Remote Printing - Please help

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark
  • Start date Start date
M

Mark

We have successfully established a connection using
remote desktop to our office computers from our home
computers. Both the office and home PCs are running
Windows XP Pro. From one of the home computers we are not
able to print locally. I can have another user connect to
the same office computer and the local (at home) printing
is working fine. However, from one home computer it is
not - we have configured the remote desktop settings on
the home computers to automatically connect to the local
printer. However, the local printer (home pc)is not
available.

What are we missing?
Thank you -
 
The key here, given that the office machines are relatively similar (i.e.
all have SP1 installed)--is what model printer at home, and what port is
used to print to that printer (as seen in properties of the printer, ports
tab.)

RD printing involves redirecting the port, rather than the more familiar
printer sharing where the print file is moved across the network, and
printed using the driver at the client end. By default, only parallel and
serial ports are redirected. Certain USB ports (USBxxx, where xxx =001,
etc) may also be redirected. DOT4 ports, often used by multifunctions
USB-attached devices, are not redirected. There's a registry article on how
to change that behavior, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302361

Note that a reboot is needed after making the registry change in this
article.

The other issue, besides or in addition to the port redirection issue, is
that the correct driver for the home printer must be available at the office
PC--i.e. if the home machine is running win95, with an xyz printer, the
office XP machine must have an XP driver for an xyz printer available.

This missing driver will be recorded as an event in the system event log on
the office PC at the time of connection of the RD session--so you can
troubleshoot this one.
 
Thank you for the information. The home user will be
checking which port is being used by their printer this
evening. They are indeed connected through the USB port
though. So, are all of the USB ports re-routed or just
certain ones? Again, I will know for sure which port is
being used this evening.

Regarding the system log on the office PC - how do I
access this to see if an event for the missing driver is
recorded (Win XP Pro)? If it is missing do I actually need
to Add a printer that is the same as the home printer to
the office computer or does the driver need to be copied
somewhere? Both computers are using Windows XP Pro.

Thank you again -
 
See below...

Mark said:
Thank you for the information. The home user will be
checking which port is being used by their printer this
evening. They are indeed connected through the USB port
though. So, are all of the USB ports re-routed or just
certain ones? Again, I will know for sure which port is
being used this evening.
Click to expand...


Ports designated as USB001, etc, will be redirected. Ports designated as
DOT4 will not, unless you make the change to the registry and reboot, as
indicated in the KB article.
Regarding the system log on the office PC - how do I
access this to see if an event for the missing driver is
recorded (Win XP Pro)? If it is missing do I actually need
Click to expand...


Right-click My Computer, and choose Manage. Look for the Plus in front of
Event logs, and click it. click on the System event log, and look, by time,
for events bracketing a Remote Desktop connection/disconnection.
to Add a printer that is the same as the home printer to
the office computer or does the driver need to be copied
somewhere? Both computers are using Windows XP Pro.
Click to expand...


The driver is actually installed, and removed, on the fly, as the session
connects and disconnects (!) This is what I do, just to keep things neat.
As an example, I have an HP Deskjet 1160 printer at home--this connects via
a USB001 port, so it doesn't need the registry edit for redirection.

At work, I go to HP's site, download the latest Deskjet 1160 driver, and
install it--telling the installer that the printer is on the parallel
port--it really doesn't matter. Once the printer is installed, I delete it
(!!) In the course of the deletion, I get, I think, a dialog asking whether
I'd like to remove files that are in use only for this printer. I say NO.
This removes all appearance of the printer on the host machine, but leaves
the driver available for RD sessions.

A bit of warning on the DOT4 question. I haven't worked with this
myself--just haven't run into it in my work and play. Reports here have
varied--I believe that the registry edit has allowed the port to redirect
and printing to proceed for some folks, and others report that nothing
works--no success.
 
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