Using Novell NetWare's RPRINTER with WFWG 3.11

- Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.11

This article contains information about the use of Windows for Workgroups with third-party products or configurations that have not been tested and are not supported by Microsoft.

If the steps or procedures described in this article do not function properly, contact the manufacturer of the third-party product for more information or use a supported configuration.

SUMMARY

With Windows for Workgroups 3.11, RPRINTER (or NPRINTER in Novell NetWare 4.01) can be used successfully under certain conditions. If you run the RPRINTER utility without print sharing, RPRINTER, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and NetWare 3.x or 4.x can coexist with minimal difficulty, as long as you do not send simultaneous print jobs. Problems may occur if multiple print jobs are sent from different workstations and you are sharing printers. On larger networks, this is not realistic. The only workaround is to use Windows for Workgroups print- sharing capabilities without RPRINTER or vice versa.

   NOTE: With Windows for Workgroups 3.1, RPRINTER could not be used
   successfully. According to Novell's Tech Bulletin TB.P.303, titled
   "Microsoft Windows for Workgroups and Novell NetWare," using RPRINTER
   with Windows for Workgroups 3.1 would cause the machine to stop
   responding (hang). Novell has no solution or workaround at this time.

MORE INFORMATION

Although you can use RPRINTER with Windows for Workgroups 3.11, you may encounter problems. For example, if you share a local printer that is being serviced by RPRINTER and several Windows for Workgroups workstations send multiple print jobs simultaneously to this shared printer, the following error message may appear:

   <Windows File Server> is attempting to use the LPTx device which Windows
   is currently using. Do you want 'Windows File Server' to take control of
   the device?

   YES or NO?

Even if you don't receive this error message, print jobs may be mixed together and/or have garbled output from the two separate print queues.

NOTE: This error message may also appear if you are you use the NPRINTER file in Novell version 4.01.

REFERENCES

Novell's Tech Bulletin TB.P.303