Text 65542, 68 rader
Skriven 2011-05-19 11:20:14 av Sean Dennis (1:18/200.0)
Ärende: Older networked printers/computers and Windows 7
========================================================
Hi, everyone.

I just wrote an article for the Fidogazette for its next issue but since
I've seen this pop up in here before, I thought I'd share the article
with you all now.  I hope you'll find this useful, especially those who are
using Windows 7.

===
Configuring a Networked Printer with Win7 and An Older Computer
Via Your LAN
Sean Dennis

Today, I decided to set up my old, but very reliable, Panasonic
KX-P2624 (24-pin, 136-column) dot-matrix printer on my BBS
machine, which was rather easy under OS/2 since there is a driver
for the printer.  I then wanted to share the printer with my
32-bit Windows 7 Enterprise box that I use personally via my LAN.
That is when I discovered setting up an older networked printer
was a whole different kettle of fish on Windows 7 than with
Windows XP.

At first, I tried the usual network setup, but oddly enough, as
soon as I clicked "OK" to have Windows set up a printer, Windows
spat out a rather cryptic error:

Cannot connect to printer error 0x0000086

That certainly wasn't the result I was hoping for.  I started
looking around Google using the numeric error above for searching.
I discovered two things: first, Panasonic said to use Windows 7's
"EPSON LQ Series 1(136) INBOX Driver" for my printer.  This printer
can emulate an Epson LQ or an IBM ProPrinter.

Second result I found: in order for this to work, I had to go into
Control Panel, select "Add A Printer", then create a "Local Port"
using the printer's UNC (Universal Naming Convention)* address.

That would look like "\\computername\sharename" (no quotes) if you
were going to type it in.

So I did that and selected the driver that Panasonic recommended.
The computer whirred away as it was doing its thing and then I saw
the "print a test page" screen pop up.  Things were going well so
far.  I clicked on "Print test page" and to my surprise, the printer
fired up and printed out a Windows test page.  I wasn't too pleased
with the rotten-looking printout, but hey, I'm just using this printer
to dump code out on and print out text documents.

After some more research, I discovered that using the "Local Port"
option is the preferred method to connect a printer to Windows 7
that is physically connected to another computer running an older
version of Windows (or OS/2 in my case).

I hope this will help someone else that might be attempting to do the
same thing with an older printer.  My Panasonic printer might be old,
but it works great and is very cheap to use since you can find ribbons
very cheap online.

* = For more information about UNC, check out this webpage:
    http://compnetworking.about.com/od/windowsnetworking/g/unc-name.htm
===

Later,
Sean

... Raising pet electric eels is gaining a lot of current popularity.
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 * Origin: Paragon BBS - 423.434.0851 - paragon.darktech.org (1:18/200)