Pragma TelnetServer provides client-side printing from a telnet session. Client printing is not supported by all telnet clients, so it is important to make sure that the client being used will support printing from a telnet session. The telnet clients supplied with Windows does not support printing, however the console telnet client shipped with TelnetServer does support client-side printing.
To setup Printer Monitoring, the first thing to do is configure a printer on the server. This information can be found in the Windows documentation. We recommend a Generic/Text Printer on LPT1 or LPT2. Most DOS programs usually only support LPT1 or LPT2 and usually format their own output for the printer. The port used must be a physical port.
Next, configure Pragma TelnetServer to monitor the printer port setup on Windows for telnet printing. It is very important to understand that no print jobs will print locally on the server through the configured port as long as print monitoring is turned on. Therefore, a physical printer should NOT be attached to the printer port.
What follows are step-by-step instructions to set up remote printing, and also a list of rules\restrictions that must be observed.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
On the TelnetServer machine:
Create a Generic\Text Printer under Windows
Go to the "Configure Print Monitoring" icon in the program group created during the install.
Check "Enable Print Monitoring" checkbox
Click "Add" under Printer Ports
Select the number and the type (parallel or serial) for the port on which the Generic\Text Printer was configured.
Check the "Send Form Feed" box.
Click "Apply". Answer yes to restart the Spooler Service, when asked. Click "OK".
Click OK to exit.
On the client, using Pragma's Console Telnet Client.
Connect to the TelnetServer with the following command, where PRINTER is the name of a client's configured printer.
telnetc /c PRINTER
If printing to a network printer, use the command line:
telnetc /c \\COMPUTERNAME\PRINTER
NOTE: this command can be the command line for a shortcut placed on the user's desktop.
See Console Telnet Client - Printing Options for more help on client side configuration.
To test printing in the telnet session, select or create a small .txt file, and execute the following command:
copy file.txt lpt1:
(Change to the port configured earlier if not using LPT1)
Pragma TelnetServer will redirect the output to the specified client printer.
Rules\Restrictions
The port created on the server as the Generic\Text Printer must be an actual, physical port. Other devices cannot use it while Print Monitoring is enabled. We recommend LPT1 or LPT2, because most DOS programs usually only support LPT1 or LPT2 and usually format their own output for the printer.
Jobs cannot be sent too quickly to the port or the port will be lost. This is a Windows limitation.
Users must have at least Change access to the Spool and Save directories.
On the client, the printer name must not contain spaces. (For example, rename "EPSON STYLUS" TO "EPSON")
Finally, it is imperative that no 2 users connect to the TelnetServer with same logon name at the same time and try to print a document.
Troubleshooting
The job goes to the SaveDir but doesn't print to the client printer.
The client printer isn't configured right. Make sure to capture the printer port on the client side. See above.
"Unable to print" or similar errors.
The server printer isn't configured correctly.
When printing a large number of jobs, some jobs are getting lost.
The application is printing the jobs too fast. The jobs are getting to the port too quickly, causing a port error. Slow down how the jobs are being sent to the printer, either by printing one large job or adding a delay between jobs.
When troubleshooting printing problems, track a print job through each stage of printing.
Print job leaves process that prints. Print job will appear in Print Queue for General / Text Only printer port being monitored.
TelnetServer prints the job. With the "Save Jobs" option on, the print job is saved in the appropriate directory. The SpoolDir cannot be used to view the jobs as they spool.
The client receives the job. The client captured printer queue contains the job.
The client prints the job. The client printer prints the job.