# Windows NT Server 4.0 Administration Notes
Module 8: Managing Network Printers
Introduction to Administering Printers
Managing documents
Delete a document Set a notification Change a documents priority
Managing printers:
Pause and resume a printer Redirect documents Purge a printer Take ownership of a printer The requirement for administering printers is the Full Control print permissions Members of the Administrators, Print Operators Server Operators Power Users have this permission
Group | Built in capabilities
Print Operators and Server Operators | Add and remove printers Share printers Take ownership of a printer
Power Users | Add and remove printers Share Printers Take ownership of a printer
How Documents are printed:
There is a spooler on the print server It's like a buffer for print documents if a document becomes stuck in the spooler, you might need to restart the spooler using Control Panel, Services Windows NT and Windows 95 - Based Clients These systems have an additional spooler on the client computer - this local spooler does half the job and then sends it on to the print server. This gives you control of the application you are using more quickly. Here's the process: printer driver partially processes the document to an acceptable format for the print device document goes to the spooler on the CLIENT computer where it stays until there is room in the print server spooler the print server spooler finishes processing the document. The document waits until a print device is available. Then, it prints. Other Clients For other clients there is only a spooler on the print server Here's the process: the printer driver completely processes the document to an acceptable format for the print device the document waits in the print server spooler until a print device is available For Non-Microsoft based clients, the appropriate service must be running on the print server:
UNIX | TCP/IP Line Printer Daemon (LPD) Service
NetWare | File and Print Services for Netware (FPNW)
Macintosh | Services for Macintosh
Setting a Notification, Priority and Printing Time
These are all ways to control print jobs:
To | Do this | Why you would want to...
Set a Notification | type logon name of the user you want to notify | do this when someone other than the user who printed the document needs to go get it from the printer
Change a document priority | Move slider to any number you like: 99 highest; 1 is the lowest | Change so critical documents print first
Set available hours | Set the range of hours that the document can print | To print a long document at night. This allows you to make sure the document spools correctly during work hours, but that it prints at night.
Redirecting Documents
You can redirect documents to either a local or network print device. For example, if a printer is connected to a faulty print device, redirect the document so users don't need to resubmit them. You can't create, delete or configure ports over the network; YOU HAVE TO DO THAT LOCALLY When redirecting a printer, the new printer must use the same print device driver as the current printer You may also need to remove the original port to ensure the documents print to the redirected port When there are multiple ports, the printer searches for an available port in the order that the ports were added
Taking Ownership of a Printer
By default, the user who installed the printer own it if that user is gone, you can take ownership in order to change printer administrators These users can take ownership of a printer members of these groups Administrators Print Operators Server Operators Power Users a user or member of a group that has FULL CONTROL permission for the printer To take ownership: From the Printer dialog box: File | Properties | Security | Ownership Click Take Ownership
Identifying Printing Problems
Problem | Possible Cause | Solution
User gets an Access Denied message when trying to configure a printer from an application | user doesn't have appropriate permissions to change printer configurations (Need FULL CONTROL) | give user the permission or do it for the user
document doesn't print completely or comes out garbled | wrong printer driver | change the printer driver (Oh Henry, Oh Henry)
hard disk starts thrashing and document doesn't reach print server | not enough hard disk space for the spooler | Create more free space or move the spooler location to another partition. (How do you do this?)
No one can print- documents on the server that you can't print or delete | Stalled print spooler | Stop, then restart the SPOOLER SERVICE
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Comments and suggestions? E-mail me at grantwil@sk.sympatico.ca
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 10, 1999 | Grant Wilson, Tisdale, SK. Canada