Windows 2003 Webserver and Printer Sharing

[Jerry]

I am trying to share out a printer attached to a windows
2003 webserver. I get a message saying that I have to
setup a print server. Is this the case? Is there a way to
share a printer without setting up a print server?

Thanks in advance...

Jerry

 

[Paul Baker [MVP, Windows - SDK]]

I believe you must have a print server. The very definition of a shared
printer is a printer that is accessible through a print server.

I think that Windows Server 2003 disables all servers by default for
security reasons. All you would be doing is enabling a server that was
enabled by default in previous versions of Windows.

There is the option of Internet printing. That is where you use HTTP to
connect to a shared printer via IIS. I believe that this defers to the print
server anyway, therefore you must be running a print server. It is actually
less secure because it's opening up an HTTP server. Perhaps someone else who
knows more about it can confirm that.

I think that the IIS Lockdown Tool removed my Printers virtual folder and
set the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
NT\Printers\DisableWebPrinting registry entry to 1. I don't know a whole lot
about Internet printing, so I was going to experiment it a bit so I could
tell you more. But I can't do that, because I do not have the patience nor
perhaps the skill to re-enable it after it has been locked down.

Paul