work around for drivers and terminal services windows 2003 R2

For the HP LaserJet 500 you could try the HP Universal Printer driver.

Or you can use the printsubs.inf to map the printers to drivers that are close. For example, you could try mapping the HP LaserJet 500 Plus to "HP LaserJet 4/4M PS". Please see this article for details on how to do that:
"HP LaserJet 4/4M PS"

oops - this link:
http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2004/02/02/the-ultimate-guide-to-terminal-server-printing-design-and-configuration.aspx

Hi,

on regard of printer drivers, typically only PS or PCL Printers are supported for terminal services, as the ink jet drivers for those printers that do not understand a page description language will cause too many issues on a terminal server. So, if above does not work, you asked, if you could share your USB Port / Flash Drive.
Basically, if you have the rights to create a network share in your environment and map this from the terminal session, sure, this should be possible.

When you've plugged the USB Drive into your port you can try to right click onto the drive letter that is created and select "share". You might add your userd explicitly to the share and grant it full access rights.
Then from the Terminal session you try to map \\yourcomputer\usbsharedDrive with your user credentials (if they are not the same anyway) then you should be able to access this.
If you do not have sufficient rights to map a share into your terminal session you could only try if there is any other drive that you might map from your home computer (the other way around)
Maybe this helps?

but sumerdai,

Using one of these universal drivers wouldn't allow a lexmark or epson to map properly with an hp laserjet 500 driver, correct?

The big issue with me is I want to use my Lexmark or Epson whatever will work the best as the printer I print to.  Problem is I am printing from windows 2003 R2 which I have connection too through windows remote desktop via windows 2003 R2 terminal services.

In my case I do not have a printer close to this hp printer that I can print to from my remote location from the actual computer that is acting as the place where files are looked at and saved at.

So I guess this is why I was thinking of another alternative since these two companies didn't provide drivers for my printer for the sql 2003 server.

Do you think that perhaps if I download drivers that are built for the microsoft 2003 servers from a different printer made by lexmark that perhaps I could map my pinnacle pro 901 lexmark to it since they would be both lexmark drivers just built for two totally different models and technologies of printers at that (one being inkjet all in one as the other one is laserjet.)

Thanks,

Bo

The point is, that the inkjet must "understand" the printjob that is created by the driver.
Inkjets mostly have a "host based" communication, i.e. no "printer language" at all.
A printer like laser or higher end ink jets that understand PCL or PS would accept  typically any PCL or PS job and at least produce some output even if the driver is a different one. (It might be that certain fonds and spacings might differ, but basically it should work)

Hello Printnix63:

I have been trying your suggestions both ways in regards to mapping the client drive to the terminal session as well as trying to map the terminal session drive to the client and in both cases I get this network not found error.

Does it make sense that this is the typical error one would get if adequate permissions were not given? or might I be doing something wrong.

I basically did the following use net z:\\clientcomputer\shared name /persistant:yes

Actually I tried it with the switch persistant as well as without it.  

When I tried to go the other way around I simply via the terminal opened the command prompt and typed the command net use

This gave me a list of drives on this server I had access to as well as the network name.

Than I went back to my client computer and opened up a command prompt and typed use net z:\\clientnameasstatedinthenetworkpathforthedriveIwantedmapped\thesharename

Again I tried the switch persistant as well as left it out and still no go.

I read somewhere that the server admin

Here is a blurb I found from the following site

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272519

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To use client-side drive redirection, use one of the following methods:
Use the Drive Share utility from the Microsoft Windows 2000 Resource Kit. You can download the Drive Share utility from the following Microsoft Web site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb633748.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb633748.aspx)
For additional information about the Drive Share utility, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
244725  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244725/EN-US/ ) Using Drive Share with Terminal Services
Use the net use command with a persistent switch to redirect or map a client's local drive so that it can be used in a Terminal Services session. To do this, follow these steps:


Share the drive on the client computer that is to be mapped. For example, to redirect drive A, start Windows Explorer, right-click Drive A, click Sharing, and then click Share this folder.
From the client computer, establish a session with the Terminal Services server.
Open a Cmd.exe prompt and type the following syntax to map the drive:net use driveletter: \\clientname\sharename /persistent:yes

where driveletter is the drive letter that you want to use for redirection, and sharename is what the drive was shared out as on the client computer. You need to run this command only once in the session. After that, every time the connection is made, the drive is mapped.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am wondering is the error network not found a result of perhaps the admin of the server not installing the  drive share utility?

