[Samba] roaming profiles ok, but what about the printers?

[Andreas Paulick]

Thanks for the response.
Indeed Im not using AD, but there are logon.bat scripts for every 
machine to bind a network printer to LPT1 for a old plain DOS-Software. 
I'm also not a VB-expert, but I can see the way. I will keep this in 
mind, but I would prefer the linux-based solution because some 
appications needs a admin hand to change the printer, if the printer 
names changed. With the samba magic script I mentioned before no windows 
client see a change. And I try now to glue such a script together. If 
someone have some scripts to look at, that would be helpfull.

Daniel Ramaley schrieb:

>Another way to do what you want is to create a logon script that sets 
>the printer based on the name of the computer. I do that for a couple 
>labs that i administer where students use roaming profiles.
>
>I have a logon.bat that is set by active directory group policy to run 
>whenever someone logs in. It sounds like you aren't using active 
>directory, but you could probably just put the script in everyone's 
>startup directory. Here are the relevant lines from logon.bat:
>
>:configScript
>cScript.exe //Nologo \\My-File-Server\public\logon.vbs
>
>This just runs a .vbs file. logon.vbs looks like this:
>
>##### BEGIN FILE #####
>' **********************************************************************
>'  Assign default printer based on the computer's name.
>' **********************************************************************
>
>Option Explicit
>Dim WshNetwork, ComputerName, ShortName
>
>' Get the computer's name.
>Set WshNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")
>ComputerName = LCase(WshNetwork.ComputerName)
>ShortName = Left(ComputerName, 10)
>
>Select Case ShortName
>    Case "cowl-labpc"
>        WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "Lab Printer"
>    Case "cowl-podpc"
>        WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "Pod Printer"
>    Case "cowl-temp"
>        WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "Pod Printer"
>    Case Else
>        WScript.Echo "Problem determining PC location."
>End Select
>#####  END FILE  #####
>
>I am not a visual basic expert; i copied this from somewhere else which 
>i've since forgotten. But basically it looks at the first few 
>characters of the name and sets a printer based on that. You could make 
>the case statement as long as necessary with one case for each machine 
>if you had to. Maintaining such a script will be a slight pain, but 
>probably easier than your first idea.
>
>On Monday 30 August 2004 10:15 am, Andreas Paulick wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi there,
>>
>>We have a little intranetwork with Samba 3.0.x as PDC. There are 20
>>Win2k-clients in several rooms and 18 users roaming from one machine
>>to another (according to their tasks). So any user has a roaming
>>profile. This runs almost perfect (some minor problems are still
>>there, but the the advantages are overwelming).
>>But there is one thing, I can't understand. Why does Win2k saves the
>>printer information (esp. the default printer) in the user area of the
>>registry? All my users want to print on the nearest printer they can
>>reach. In any room is a laser printer, every printer has a build-in
>>print-server. If a user logs on to a machine in a room, they want to
>>use the printer in this room as default.
>>They havent an most beloved default printer, that they uses whereever
>>they are. But unfortunately this is the behavior of Win2k. A user keep
>>the printer he chooses as the default printer, no matter which client
>>he uses.
>>Sure its easy to change the default printer in the printer wizard, but
>>we have some Software, that doesn't recognize this (esp. UPS
>>Wordship). I found this Idea: network-wide there will be known only 3
>>Printers: -Laser printer
>>-Laser printer tray #2        (for heading printed paper)
>>-Label printer
>>These are printer queues at the Samba-server running CUPS.
>>A print to this queue will be redirected to the approriate printer,
>>depending on the IP of the printing client. So a print to the laser
>>printer from any client of room #A will be printed at the laser
>>printer in room#A without hassle with printer settings at the client.
>>I think of a custom print command with %I and a table to translate IP
>>vs. real printer. But my bash skills are limited.
>>
>>But i don't know how to do this. I believe there are other admins out
>>there with the same problem.
>>How have you solved this?
>>
>>thanks in advantage
>>Andy Paulick
>>    
>>
>
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>