Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Use Windows XP as printer server - the TCP/IP way

*This doesn't work

By default, when a printer is shared on a Windows XP box, clients need to add the printer using its NetBIOS name. Using NetBIOS name requires the server box and the client box to have the same workgroup name. This requirment is sometimes hard to satisfy, in particular when the client box is on the domain at work, and is shared between work and home. Alternatively, one can use IP address as the NetBIOS name and it will work. However, no one likes to remember IP addresses. It makes more sense to use DNS name to refer to a shared printer. To set this up you will need to install the LPR printing protocol (platform independent also works on UNIX) on the server box. This can be done by installing the Printing Services for Unix which is available with Windows NT 4.0, 2000, and XP.

http://www.sepialine.com/support/papers/lpr/

This article mentions that you need to manually start the TCP/IP Print Server after installing Printing Services for Unix.

Still cannot get it to work. I rather assign a static IP to the server, and add the network printer on my Windows XP clients using the server's IP address.

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