SNA Server and 3287 Host Print Emulation

• Microsoft SNA Server for Windows NT, versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.11, and 3.0

SUMMARY

The Microsoft SNA Server version 2.x package does not include support for IBM 3287 host print emulation. However, several third-party companies do support printer emulation, which are listed in the ISV Companion Product Catalog that is included with SNA Server.

SNA Server 3.0 removes the need for a third party emulator by including a print server. The print server allows 3270 printer emulation to be configured and maintained centrally, rather than at each client desktop. For more details on this feature, see the 3.0 product documentation or http:\\www.microsoft.com\sna.

MORE INFORMATION

To support host print emulation (often referred to as 3287 print emulation) with SNA Server, a third-party product must be used, because the low-end 3270 emulator included with the product only supports display emulation.

To run the third-party print emulation package at the server, a 32-bit Windows host print emulation product must be used. Also, a third-party emulator could also run on any SNA Server client platform (that is, a Windows 3.x emulator runs on an SNA Server Windows 3.x client, and so on).

To support print emulation, the administrator must define 3270 printer LUs in the SNA Server configuration file (using SNA Admin), and assign these LUs to an SNA Server user or to a group account where the print emulator will be running. When users route print data to the printer LU supported by a printer emulation package, SNA Server routes the host print job to the print emulator, whether it resides on the server or an SNA Server client (that is, it does not flow to the 3270 display emulator user who initiated the host print job).

Also, note that the Windows 16-bit and 32-bit 3270 applets that are shipped with SNA Server does include a local screen print capability, where screen data can be routed to a local printer, or redirected to a network printer.