Anyway let me know if there is anymore ideas or if I have it a brick wall and if so what request I need to make to the admin of the server in order that I might be able to perform this mapping of the local drive.

Don't know if they will grant this access to me but at least if I can have it that will server the same purpose as I was trying to achieve via being able to use my printer via the terminal session.

Thanks again,

Bo

hey Bo (I'm back ;). Appears your dilemma is the same. There does appear to be a server driver for the Epson (or so their site seems to imply). Not sure what their 'universal' driver installer does but...
Do you have a 2K3 server you could try it on? (something I'd do before requesting the server admin to install).  Just a thought.

Beyond that your print to file (PDF writer?) might be best bet.

Bo,

On the share issue... are you connecting to VPN first or just RDP?

Hello ra000l unfortunately I do not have that server only client operating systems here such as xp and windows 7.  That's neat to know though that Epson does have this universal driver installer.

I agree I should test this first if I could because according to the epson technical support 2 person who specializes in this large format Epison printer I have they said it was not possible and he was the one that suggested the idea of a print server solution which honestly felt was totally off the mark but hay this guy was not a network specialist anyway.

In regards to your print to file idea in theory this sounds good the only problem is that again the information I am needing access to is on this 2003 server.  If I print to file I can of course have the info in pdf format but than the question remains how do I get that file from point a to point b.

This is where my idea of making use of a usb drive mapping came in.

It seems like printnix63 is on to something in regards to this usb mapping idea but I just can't put my finger on the network not found error weather somehow I am typing the path in the command prompt wrong or if this is sort of a non descript error that suggests any number of possibilities including not giving authorization to map a client to a terminal server.

As stated above I tried the other way around and ran into the same brick wall so I am really wondering what I need to inform this admin of if they have not granted me permission.  Weather they need to install this drive map utility onto there windows 2003 server or simply tweak a couple things specifically for the account they set up for me via this terminal services.

I do think at this point it does seem to boil down to the idea that utilizing my local printer through terminal services will not work.  Printsix63 made a logical point in stating that lower end inkjet printers use host based session without a printer language like ps or PCL.

This certainly makes sense especially given that Lexmarks told me if I wanted to purchase one of their higher end printers which was one of their laser lineups this would support terminal session printing.  I am wondering if that is because it has the ability to use ps or PCL so data could go to the printer.

At any rate it seems like for now the idea of utilizing my printer is sort of a dead end street but if I could get the terminal service to recognize my usb drive letter from my client computer than I could do what you suggested print to file through the file onto this usb drive that was mapped in and save the file than go to my client computer to do the print out since obviously my printer works fine on my local client computer.

Anyway thanks for these suggestions as it is getting me closer to some solution that will at the end of the day lend itself to me being able to print this stuff on the server through my client side printer instead of making those trips to the office where this server resides.  

The time it would take to save a file to a usb drive and then go to the client computer to print the file off from the usb drive is certainly tolerable and not a lot of extra time the printing directly would save this usb step but I guess this usb idea would be my next choice before deciding that their is no way really I can make use of my printer for these documents either directly or via the usb drive.

Thanks again roool and printsix63

Terminal Server 2003 and current RDP client should let you see your drive via...
1. Share the flder/drive on your local machine (allow network users to change)
2. In the RDC client, under Options -> (Local Devices and resources) More -> Drives

In 2K3, that should just connect (meaning if you open 'My Computer' on the Terminal Server, you'll see your drives). If it does not, the server admin has likely disabled redirection via Group Policy or Terminal Services Manager and privileges would need to be changed on the server.

oops - meant to paste this...
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc775863(WS.10).aspx

Good work roool,

That was exactly what I needed.  Now the only question remaining is will I be the only one that will be able to see this via my connection.

You see what I am thinking is sharing this drive via the terminal session and placing a shortcut to the drive on the desktop but I certainly would not want this to show up on the desktop of other client computers that have a terminal session into the server.

I know that once I disconnect from the server the drive will not longer be availabel or operate but just want to make sure their will not be some broken icon link to the drive left on the hard drive once I disconnecxt from the session.  

