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Capturing Printer Port with IP Printer in Windows 98SE

Ok guys, get the delorian out we need to go back about 8 years.

I am working with a sheet from Lotus 123 (Yuck. Old DOS Lotus)
I need to get it working for them on a new machine temporarily while I rewrite the application in Access.
I purchased a Lexmark C532n in order to get rid of the old Lex Optra R that they were using. Because of this, I have also elimininated an old server, which was also obsolete. So, I'm wondering if there is a way to setup the printer to capture a printer port as LPT1 in windows 98SE so that they can print from Dos. I was thinking net use, but can't find a command to use with an IP address. I have also tried using the capture port option, which won't work because it is not setup as a printer share.

I understand that if I share this printer on another maching, my previous mention would work no problem, but I'd like to completely to segment and get this thing off the network for the short time that I need it.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Steve

Hypercat (Deb)

You can share the printer on the workstation it's connected to and then capture that share to LPT1 on the same machine. Most DOS programs will not care that the shared printer is on the same machine as the LPT port you are capturing it to, since they are not UNC_aware anyway.

srblaney

ASKER

I'll try that. Be in touch in a few mintues.

srblaney

ASKER

Just tried the suggested response. Unfortunately it didnt' work. I am able to share the printer, but receive the following message when I try to capture the printer port:

"This operation cannot be performed to your own computer"

Any other ideas?

Thanks

Steve

Hypercat (Deb)

Can you capture it to LPT2 instead of LPT1? It's been a long time....but maybe 98SE has a restriction to prevent you from doing a capture to a port that's being used by a physical device (i.e., LPT1 being a physical parallel port).

srblaney

ASKER

I'll give that a shot, but I think I may have alredy tried that when I tried your idea. I will let you know tomorrow.

srblaney

ASKER

Tried it and still no joy. It will not let me share any of the lpt ports. I get the same error.

Hypercat (Deb)

Too bad this printer doesn't have a parallel interface - sometimes that ancient technology still comes in handy. I think that you might be able to get an adapter cable that would convert from the USB port on the printer to the parallel port on the computer. I googled and found this site; there are probably other options:

http://www.emtcompany.com/catagories/usb-to-parallel-adapters.htm?gclid=COXXsJrM8ZMCFQmdnAodcC5jVw

Looks like the second one down is what you would need.

srblaney

ASKER

Unfortunately, I need to setup this printer on the network as it would be a pretty big hassle to run a parallel cable all that way. Anyone have any other ideas?

Steve

srblaney

ASKER

BTW. Thanks for your help Hypercat.

Steve Knight

Have you thought of vmware or virtualpc? You could install a "new" pc with an image of the old one in a VM (or a newly installed Windows 98 machine) which is dead easy to install and get working. That can then print to the parallel port of the host machine, or to a shared printer on the host machine.

Other than that you could attached the printer to a print server on the LAN that pretends to be a netbios machine, e.g. netgear ps121 for USB or ps101 for parallel as far as I know... then you can just net use to \\printservername\printer etc.

You could also try adding a line to LMHOSTS file resolving a name for the print server you have to it's IP address.

Steve

fhmc

I may not be following your post correctly, so please correct me if any of my assertions are incorrect.

1. You are NOT sharing this USB printer? You seemed to suggest that in your initial post and I have not noticed any follow up posts from you contradicting this assertion...

if this is the case, and if sharing the printer is NOT an option, you are likely facing an uphill battle.

2. if you can and will share the printer, I suspect your task is an easy one.

- share the printer on the host that's connected to the printer via USB (call that host "HOST1" for now and share the printer as LEX1)
- locally or remotely, execute the following commands.
- start -> run -> cmd -> ok
net use lpt3 \\host1\lex1 /persistent:yes
exit
start -> run -> control printers -> ok
start the install printer wizard
install a new LOCAL printer, install it on LPT3, use the correct Lexmark driver for it
print a test page
does it work?

srblaney

ASKER

Okay, I left out the face that this is an ip printer in the original post. I apologize for that.

I am completely familiar with sharing a printer on a workstation and capturing the port. for the Lexmark, there is software and a driver to connect via tcp/ip, which I found surprising and it works nicely with Windows 98. Only thing is, I can't capture it. I have actually already connected Windows 98 to the printer through a Windows XP VPC. Works good. Only problem the machine that I was hoping to use it for will not run XP as it's a laptop.

Anyway, I guess I may have to setup a temporary print server if there isn't a way to capture an IP address to an lpt port.

Does this help?

Steve

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

fhmc

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Steve Knight

I would say accept fhmc's last comment as a clear to the point description of how to accomplish the request...

Steve