70-270, 70-290 MCSE/MCSA Guide to Installing and Managing

Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003

Chapter TenImplementing and Managing Network Printing

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Objectives

• Understand Windows printing terms and concepts

• Install and share printer resources

• Configure and manage installed printers

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Objectives (continued)

• Publish printers in Active Directory

• Troubleshoot printer problems

• Configure fax support

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Windows Printing Concepts

Figure 10-1: Windows printing components

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Windows Printing Concepts (continued)

• Print device: Hardware device that produces printed documents– Local print device: Connected directly to print

server or workstation– Network print device: Connects to print server via

network• Printer: Controls connection to print device• Print driver: Files containing info needed to

convert print commands to printer’s language– Specific driver needed for each combination of print

device and OS

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Windows Printing Concepts (continued)

• Print server: Computer where printers and print drivers located– Usually where shared printing system set up and

configured– Windows XP and Server 2003 can be print servers– Server 2003 offers centralized printer management

and support for more user connections

• Print client: Computer where print job originates

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Windows Printing Concepts (continued)

• Local Printers: Controlled and managed by a client computer– Directly Attached Print Devices:

• Easily accessible to users

• Available when network down

• Cost and space requirements must be considered

– Network-attached Print Devices:• Print device communicates with computer system via

network cable

• Saves desk space and reduces printer costs

• Users don’t know status of print device

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Windows Printing Concepts (continued)

• Shared Printers: Best way to centrally manage printing on network system – Install local printers on Windows Server 2003

computers and then share them– Can publish in Active Directory– Can restrict access to certain printers or set printer

priorities

• Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) Printers: TCP/IP standard that describes how print devices can use Internet to receive print jobs

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Understanding Network Printing

• Hardware requirements to set up efficient network printing environment:– One or more computers to act as print servers– Enough space on hard drive for print server– Sufficient RAM beyond minimum Windows Server

2003 requirements• Print client and print server run specific processes

to deliver print job to network printer:– Print client software generates print file– Graphics device interface (GDI) performs

rendering

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Understanding Network Printing (continued)

• Delivering print job to network printer (continued):– Print file formatted with control codes

• Spooler: Dynamic link libraries (DLLs), information files, and programs that process print jobs

– Remote print provider at client makes remote procedure call to network print server

– Router directs print file to print provider– Print provider works with print processor to ensure

file formatted to use right data type while file spooled– Print monitor pulls file from spooler’s disk storage

and sends it to printer

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Installing and Sharing Printer Resources

• Printers connected and installed first, then shared• Adding a Printer as a Local Device:

– Must have administrator privileges – Use Add Printer Wizard

• Activity 10-1: Installing a Local Printer– Objective: Use the Add Printer Wizard to install a

local printer• Activity 10-2: Sharing a Local Printer for

Network Access– Objective: Share an installed printer to allow

network access

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Installing and Sharing Printer Resources (continued)

Figure 10-3: Manually configuring a printer

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Installing and Sharing Printer Resources (continued)

Figure 10-4: Configuring printer port settings

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Installing and Sharing Printer Resources (continued)

Figure 10-5: Sharing an existing printer

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Installing and Sharing Printer Resources (continued)

• Adding a Printer as a Network Device:– Many corporate print devices use TCP/IP or other

protocols to communicate over network– Use Add Printer Wizard to add printers as network

devices• Create TCP/IP port to facilitate communication

• Activity 10-3: Installing a Network Printer– Objective: Install a network printer by using the Add

Printer Wizard and by browsing the network

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Installing and Sharing Printer Resources (continued)

Figure 10-7: The Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard

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Configuring and Managing Printer Resources

• Basic settings in Add Printer Wizard can create suitable configuration for allowing users to access shared printer resources

• Properties dialog box of installed printer provides access to many other configuration settings

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Configuring an Existing Printer

• To modify sharing, permissions, and other advanced options, right-click printer icon and click Properties

• Activity 10-4: Exploring Printer Properties– Objective: Explore the configurable properties for an

installed printer

• Activity 10-5: Configuring Printer Permissions– Objective: Configure printer security permissions

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Configuring an Existing Printer (continued)

Table 10-1: Printer permissions

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Configuring an Existing Printer (continued)

Figure 10-10: The Security tab for a printer

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Configuring an Existing Printer (continued)

Figure 10-11: The Effective Permissions tab

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Configuring Printer Pools and Priorities

• Printer pool: Consists of single printer connected to a number of print devices– Allows many physical print devices to function as

single logical printer– Better document distribution – Reduces waiting time for documents to print

• May need to set printer priorities for different groups of users– Install two printers on print server and connect both

to same print device– Set priority for each (1 to 99)

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Configuring Printer Pools and Priorities (continued)

Figure 10-12: Enabling printer pooling

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Configuring Printer Pools and Priorities (continued)

Figure 10-13: Printer priority settings

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Configuring Printer Pools and Priorities (continued)

• Allow only certain users to print to specific printer– Use Security tab

• Activity 10-6: Configuring Printer Pooling:– Objective: Configure two printers to use the printer

pooling feature in Windows Server 2003

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Setting Up and Updating Client Computers

• If mix of OSs throughout network, different version of print driver needed for each– Windows 2000, Server 2003, or XP clients

automatically download print driver– Can install additional print drivers for older OSs

• Activity 10-7: Installing Additional Print Drivers– Objective: Install additional print drivers for the

Windows 98 operating system

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Setting Up and Updating Client Computers (continued)