I guess in worse case scenario I could just always go directly to the drive via my computer instead of creating a shortcut on the desktop but I am setting things up so a non techie can understand how to get files from the server in a safe way to their client computer where it can be printed.

The other option would be via email but when dealing with sensative information this of course is not a good method and is much more secure to use a flash drive connected directly to the client computer for transferring information to be printed from a client computer.

Thanks,

Bo

Hello Sumerdai,

good catch on the universal print driver thing I never even realized that existed.

I did click on the link you gave to me and based on my research on the lexmark site it doesn't sound like they certainly think it would work since they said one of the exceptions to the use of universal drivers was host based printers that don't of ps or pcl capabilities which I am sure mine does not based on what Lexmark technical support ensured me a couple days ago.

The other thing was that it seemed the focus was on their laser line up not on their inkjet line up which it says on this site and I was told that by the tech person over the phone as well.  The one that seemed like they had it together (i.e. not seeming like reading some script or screen monitor)

Anyway having said all this I guess I need to see if I can set me up a windows 2003 server to test these ideas out on.  The real 2003 server that I need it to work on is not administered by me so some of these tweaks I certainly couldn't do simply via terminal services but I would like to get an idea if any of your ideas could be workable ones.

I guess what I need to do is set this test environment up and go ahead and give this a whirl and if I find something that works on my simulated environment I can alert the admin of this and provide them with the appropriate driver to install so I can utilize my printer on their server.

The only problem with the simulation idea is that I only own host based printers that doesn't make "specific" drivers for my printer models that run on windows 2003 but I guess if I were to install one of these universal drivers on the windows 2003 server here locally and than utilize my printer that I have on a client pc I wouldn't necessarily have to have any printer attached to the server (or would I) I would just simply need to map my local printer into it via this universal driver.

Let me know if this scenario would make any sense or weather I would literally need a real server based printer with pcl and ps capabilities to even go forward with the simulation of a host based printer attempting to map into a server via a universal driver when in this case their is no ps or pcl printer connected to this local simulation.

Thanks,

Bo

Hi Bo,

You can certainly proceed with your test scenario without physically connecting a printer to the server. I try to avoid doing that whenever possible. You should set up the Windows 2003 Server and Terminal Server, then set up the printsubs.inf as described in the "Workaround Solution: Client to Server Print Driver Mapping" section of the first link.  I have had success with the PS drivers for InkJet printers in the past.

You do not need to have a printer connected to the server - just the driver installed on the Terminal Server. (Just select 'file' for port selection).

Hay roool,

going back just a tad on the thread regarding the usb flash drive approach.  If I drag a shortcut from my jump drive onto the desktop of the windows 2003 server via terminal services this would not show up as a broken link to other clients connecting to the same server via terminal services would it?

I am assuming for other clients nothing would show up on the desktop in regards to this drive shortcut only for my terminal session.  

I just tried unplugging my flash drive and logging off my terminal session than logging back on without my flash drive attached.  Of course for my session I get a short cut to a broken link since I was testing not having my usb plugged in.

I guess I just want to verify that other client terminal sessions wouldn't be cluttered with this drive letter shortcut on their sessions desktop.

I am sort of thinking not since most probably wouldn't be checking to share a disk in the RDP but than again you never know.

Thanks,

Bo

The shortcut should show for only your login.

Hay roool,

Disregard this last comment as I notice when I unplug my usb drive (even when not on the terminal session) and plug it back in (before I get on the terminal session) the shortcut to the usb drive still gets broken even though in the my computer area the drive stilled is mapped to the same letter.

Probably my best approach is to drag a copy of the my computer icon to the desktop and access the usb drive that way since the my computer shortcut shouldn't turn up broken when I disconnect the usb port from the client computer and than reconnect it, etc...

I guess the question still would apply though in regards to desktop clutter.  The general idea is would my terminal session desktop differe from other clients going into the server via their terminal sessions.

I know their are certain shortcuts on the desktop that everyone who has accesss to the server can access set up by the administrator but I guess my question is anything I pull over onto the desktop as a terminal session user will this be able to be seen by all other clients who terminal in through their session to this same server.

Thanks,

Bo

thanks,
roool, printnix63 and sumerdai for all your feedback.

