Printer ON

  • Thread starter Thread starter C. Dexter Southerland
  • Start date Start date
C

C. Dexter Southerland

Hi,
Thanks in advance for your help. I have printers named such as Laserjet 4
on WSS1. I want to rename it to John's Laserjet4. It does not give me a
rename option. Any ideas??
Thanks
Dexter
 
With Windows 2000 (and later), Network Printers do not get a complete object
with a name; rather they are essentially just a reference to the printer on
the print server. Since there is no complete "object", there is no name to
change.

However, you can add information (on the computer that has the printer
share) to the Comments or Location attributes which will show up in the
Printers folder if View, Details is selected (on the client).
 
Bruce,
Thanks for your help. Let me clarify question. I have some workstations
with Laserjet 4 on WSS1. I can rename and others I can't?
Thanks
Dexter
 
Depends on two things:

1. what OS is running on the client workstation - with Windows 9x clients,
you get a complete printer object for "Network Printers" and you can rename
"Network Printers". For Windows 2000 and later clients, see 2 below.

2. on Windows 2000 and later clients, there are at least three different
ways to "connect" a network attached printer (well actually, some of these
can also be used on Windows 9x clients, but what actually happens on them is
different):

a. use the Add Printer Wizard and add the printer as a (true) Network
Printer - these show up in the Printers (or Printers and Faxes - depending
on the client OS) folder as "PrinterName on PrintServerName". When, from
the client computer, you open the Properties of such printers, you see the
Properties as they are on the print server computer - there are NO local
(client) Printer Properties for these printers. For these printers you can
NOT change the Printer Name on the client, only on the server.

b. use the Add Printer Wizard and add the printer as a Local Printer on a
port that has the UNC name of the printer as its (the client computer's
port's) name (e.g. \\PrintServerName\PrinterShareName). These are really
Local printers that happen to have their print data streams redirected to a
printer shared from another computer. When you look at the Properties of
these printers, you are looking at the Properties of the printer on the
client computer. On the client's computer Printer Properties, Ports tab,
the port for these printers will have the UNC name in the Port column and
Local Port in the Description column. For these printers, you can change
the name of the printer on the client.

c. use the Add Printer Wizard and add the printer as a Local Printer on a
Standard TCP/IP port that has the IP address of the LAN adapter in the
physical Print Device (physical printer). These are really Local Printers
and you can change the name on the client.

There are other ways to add printers (e.g. see
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/NetPrinterAllUsers.htm, but the end result
will be one of the above three possibilities.
 
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