas many other applications do. What we've found here is that the
applications that use the standard Windows XP print dialogs do not "see"
printers that have certain kinds of issues with their printer drivers.
These printers will still show up in the Printers and Faxes folder and in
the MS Office print dialogs.

Now, I suspect that the printers that show up in the MS Office print dialog
with UNC names are true "network printers". Those that show up with "more
English like names" have most likely been added as "Local Printers" (even
though they are actually elsewhere on the network), either with a Standard
TCP/IP port, a "Local Port" that has the name of a printer shared from
another computer, or some other port type .

Ok, that's great, but now what? What we've found is you get this "missing
printer" syndrome when the printer driver on the local computer doesn't
match or is "not compatible" with the printer driver on the computer from
which the printer was shared.

On a computer where you have this problem, open the Printers and Faxes
folder. The printers that are really "Network Printers" on that computer
will show up as "printername on servername". Those that are really "Local
Printers" will show up with whatever name was assigned to them when they
were added. Right click on one of these "Local Printers", select
Properties, then select the Ports tab. What do you see in the "Port" and
"Description" columns for these printers?

To fix this, you need to delete the printer and the associated printer
driver, then add the printer again either as a true "Network Printer" or
with a "compatible" printer driver. However, the best way to proceed really
depends on a number of factors, including the answers to the questions I
posed two paragraphs earlier. Also

1. what OS versions are running on the computers from which the printers are
shared?
2. what make and model of printers are involved?

If you want to take the bull by the horns and try to fix up one of the XP
computers right away, see if the information at
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/Clea...erDrivers.htm,
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/AddDrivertoOldOS.htm and
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/NetPrinterNoPP.htm help at all.

--
Bruce Sanderson MVP

It's perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.


"Greg" wrote in message
...
We have a network with 10 printers and 30 workstations. On the few

workstations that are XP, in certain applications, we can't access the
netwrked Widnows printers. For instance, if I'm in Word or Excel and I want
to print a document, I can choose any of the 10 printers. However, if I
want to print from Access or Acrobat, my only choices are Netware printers
and some printers that are shared off of workstations. In Access and
Acrobat, I can't see the choices for the printers that are shared from our
Windows 2000 server.

Any ideas? By the way, I have noticed one unique factor about the

printers that don't show up. When I open the print dialog in Word or Excel
and look at the list of available printers, some display as UNC paths and
others display as more English like names. It is the UNC formatted ones
that don't show up at all in the other applications.

Any ideas?

Greg



 




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