LabelVision Classic: Technical Notes

Network Printing
This technical note explains how to use LabelVision to print to printers that are connected to another computer on a Windows network. In short, this is done using the Windows parallel port rerouting feature. Your reroute a parallel port on the computer running LabelVision (the client) to a port on the computer to which the printer is connected (the server).

To use a printer on the network:

On the server computer (the one to which you have connected the printer), do the following:

If the server is Windows 95:

  1. Choose Settings from the start menu, then click Printers.
  2. Double click the "Add Printer" icon.
  3. Choose "Local Printer" in the print wizard.
  4. If you are using a LaserJet or Epson, choose that printer. Otherwise, select "Generic" as the manufacturer, and "Generic / Text Only" in the Printers box.
  5. Choose the port where the printer is connected (parallel or serial).
  6. Give your printer a name.
  7. You may be asked to insert the Windows 95 installation CD ROM.
  8. When the wizard has finished, right-click on this new printer and choose properties.
  9. Click on the "Sharing" tab, check the "Shared As" box and type the a name for the share. This name cannot contain any spaces or punctuation (other than the underscore), and will be used later when you connect to the printer.

If the server is Windows NT 4.0:

  1. Choose Settings from the start menu, then click Printers.
  2. Double click the "Add Printer" icon.
  3. Choose "My Computer" in the print wizard.
  4. Choose the port where the printer is connected (parallel or serial).
  5. If you are using a LaserJet or Epson, choose that printer. Otherwise, select "Generic" as the manufacturer, and "Generic / Text Only" in the Printers box.
  6. Give your printer a name.
  7. You may be asked to insert the Windows NT installation CD ROM.
  8. When asked if you want to share the printer, click Shared, and enter a share name. This name cannot contain any spaces or punctuation (other than the underscore), and will be used later when you connect to the printer.

If the server is Windows for Workgroups:

  1. In the Program Manager, locate the Main group, double-click on the Control Panel then double-click on Printers.
  2. Add the printer: GENERIC / TEXT ONLY.
  3. Double-click the Print Manager icon from the Main group of the program manager.
  4. Select this new printer, and choose Share Printer As from the Printer menu.
  5. Enter a share name. This name cannot contain any spaces or punctuation (other than the underscore), and will be used later when you connect to the printer.

On the client computer (the one that is running LabelVision), do the following

If the client is Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0:

  1. From the Start menu, choose MS-DOS prompt (this may be found under the Programs menu).
  2. Note the name of the server computer and the name of the share you created above. The server name is assigned when the machine is created. For this example, we will assume the server is named SERVER and the share is named SHARE. You should substitute your names for these names in the command below. You can see a list of servers that you are already connected to by typing NET USE and pressing enter. You can also see a list of server names in the Network Neighborhood.
  3. Type "NET USE LPT2 \\SERVER\SHARE" (If you like, you can substitute either LPT1 or LPT3 to reroute instead of LPT2) and press enter (do not type the quotation marks) If you are using Windows NT, you should add /PERSISTENT:YES to the end of this command to ensure that the connection is remembered for your next login. You can get help for NET USE by typing NET USE /?. Note that you would typically reroute ports that do not physically exist on your PC (in most cases LPT2 & LPT3). Also, you cannot reroute serial ports.
  4. You should see a message indicating the operation completed successfully.
  5. If you want to remove the connection in the future, type NET USE LPT2 /DELETE (where LPT2 is the port you rerouted).

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