I think for now I will keep this thread open while I dabble a bit with a 2003 server to see what I can do in regards to this printer issue realizing it has no ps or pdl capabilities.  It would be neat though if I found something that would set it going never the less in either case the flash drive scenario certainly sounds to me to definately be a go.

Thanks and take care,

Bo

Ok everyone,

I have installed my windows 2003 for temporary purposes and have played around enough to set up the terminal services and setup a test user and put them into the remote desktop group.

I did have a bit of trouble in regards to the initial terminal configuration but than once I installed my network card driver into windows 2003 via the inf file and pointed to that driver ALONE in the configuration section opposed to say use all possible network drivers I was able to successfully configure this.

Anyway to cut to the chase I think I am now at the part where I can test these printer drivers.  The first thing I would like to do (if possible) is simulate the RDP that shows my printer on my test server.

Obvously in this case both the client and server are on the same dsl line.  I am not sure if it is possible to have my lexmark show on the windows 2003 server unless some printer driver is installed on the server as a default.

Right now when I terminal in I just get that no printer was added when I thought somehow my printer would at least appear but than again when I think about how the windows 2003 server that I am trying to do things on for real is setup I notice that while the name of my printer shows as one of the available printers to me the model reflects the printer they have installed onto the server.

Having said this perhaps if no printer has yet been installed on this server than maybe a RDP can't be established working or not working.

What I would like to do if possible is first off simulate what I am actually experiencing in regards to the communication error between client and server and than after I get to that step than I would like to try some of these driver ideas to see if I can find a good fit that would work with my printer.

As it is now since I don't see my printer listed even as a fallback printer on my testing windows 2003 server I am wondering if their is some preliminary print services I need to activate or something in order to get to the first base with this test.

Thanks again,

Bo

if no printer is installed on the server, you won't see printer on your RDP machine. you will see errors in event viewer on the terminal server 'TermServDevices' or some such telling you it doesn;t know what that Epson thing is.
next step would be install the Epson driver on your server. Per previous points, less is more i.e. add JUST the printer driver. (biggest PIA with Epson in my experience is their ink monitor thing...) I'd actually go for the universal driver first. point it to 'file' for port then see if you can print from your client machine as it is. If not, put that universal driver on your WIn7 machine, try again.

Ok that sounds good. I am wondering to raoool to increase as close to a realistic simulation as possible would it be smart for me to grab the driver for that hp laserjet 500 that the real server I am trying to connect to is using and see if with that driver initiated if my lexmarks will show as a fallback of the hp laserjet 500 driver.

This is what was happening on the real server and than as a next step do what you outlined above or would it really be better for me to just leave the hp thing alone and simply go straight for the drivers I need to run my printer and than once I get a decent thing going I can then let the real admin of this server know what driver is needed in order to run this lexmark and or epson what ever the case may be.

Thanks,

Bo

You can install HP LaserJet 500 driver, but unless you map the local printer to it or set the Terminal Server Fallback Printer to it, I don't think it will matter. Your admin must have set up one of these if you are seeing you printer mapped to the HP LJ 500.  I think that in order to use the Fallback Printer in group policy you need to have SP1 for Win 2003.

You can also use the Terminal Server Printer Redirection Wizard Tool to help find the errors:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=9AD27BE9-40DB-484F-862E-38A094EEEAF7&displaylang=en

Bo,

I can see the logic in emulating the setup 100%, but mefears it will simply confirm what we think we already know - that is that Lexmark and/or Epson don't support PCL or PostScript (or HP-GL). I'd be surprised if you can get more than jibberish and a form feed from either of your printers with the HP driver (but hey... stranger things have happened).

If the Epson (or Lexmark) driver works, you'll give the admin a much easier task - installing a printer driver is pretty basic stuff. If it's my terminal server, I'm more willing to put on one new driver (of course with the condition that the first blip anywhere on the network and it comes off ;) than I am delving into name mapping/substitution thing - especially when you throw in 32-bit server / 64-bit client variable.

Hay, raoool,

Thanks for your feedback and thank you for your feedback as well sumerdai.

I will go forward with trying to learn about these things and see if I can get a successful printout with one of these drivers.

That makes logical sense to roool that even if I can get one of these drivers to successfully work on the server it still could cause a blip on the server in which case it may be removed immediately and I would be back to plan B with the flash drive idea.

