Printing from NT4(SP3) --> Samba SOLVED!! (Put into Samba HINTS file!)

[Rick Flower]

Hi all!  I've been trying in vain to get my printing working between NT4 SP3
and Samba (1.9.17p3).. I initially had some success for a while, but ended up
screwing it up and was unable to backtrack to a working setup.. Anyway, I
played around with it tonight and was FINALLY able to fix a few problems and
get it working!  Some of this information is currently NOT in the HINTS file
that is part of the documentation, but this SHOULD be.. These are things to
check when having printing problems :

1) Keep printer queue names short!  I had a printer queue named "b201_1718_bay"
   which was apparently way too long.. I've now got it at "201_1718" and am
   having no problems.. I read somewhere that this is a restriction -- Is
   this one of the 8 character limits??  Perhaps someone could clarify this!

2) Make sure you've really got a guest account!  I specified the "ftp" account
   under Solaris 2.5.1 and this was NOT sufficient!  I ended up creating a
   (not to be really used) guest account and set a bogus password for it to
   keep looky-loo's out..  Then you set the global option "guest account = "
   string accordingly.

3) Make your printer browseable, so that you are able to pick it from a list
   if you use the "Add Printer" icon from within the printer control panel
   (NT/95?).  This step may be optional.  It works for what we've got.

4) Specify the specific printer driver in the smb.conf file for each printer
   if necessary!  I've got lines in my smb.conf file like the following :
       printer name = HP LaserJet 5/5M PostScript

   Once this is done, this will keep the printer installation program from
   complaining about a unsuitable "NULL" driver!


This last step is the most IMPORTANT part!!

5) Double-click on "My Computer", followed by the "Printers" folder.  Now,
   select "File" menu, followed by "Server Properties".  At this point, a
   window of Server Properties should be up -- select the "Ports" tag. Scroll
   down to the bottom of the list (or wherever you see lines like the
   following :

   \\SAMBASERVER\your_printer   LAN Manager Printer Port   your_printer

   After days of futzing with these various printer settings within Samba
   and adding the same printer queues over and over, I had quite a large list
   of these printer "ports" (with different names).  After I deleted ALL
   of them and rebooted and then ADDED the new Samba printers, ALL of my
   printing problems are GONE!!


This last step was the kicker for me!  Once I did this and rebooted followed
by re-installing the printers, I was able to print to 5 different printers!
Pretty slick!

-- Rick