A
Andrew King
Hello there,
We have a network of XP Pro machines over three sites (linked with a
Cisco VPN), all connecting into a Windows 2003 Standard Edition
Terminal Server. We have around 20 users, 20 workstations, and 30
printers. All printers are available under the Administrator account
on the server, and are connected via various means: TCP/IP for some
and Windows shares for others, and by Ethernet, USB and parallel
cables. We're not using active directory; just a workgroup.
Our printers are currently in a mess though: every user seems to get a
completely random (and large) selection of printers on the network.
I've just created a test account now, for example, which (without any
changes from myself) has eight printers available, including printers
from all three sites, both from Windows shares and TCP/IP connections,
and both in the Ready and "Printer not found on server,..." status.
This is confusing our users no end, as most of them only need 1-2
printers, and don't have any interest in printing to a building in a
different town.
Could anyone point me out to a document which will explain how exactly
Windows is deciding which printers are available to different users -
and, more to the point, how I can intervene and tell it, for each
user, which printer(s) we want to be available to them?
Also, is there any way to rename shared printers so that they're
called something other than the <share> on <computer> format that
Windows sets automatically? I can remember this being an option under
NT 4.0 (i.e. that there is no rename entry in the context menu for the
printer), but it looks like it still hasn't been fixed for 2003.
Just a pointer to any doc that'll explain either/both of the above two
questions would be fantastic.
Many thanks,
Andrew King
Preston, UK
We have a network of XP Pro machines over three sites (linked with a
Cisco VPN), all connecting into a Windows 2003 Standard Edition
Terminal Server. We have around 20 users, 20 workstations, and 30
printers. All printers are available under the Administrator account
on the server, and are connected via various means: TCP/IP for some
and Windows shares for others, and by Ethernet, USB and parallel
cables. We're not using active directory; just a workgroup.
Our printers are currently in a mess though: every user seems to get a
completely random (and large) selection of printers on the network.
I've just created a test account now, for example, which (without any
changes from myself) has eight printers available, including printers
from all three sites, both from Windows shares and TCP/IP connections,
and both in the Ready and "Printer not found on server,..." status.
This is confusing our users no end, as most of them only need 1-2
printers, and don't have any interest in printing to a building in a
different town.
Could anyone point me out to a document which will explain how exactly
Windows is deciding which printers are available to different users -
and, more to the point, how I can intervene and tell it, for each
user, which printer(s) we want to be available to them?
Also, is there any way to rename shared printers so that they're
called something other than the <share> on <computer> format that
Windows sets automatically? I can remember this being an option under
NT 4.0 (i.e. that there is no rename entry in the context menu for the
printer), but it looks like it still hasn't been fixed for 2003.
Just a pointer to any doc that'll explain either/both of the above two
questions would be fantastic.
Many thanks,
Andrew King
Preston, UK