Yes, that works great when your mapping is static. When you have a large number of networked printers from which the users can choose things get much more complicated.
This is not an issue using windows programs because most printing there is handled by windows and is not a text dump to the printer. DOS applications, on the other hand are not so sophisticated, and require more work. Everything is a text dump. Dennis McGrath ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fitts, David A. Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:21 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Printing to network printers LPT1-LPT9 in Rbase for DOS vs Rbase for Windows Hi Mike, My laptop has a batch file that was run once when the network technicians hooked me up to our file server. It has the NET USE command with the /persistent:yes switch. I have not had to re run the batch file and the printer redirections have stayed in effect for over two years now so you should do it one time from the command line and be done with it. Regards, Dave Fitts State of Maine ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael J. Sinclair Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:11 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Printing to network printers LPT1-LPT9 in Rbase for DOS vs Rbase for Windows I have all the responses...and I am deep gratified and a bit confused! A few commnents... One problem I found is that if the workstation is a member of a Windows 2003 Server domain, and if the user is not an Administrator, and if LPT1 is an actual physical port that exists, Windows 2003 will not allow me to rediret the LPT1 port to a network printer. Can anybody confirm that? Is there a setting somewhere that would allow that? Also, I can't seem to get RBase for DOS to recognize any printer ports above LPT3..ie, I get errors if I try to create LPT9 and redirect it. Can anybody confirm that? Also, would it make more sense to have the NET USE commands loaded by Windows as part of the RUN ONCE EX commands in the registry rather than having them repeated every time Rbase for DOS is started with a Batch file? And finally, if I use the /Persistent switch as part of the NET USE command, should I be able to just do it one time from a Command Prompt window and never have to do it again?? TIA!! Mike -------------- Original message from "Emmitt Dove" <[email protected]>: -------------- Michael, When you do a ZIP NET USE when running R:BASE for DOS in a Windows environment, you are not changing the setup for the current session, but a child session which goes away as soon as ZIP returns control to R:BASE. The best approach is to set up your printer mappings in the batch file that starts R:BASE for DOS so you know they are in effect for the CMD.EXE session that is running R:BASE. As for the port numbers other than LPT1, I cannot say. We have had far better results sticking with port 1, but I know of one location where we have a dot matrix printer and a Datamax printer attached to the same PC mapped to LPT1 and LPT2, and we print to both of them using the "COPY filename LPTx" approach. Emmitt Dove Manager, Converting Applications Development Evergreen Packaging, Inc. [email protected] (203) 214-5683 m (203) 643-8022 o (203) 643-8086 f [email protected] From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael J. Sinclair Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 2:57 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Printing to network printers LPT1-LPT9 in Rbase for DOS vs Rbase for Windows Hi All, What is the best way to print to a network printers in Rbase for DOS and Rbase for Windows? Do both versions recognize LPT1 through LPT9? I have been using the following code with reasonable success, but I do get a few jobs that just don't print.... ZIP NET USE LPTx /delete ZIP NET USE LPTx \\servername\printequename<file:///\\servername\printequename> OUTPUT LPTx WRITE 'whatever you want' OUTPUT SCREEN --or sometimes... OUTPUT LPTx COPY filename.txt LPTx OUTPUT SCREEN Adding a PAUSE FOR 2 after the ZIP NET USE COMMANDS seems to decrease the number of times that my print jobs "get lost". What is the best way to do this? Do both versions (DOS and Windows) running on Windows XP support LPT1-LPT9?? TIA! Mike