Figure 10-14: The Additional Drivers dialog box

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Managing Print Queues

• Print jobs queued after sent to printer– Users with Print permission can pause, resume,

restart, or cancel printing of own documents

Figure 10-15: Viewing the contents of a print queue

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Working with IPP Printing

• Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) specification: Allows printers to be managed via a Web browser and print jobs to be submitted to a URL– Support built into Server 2003, but requires IIS– Connect to/manage printers on Windows Server

2003 system using Web browser

• Benefits:– Simplifies administration of printers– Can print to other locations over the Internet

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Working with IPP Printing (continued)

Figure 10-17: Viewing a print queue using Web-based printer management

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Working with IPP Printing (continued)

Figure 10-18: Specifying a URL in the Add Printer Wizard

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Working with Printer Command-line Utilities

• Windows Server 2003 offers built-in VBScript files for managing printers and related properties:– Prncnfg.vbs– Prndrvr.vbs– Prnjobs.vbs– Prnmngr.vbs– Prnport.vbs– Prnqctl.vbs

• Windows Script Host (WSH): Controller for ActiveX scripting engines– Used to run .vbs files

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Working with Printer Command-line Utilities (continued)

Figure 10-19: Listing the configuration of a local printer with the Prncnfg.vbs command

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Print Spooling

• Print jobs spooled on print server’s hard disk by default – On Windows Server 2003, spooling in Windows\

System32\Spool\Printers by default• Not optimal for high-volume requirements

– Microsoft recommends moving print spool folder to different partition

• Preferably on disk with own controller

• Activity 10-8: Changing the Location of the Spool Folder– Objective: Move the print spool folder to improve

printing performance

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Publishing Printers in Active Directory

• Windows Server 2003 printer installed on domain print server automatically published in Active Directory when shared– By default, published printer objects placed in

Domain Controllers OU– Pre–Windows 2000 print shares can be manually

added to Active Directory

• Activity 10-9: Publishing Printers in Active Directory– Objective: Configure printer publishing settings and

publish printers manually in Active Directory

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Publishing Printers in Active Directory (continued)

Figure 10-21: Viewing published printers in Active Directory Users and Computers

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Troubleshooting Printing Problems

• Problems can, and probably will, occur

• Print jobs managed through print queue– First place to look when printer problems occur– Can pause, restart, or delete print jobs– Can change notifications, change priorities, and

restrict print times

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Jobs Do Not Print

• Jobs may not print for a variety of reasons:– Print device offline– Print device out of paper– Cable problem – Not enough hard disk space available to spool job

• Moving spool file to different drive improves performance and helps eliminate possibility of system crashing

• When print service is not working, documents in print queue won’t print can’t be deleted– Restart print spooler service

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Jobs Do Not Print (continued)

• If printer works only at certain times of day, check printer schedule

• Print device might not print due to paper jam, hardware failure, or stuck print job – Redirect documents to new print device

• Make sure printer has not been set to “off-line”

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Users Cannot Find or Connect to Printers (continued)

• Most common problems:– Access Denied message when attempting to print

• Usually indicates incorrectly configured permissions

– User can’t find printer in Active Directory• Verify that printer still published

– Windows 95/98/Me users can’t connect to printer• Could be result of not installing print drivers for these

OSs

• Drivers for Windows 95/98/Me not installed by default

• Make required drivers available in Sharing tab of printer’s Properties dialog box

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Garbled Print Output

• Usual source of problem is incorrect driver– Download correct drivers from manufacturer’s Web

site, and reinstall on print server

• Activity 10-10: Configuring the Print Spooler Service– Objective: View and configure properties of the Print

Spooler service

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Garbled Print Output (continued)

Figure 10-24: The Print Spooler Properties dialog box

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Configuring Fax Support

• Windows XP Professional and Server 2003 support native fax features and operations– Not enabled by default– Enable via Printers and Faxes applet

• Setting up faxing support:– Windows XP Professional: Click Set up faxing in

Printer Tasks list– Windows Server 2003: Click File, Set Up Faxing

from menu– Must have fax-capable device installed– By default, only sending faxes enabled

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Configuring Fax Support (continued)

• Tabs in Properties dialog box for Fax icon:– General– Sharing– Fax Security– Devices– Tracking– Archives

• Send Fax Wizard walks you through sending a fax• Activity 10-11: Setting up Fax Printing

– Objective: Configure a Windows XP computer to answer incoming fax calls

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Configuring Fax Support (continued)

Figure 10-25: The Tracking tab

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Configuring Fax Support (continued)

Figure 10-26: The Sender Information window

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Configuring Fax Support (continued)

• Troubleshooting fax problems:– Check physical connections of phone line from wall

to computer’s fax device– Use Device Manager to verify driver installed

correctly– Check to make sure you have enabled send and/or

receive capabilities for modem– Check Receive options to make sure handling

inbound faxes as intended

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Summary

• Windows printing has its own unique terminology• Printers are configurable objects that represent an

interface to a print device• For a printer to be made available to network

users, it must be shared in a manner similar to a shared folder

• Printer permissions can be used to control user access to printers and the manner in which users can interact with a printer

• Windows printer systems can be configured with different priorities

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Summary (continued)

• Printer pooling can be used to increase a printer’s speed and availability

• Additional drivers can be installed in a printer’s Properties dialog box so that clients running different OSs can access a printer

• IPP allows printers to be managed via a Web browser and allows users to print by using HTTP

• For best performance, the print spool folder should be located on its own dedicated partition

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Summary (continued)

• Printer publishing allows users to query Active Directory for a list of available printers based on different criteria, such as a printer’s capability to print in color

• Common printer problems on Windows systems include the print device being offline, misconfigured printer permissions, the Print Spooler service hanging, or incorrect drivers being installed

• Faxing has been thoroughly integrated with the Windows printing system and requires only a few easy configuration steps to enable faxing from any print-capable application