How to setup that NT workstation so that a Macintosh can print to a non-Mac-friendly laser printer.

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Maybe I'll get around to making this more accurate, but only if there's a demand...

1. Go to the Network control panel in NT (referring to NT 4.0 here).
2. Look for the TCP/IP print services. If it isn't there, add it. You'll need the NT CD-ROM.
3. Once TCP/IP print services is loaded (and you've probably rebooted umpteem times...), go to the Services control panel.
4. Find the Spooler and TCP/IP Print Server services. Start them. Maybe even make them automatic.


Install RedMon pretty much as per the instructions. HOWEVER, when you setup the redirected port, you also create a new printer in NT. This is the one to share for the Macintosh, as it will accept the data and then rasterize it. Don't get this queue confused with the real printer queue. Be sure to set the spool name in the .RSP file to \\spool\RealPrinterQueue (in my case, \\matt\hplj5e). If you set it to \\spool\RedirectedPort, you'll get nowhere fast. Yes, I've been there, done that...

Make sure you are sharing the new redirected printer from this NT machine. The share name is important because you'll enter it as the queue name when you're on the Mac, setting up the LPR client.

On the Mac, find the Desktop Printer Utility. Use it to setup a new LPR printer. Use the IP address of the NT machine, and the queue name you found in the paragraph before this one.


Troubleshooting

Ghostscript seems to just give up if you send a file with fonts that don't exist on the NT machine. Sorry, I don't have a fix for that.

If you do something silly and can't seem to get a print file to delete from the queue, even though you can see it, go to the Services control panel and stop and then restart the Spooler service. That should erase whatever was in the print queue.


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Last Updated Monday, December 13, 1999.

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