LU3 Printers Do Not Translate Control Characters Correctly

• Microsoft SNA Server version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

When you send a host print job that contains unprintable EBCDIC control codes and embedded PCL commands to a LU3 printer, the job does not print correctly. This occurs because some of the characters are not properly translated by the SNA Server Host Print service.

NOTE: The unprintable EBCDIC control codes may not be SCS control codes.

CAUSE

The Host Print service was not translating EBCDIC and PCL control codes for LU3 printer sessions. This was due to the fact that the Bypass GDI option and PDF files did not work correctly for LU3 print sessions.

RESOLUTION

The Host Print service for SNA Server 3.0 has been updated to allow LU3 print sessions to correctly print jobs that contain both EBCDIC and PCL control characters. This requires that the Bypass GDI option is selected for the LU3 print session defined in SNA Server Manager. In addition, a PDF file must be used for the LU3 print session. The PDF file does not require many entries for this to work. A PDF with standard mappings for carriage return, line feed, and so forth, will be sufficient. Because the PDF file can be simple, it should work for most printer types and there is no need to have different PDF files for different printers. The following is a sample PDF file that should work in these types of environments:

   Macro Definitions:

      BEGIN_MACROS
      LFF EQU 0A
      FFF EQU 0C
      CRR EQU 0D
      END_MACROS

   Parameter Definitions:

      CARRIAGE_RETURN=CRR
      NEW_LINE=CRR LFF
      LINE_FEED=LFF
      FORM_FEED=FFF CRR

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SNA Server version 3.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Microsoft SNA Server 3.0 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):