sharing a printer with non domain members

Best way?  Aside from joining the workstations o the domain, you might create some user accounts in a group just for this purpose.  Give those accounts or an account access to the printer shares only, then add the printer to the workstations.   They will have to enter a password to connect to the printer.  There has to be authentication of some kind going on here.

If the printers are connected directly to the LAN via a network connection and are using IP addressing, simply add the printers to the W2K workstations as local printers and add a Standard TCP/IP port that points to those printers.

No authentication required as you bypass the print queue on the server.

sorry forgot to mention...the printer is hooked up (serial port) to a domain member machine.

netman, do i still add it the same way?  

Nope.

that was helpful

The answer is no, your printer if it is local to a workstation does not have it's own IP address.  Thus, Netman66's very good recommendation will not be viable for you.

You could buy a print server box (JetDirect or something of the like) and put it on th wire with an IP.  Then you could use Netman66's solution.

Otherwise you are relegated to my previous suggestions.

MSGeek is correct in his statement.

If the printers are connected to the server, the only way to print to them is through the server - which requires the PC to be a member of the domain and the user to be logged into that domain.

External print servers are cheap.  You can purchase one to connect to the LAN and then to the parallel port of the printer - thus being able to print both from the domain as you do now and from non-domain worksations directly to the print server device.

If you can get by with just one printer for the non-domain memebers, then you only need to purchase one external print server and a high-speed parallel cable.

here's the deal:
the computers are all part of a domain (DOMAIN1)
-domain is nt4
-most clients are win2kpro
-occasionally users log on locally and need to print...these locallly logged on users should not be able to access domain1

what if...

i put the pc and it's printer (which is connected via serial) in a workgroup  (Workgroup) or a different domain (Domain 2)

would Domain1 be able to access it?  how would i set it up

In the proposed solution the computer would be in a workgroup and would logon locally.  (If it is a second domain, logging on locally will put you in the same situation you are in now.)  In a workgroup you can share printers, but must enable the guest account on each machine OR add all users to each machine and make sure passwords and usernames match.

Why did you suggest Domian 2, is there a security reason users are logging on locally instead of authenticating locally?

if it were two domains ...i was thinking of building a 1 way trust.  so that the local users who need to print could log on to domain2.  domain1 users who were trusted could then also print

yes...the users who are logging on locally (domain2/workgroup) should NOT be able to access domain1 at all but need to print

It's obvious you have extra workstations so why not try this:

Hook up the printer to a spare workstation and share it.  Enable the guest account on that PC only.

Point the Domain server's print queue at this workstation's printer share - this will satisfy your domain printing.

Now, map each printer to the non-domain workstations - all the workgroup (or non-domain) PCs should now be able to print through this workstation.

One issue - the PC must stay on and logged in to the console at all times for it to be available.

This should work.

If not, the amount of effort you are putting into this is costing you more than picking up a cheap printer off eBay and configuring it for just the non-domain users.

Just my thoughts.

Or costing your company in man hours :)

sorry...i'm by no means an nt guru. as you will see:

you said point the domain server's print queue at the workstation ???  
do you mean on a printserver?  how is that done if the printer is connected to the workstation.

let's say i have printserver1
and workstation1
what steps needs to be done.

also, what is the purpose of enabling the guest account only.

thanks for your time.

Buy a print server box, hp jetdirect or something similar.

was definitely a rights issue.  i tried netman's steps...it didn't work exactly...could see the printer from other machines and add it but when i tried printing nothing happened...no errors in the print que or anything.
i then got fed up and gave the guest admin rights and now it all works fine.