Re: script for USB printers

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"  on Fri, 09
Jun 2006 15:25:29 -0400


>> I think of my task as mapping LPT1 to USB, not
>> USB to LPT.  If 2K can do this
>> itself, I would be delighted to hear more

> The routine Robert gave you did just that: mapped the
> one port to the other. Now as to the syntax, I see how
> one could look at it either way: you're sending output
> that the application "thinks" it's sending out an LPT
> to what is in fact a USB port.

The easy way to resolve this is to evaluate the referenced devices. One is
real and physical, the other a fake or an alias. You "map" real to fake. Not
the other way around.

> Thus the deskjet
> attached to \\Anna's USB port is "mapped" to \\Josie's
> LPT2. And logical drive f: on \\Bethany is "mapped" to
> drive g: on \\Francesca.

Correct, correct. \\FRANCESCA\G is not a "real" physical drive, it's an alias.
\\BETHANY\F is real.

> And what Robert's routine does
> is take advantage of a capability of NT flavors (can't
> be done on 9x) to treat local resources as if they were
> remote.

To use the network names or IDs of local resources. "As if they were remote"
argues from a 9x perspective, which isn't really accurate (after all, you can
PING yourself [I'm pretty sure] in 9x, e.g. "ping -a 192.168.1.20" or "ping
FRANCESCA").

>> for now I'm spoiled by using the cable and not
>> having to wait the 20-30 seconds for the first
>> page that goes with using LPT1 redirected to USB.

USB ==> LPT1. Philip, you might want to experiment with a new-ish frame in U2
(7 June refresh) called TYN, which TYpes [prints] to a Network resource using
NT's built-in LPR client (and offers, for download, a command line LPR client
for 9x). TYN responds instantly, literally before you can remove your finger
from the Enter key -- boom! paper starts spitting from the printer. TYN
requires a slightly more elaborate setup than you (apparently) have presently,
namely EITHER a printer that is networkable, i.e. has its own *static* IP
(network) address and HostName (more and more printers are networkable
nowadays), OR a printer which is attached to a hardware Print Server (attached,
in turn, to a Router, thus providing an indirect way of achieving a *static* IP
address and HostName for your printer -- a Router is an advisable [and cheap,
~US$50] piece of hardware for nearly everyone to have, even single-computer
broadband users, because it is a much more effective and unobtrusive firewall
than software solutions, although it still won't prevent you from shooting
yourself in the foot, which is what XP's absurdly intrusive firewall endeavors
to do by constantly sticking its nose into your business). The printer *must*
understand PCL and/or Postscript, but it *need not* explicitly support the DOS
OpSys. If you can meet these requirements, TYN (and underlying LPR) is an
excellent way to go. This represents another and, for U2, new option in the
panoply of alternate methods for old DOS apps to print.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------