Printing and Fonts: The Issues

Before configuring printers and installing fonts in Windows 95, you should consider the issues summarized in this section.

General Issues

• With Point and Print, users can install printers over the network if the print server includes drivers specified in the Windows 95 INF files. You need to designate which computers are running Windows 95 and which network servers will function as print servers, and configure them to store Point and Print information.
• When purchasing new printers, consider those with support for bidirectional communication and ECP ports.
• ECP ports are not automatically configurable. If your computer includes an ECP, follow the procedure "Enhanced Metafile Spooling Support" later in this chapter to enable ECP support.
• If your printer uses font cartridges, you will also need to install the fonts on your computer.

NetWare Printers

• To take advantage of the Win32-based NetWare print service capability, the computer must be running Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks. However, the computer does not need to run File and Printer Sharing services.
• To use Point and Print with NetWare servers, you must decide which servers will store printer driver files. You can store pointers in the NetWare bindery to the servers that have printer driver files installed on them. For information, see "Installing Remote Printers with Point and Print" later in this chapter.

Shared Printers on Microsoft or NetWare Networks

To share a printer, the computer must be running a 32-bit, protected-mode client, and File and Printer Sharing services must be enabled. For information, see Chapter 11, "Logon, Browsing, and Resource Sharing."