In either case it doesn't hurt to try with the mapping of my local printer idea and at best I got some education on server administration.

As you can tell I haven't really done any networking as such on a server type of basis.  My main field is web development and I do quite a bit of troubleshooitng in regards to software hardware issues but the networking area was never one of my strengths.

So this is good because it gives me some real life experiences with server administration.  I have used tcpip and ix protocols before as well as connected to servers in the most basic way from a clients point of view but never looked at this at a server admins point of view.

I guess this also will give me more apprecition and understanding for why some things that seem perfectly logical to me aren't quite as cut and try in the eyes of a server admin do to the greater concern they must have for stability and high performance for multiple connections than does a client computer and an admin of a client computer have to concern themselves with.

I never realised all the licensing stuff and all that goes on either to run a real production server.  As I was able to set up this test server 2003 I saw that it was told to me I could use terminal services for 120 days and than it would stop working without proper licensing.

I am so used to clientside stuff where your only license really is the operating system and than of course third party software that runs on the operating system or plugs into the operating system but now I can see the complexity of licensing when it comes to windows servers that is not merely simply the server itself but rather certain addon components of the server made from the same guys who made the framework of the operating system itself.

Anyway thanks for all your help and I am going to try these things and see what I can come up with.

Bo

Yes, as Raool said the manufacturer's drivers would be better if they will work. I gave the order of preference which I would use in comment 35786415.

Hello sumerdai and raoool,

It worked successfully on my simuation.  Of course I didn't have this simulation set up properly for a domain server (which means I could only connect to this server via remote desktop with another one of my computers on the same network).

I assume though that if it worked properly via connecting directly to the computer (opposed to the domain of a computer) from another client in my network that it should certainly work if the admin would install the driver on their server 2003 which obviously is set up for domain access.

Now the one last wrinkle that I am not totally sure on is when I installed this lexmark printer driver found in the Drviers>2000\xp folder I did it in the following way.

I simply went to the add printer area and clicked on add printer than clicked on have disk and simply pointed to this 2000\xp folder.

Now it found the appropriate driver and of course installed it on my simulation but my question is when I pointed to the 2000\xp folder and I installed it in the mentioned I mentioned did it only install the print driver or whas it also the fax and scan drivers that were installed.

This printer is actually an all in one printer and if you ran the exe file to load up all the software, etc, etc... it would of course allow faxing, printing, scanning, etc...

As discussed earlier raoool I remember you telling me just try to extract the drivers rather than of course having the admin install the driver via the exe files.

Now my question is by pointing to the 2000\xp directory in the drivers folder and going through this manuel process was the print driver the only one that got installed.

I cannot tell because I checked out in my control panel in printer section both on my client computer as well as my 2003 environment and in both cases only one icon showed up for the lexmark printer (i.e. no fax print, scan, etc...)

I know all drivers for this printer were installed on my client side since I went through the whole software to set up the various components step by step so I just wanted to verify that by manually pointing to the main 2000\xp folder in the driver folder only the print driver would have been searched out and installed instead of all those drivers or do I need to dig down deeper into this folder structure to ensure only the inf file responsible for the print feature is found and isntalled rather than take the risk it will sniff out inf files for all the various driver that the lexmark all in one printer can use.

Thanks,

Bo

It should have only added the one driver, but you can double-check. You can check which drivers were installed by opening Printers And Faxes on the 2003 server, Right-Clicking and selecting Server Properties. The Drivers tab will list all the drivers installed on the server. If you don't see a bunch of Lexmark ones, you are good to go.

Hello Sumerdai that's awesome,

Thank you I think I have concluded the issue and now it is a matter of getting the admin of the server to implement this.

Thanks raoool for your contribution to this thread as well as printnix63.

This has been a journey but I think finally I have gotten something that is workable.

Take Care,

Bo

Great Feedback.  I gleaned a lot from this thread and ultimately helped me find a solution to the problem at least on my end of things.  Now it is up to the admin to implement the solution but the solution I was seeking was given to me thoroughly and completely.

Thanks printnix63, sumerdai, and roool for all the contributions you gave to make this happen.

great news. good luck with the server admin ;)

Glad we could help!

Welcome, glad you could find a solution, and sorry that I could only show up so sparsely.